Iron Maiden - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son review
| Band: | Iron Maiden |
| Album: | Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son |
| Style: | New wave of British heavy metal |
| Release date: | April 11, 1988 |
| Guest review by: | tominator |
Disc I
01. Moonchild
02. Infinite Dreams
03. Can I Play With Madness
04. The Evil That Men Do
05. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
06. The Prophecy
07. The Clairvoyant
08. Only The Good Die Young
Disc II [1995 reissue bonus CD]
01. Black Bart Blues
02. Massacre
03. Prowler 88
04. Charlotte The Harlot 88
05. Infinite Dreams [live]
06. The Clairvoyant [live]
07. The Prisoner [live]
08. Killers [live]
09. Still Life [live]
What is there to say about Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son? It's my absolute favourite album ever made. In fact, it's the only album I personally consider flawless.
I'll start off with a small personal story. In high school I got this album as a present from my class group (we all donated a bit of money for each birthday in our class group). One of my best friends went out and bought the album with the money that was given to him (he knew I wanted this album). As soon as I came home I put it into my CD player, and... I didn't like it. I didn't even listen to any song, I just skipped through them (listening for 30 seconds or so) to see if I found a song that was worth listening to. I thought, "This isn't Iron Maiden; why would they even use synthesisers?" (Bear in mind I hadn't listened to Somewhere In Time yet.)
Fast-forward two years later and I wanted to give this album another chance. I started to listen to it from the beginning till the end and I absolutely loved it. The more I listened through it, the more it became my favourite album.
"Now what makes this album so brilliant?" you could ask.
Bruce Dickinson's performance on this album is in my opinion the best he has ever done. It has everything you expect from Bruce: beautiful singing, brilliant screams. But what makes this performance stand out in my opinion is the emotion he puts in all the songs. In songs like "Moonchild" and "The Prophecy", for example, Bruce has to use a threatening voice to convey the lyrics to the listener, and these are some of the best moments on the album. The overall performance, too, is top notch. You'll find some of Nicko's best drumming on this album, beautiful bass lines from Steve and some epic, twin-guitar action from Dave and Adrian.
The lyrics are amazing, some of the best Iron Maiden has ever written. Songs like "Moonchild", "Infinite Dreams", "The Clairvoyant" and "The Prophecy" are perfect examples of this. Martin Birch produced this album, so you would expect the production quality to be really good - and it is. I absolutely love the concept as well. In short, the album is telling a story of a young boy who grows up. He discovers that he has special powers but both heaven and hell are trying to win him over so that they can use his powers. It also deals with the human nature towards the end of the album.
If you asked me how I would describe Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, my answer would be "epic, mysterious and chilling." The atmosphere is a perfect mix if you ask me. Some fans don't like the synthesiser use on this album (even going so far as to say this album should have been called Seventh Synth Of A Seventh Synth). In my opinion the synthesiser really adds to the atmosphere of the whole album.
I'm sorry for this quite superficial review but I really can't find anything I don't like about this album. There's nothing I would have changed about it. If you read this review and you haven't listened through the whole album yet, do it! You won't regret it.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 10 |
| Songwriting: | 10 |
| Originality: | 10 |
| Production: | 10 |
Written by tominator | 18.12.2016
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Rating:
10
10
|
Rating: 10 |
Among Iron Maiden's studio albums 'Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son' to me is the second best. It has the most famous songs of the band on one album. Of most albums you might know (if you're not a fan!) two or three songs, this album contains at least 6 songs that you should know, if not you have never lived. Read more ›› |
Rating:
10
10
|
Rating: 10 |
You're probably wondering why I wrote a review of an almost twenty year old album; the answer is quite simple: because it is my absolute favourite album and one of the best Heavy-Metal-albums of all time. "Seventh Son..." was the last album that was recorded with Adrian Smith until 2000's "Brave New World." It's a concept album telling the story of a gifted child, a so called "seventh son of a seventh son," and how his gift carries with it many burdens and problems. The concept itself is not what carries the album but it adds a different touch to the lyrics and surely the music as well. Read more ›› |
Rating:
8.9
8.9
|
Rating: 8.9 |
Seeing the 80s and the band's golden era out, Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son is a high note to go out on. The band took a tighter embrace of their progressive tendencies but managed to balance this with their pennant for creating catchy tunes like they had for the decade up until then. Iron Maiden find a golden ratio that they have spent much of the rest of their career trying to replicate. Read more ›› |
Comments
Comments: 13
Visited by: 115 users
| UPDIRNS Posts: 366 |
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| tominator At best deranged Contributor Posts: 1063  |
Written by UPDIRNS on 18.12.2016 at 19:13 I'm glad you liked the review. Nice to hear that it's in your top 5. Maiden has a lot of great albums so it's quite normal that you have another favourite.  As for the Blaze albums. Personally I thought The X Factor was pretty good (probably my favourite 90s record of Maiden though overall their 90s output was not on par with the 80s and 2000s records). Virtual XI was a disappointment that's for sure (The Angel And The Gambler is the worst song they ever made imo).
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| Ace Frawley The Spaceman Posts: 1459  |
That's three reviews of this album on Metalstorm now, all with a rating of 10.
---- The sun shines over The Fool...
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| tominator At best deranged Contributor Posts: 1063 |
Written by Ace Frawley on 19.12.2016 at 08:54 Well I can't give it anything else since it is my absolute favourite album. If anything the scores should be the prove that it's a really good album. And overall well liked. Of course not everyone will give it a 9 or a 10 out of 10 and nor should they give it if they don't think it deserves that score. But with an overall rating of 9.1/10 and the 18th place in the top 200 albums, I personally think it deserves the praise.
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| Azarath Free as a.. Fish Posts: 965  |
No amount of 10-reviews can ever be enough for the mighty Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.  This is where I started with Maiden, and it still remains one of my favourite albums of all time. Dickinson is on fire here. Love his delivery on the verses of "Moonchild": "With every second and passing breath, you'll be so alone your soul will bleed to death"
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| M C Vice ex-polydactyl Posts: 3407  |
Written by Ace Frawley on 19.12.2016 at 08:54 Maybe someone should write a really low one to give balance (see, we need Ponderer back).
---- "Another day, another Doug." "I'll fight you on one condition. That you lower your nipples." " 'Tis a lie! Thy backside is whole and ungobbled, thou ungrateful whelp!"
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| vtravi Posts: 2 |
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7345  |
There is nothing superficial about your review. This album is Iron Maiden's absolute best and consequently one of the best metal releases of all time. Flawless, timeless, epic and the reason why millions of metalheads became metalheads.
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| tominator At best deranged Contributor Posts: 1063 |
Written by vtravi on 28.02.2017 at 08:04 That is one hell of an album as an introduction to metal!
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| tominator At best deranged Contributor Posts: 1063 |
Written by nikarg on 28.02.2017 at 14:05 Well the people that don't really like this album or the ones that haven't listened to this album yet, might find it impossible that there is imo no flaw whatsoever in this album and thus they might think the review is a bit superficial. Timeless is the right word for it, I definitely agree.
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Written by tominator on 03.03.2017 at 14:00 Looking at Maiden's first seven albums this one comes into sixth place for me, only beating Somewhere In Time by a tiny margin. As for flaws... The Evil That Men Do, Can I Play With Madness, the use of synths. I know loads of people from my generation who are big Maiden fans who even consider this albums as extremely weak
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| tominator At best deranged Contributor Posts: 1063 |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 03.03.2017 at 15:26 An album having flaws is often a subjective thing (unless it's things like St Anger where you have a fisher price sounding drum kit on your album...) the synths on this album are a perfect example of that. Like I pointed out in the review there are definitely people that don't like it, I love it though. Imo it brings extra atmosphere into the music while other people find it too distracting from the other instruments. It's personal opinion really. And I know loads of people who think just like me that this is their absolute best album. Also the score on this site shows that it's overall a really well liked album. There is no album in this world that can please everyone and there never will be one. On the topic of the first 7 albums, Killers is my least favourite. A lot of people love that record though. I find it good but not amazing. The first album was better imo. Somewhere In Time is my 3rd favourite of them behind Piece Of Mind and this one. As for our personal opinions about music, even though we are huge metalfans, we clearly have a very different taste most of the time. Which is fine, it only shows how diverse the genre is. You didn't like The Book Of Souls (or actually most of the albums after the first 7) if I remember correctly. I simply love albums like Brave New World, A Matter Of Life And Death and The Book Of Souls. I think they are excellent. 2 of them are even in my top 3 favourite Maiden albums (behind this record of course). It's a matter of taste.
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| Metren Dreadrealm Posts: 1410  |
Written by M C Vice on 21.12.2016 at 12:07 Would love to see it getting a review with a 6.5 or a 7 that this album actually deserves.  Would write it myself, but too lazy atm.
---- My one-man project's Bandcamp with free downloads: https://dreadrealm.bandcamp.com/
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