Somewhere in Time

by

Iron Maiden

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Iron Maiden's golden age started with "Killers" and pretty much ended with "Somewhere in Time". All of the songs on "Somewhere" are ambitious, adding new elements to Maiden's sound. The guitar synth's found on "Somewhere" are present, but not as overpowering as on the follow-up cd "Seventh Son". Everything Maiden fans enjoy about the band are present on "Somewhere". Steve Harris' bass lines crackle, and Dickinson's urgent vocals really carry the album along. The guitar riffs are catchy, and hook you right away. The thing that always impressed me with Iron Maiden, was that, during the 80's most metal bands like Ratt, Posion, Motley Crue etc, were busy playing and singing about rock n' roll, girls and partying. Maiden often based their music on literature; "Murders in the Rue Morgue", poetry: "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", history; "Aces High", "The Trooper" and "Run to the Hills"; religion; "Heaven Can Wait", "Number of the Beast" and mythology "Icarus" and "Poweslave". The great epic metal tunes on Iron Maiden disks defied the conventions of the time, where most bands stuck to radio-friendly, 5 minutes or less rock anthems. Iron Maiden was, and is more than just a standard metal band, and if you are a music fan, you are doing yourself a great dis-service if you don't pick up the disks from the heyday. "Somewhere in Time" features 8 great track, each better than the one before it. Listen to "Alexander the Great" and ask yourself if any other band at the height of their popularity would have been able to put that song on a cd. The guitar riff on "Wasted Years" will be running through your head all day, and you will be humming the chorus of "Heaven Can Wait" for a long time. This is a great album, from a band that always brought a little more to the table than just catchy rock anthems.

I really hate to do this, Iron Maiden is my favorite band but I feel this needs to be said. I have all of Maiden's studio and live albums, I have this album here already a couple of years but I never really got into this one and it somewhat pisses me that fans call it Maiden's best or even one of their best.

My major complaint about SIT is the constant use with synthesizers, don't get me wrong, Seventh Son is one of my favorite Maiden albums and I also listen to some 80's bands that use synths (Rush, Queensryche etc.), but this one sounds too mainstream for my taste and it somewhat sounds dated, unlike SSOASS which had keyboards and the production was way better, and technically, lyrically and musically that was a better album. And Bruce's vocals are very weird here. I also find a lot of songs on the album pointless. 'Caught Somewhere in Time' has whiny vocals in the verses, although the chorus is good, 'The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner' just drags out and becomes boring fast, 'Alexander the Great' is one of the weakest epics Maiden has ever done and 'Sea of Madness' is simply one of their worst songs.

Even though there are some excellent songs. 'Wasted Years' is by far the best song on the album and is one of the best songs Adrian Smith has written, the vocals are excellent and so is the solo, and as a matter of fact, the only song on the album I usually listen from the start through the end. 'Heaven Can Wait' & 'Stranger In A Strange Land' are also good. 'Deja Vu' is the most underrated cut off the album, and is also one of the best, Bruce sounds really good and the riffs are awesome and unlike most of the tracks it sounds actually good with the synths. But that's pretty much it.

All in all, this has it's moments but it is overall a poor effort. This album is for die hard fans only, newbies should get first Number of the Beast or Powerslave, these records never sound dated and still sound excellent today. Maiden has done worse than this but it still ranks in the bottom half in their catalogue, and it's easily their most overrated release.

UP THE IRONS!!!