Iron Maiden - Dance of Death

I had just started to get into Bruce Dickinson’s solo work, especially the albums Accident of Birth and The Chemical Wedding, when I heard he and Adrian Smith were re-joining Iron Maiden.  For the first time they were going to have a three-guitar lineup [Adrian Smith, Dave Murray, and Janick Gers].  I wondered how things would work out on that end, but when they released Brave New World in 2000, any fears I had of the band being an unlistenable mess were put aside.  Three years later, the band released the follow-up, Dance of Death.  Brave New World was a solid album for the band to reclaim their greatness, but Dance of Death is even better.

The last Iron Maiden album I wrote about [Seventh Son of a Seventh Son] was a first for Iron Maiden – a concept album.  Dance of Death isn’t a concept album per se, but it does have the underlying theme of death, destruction, war and pestilence running through some of the songs [Montségur. Dance of Death, Paschendale, and Face in the Sand].  For the first time, Maiden incorporated string arrangements into some of their songs.  They did that quite well.  Other bands should take lessons on how to incorporate orchestras into metal music, because Maiden got it right on this album.  Another first for Iron Maiden is an all-acoustic song.  Again, other metal bands should take notes – Maiden got this right as well.

Wildest Dreams – The opening track is Steve Harris’s exhortation to himself to get off his ass, “hit the open road” and quit moping around at home.  This is a very good rocker from Adrian Smith.  It’s a quick shot of adrenaline to start off the album.  I never tire of hearing it.

Rainmaker – I’m not sure if the lyrics are to be taken literally or if they are a metaphor for something else.  This is another short one, this time from Dave Murray.

No More Lies – Steve Harris said this one has a lot to do with The Last Supper.  I’ll take his word for it.  Plenty of guitar solos from the Three Amigos, and lots of “No More Lies” [27 of them…].

Montségur – Blood and gore in Southern France at the time of the Crusades.  The Cathars were a Christian sect that controlled a small slice of land between Spain and France.  The Cathars were seen as heretics by the Catholic Church.  And as heretics, the church and the King of France wanted them eliminated.  The Knights Templar did the deed.  As for the lyrics, the chorus is overly repetitive.

Dance of Death – Janick Gers wrote this one with Steve Harris.  He said this was inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s film The Seventh Seal (1957).  Max Von Sydow is a Swedish knight who has returned home from the Crusades, only to find out Sweden has been ravaged by the Black Death.  When he arrives in Sweden, he encounters the personification of Death, whom he challenges to a game of chess.  The knight figures as long as he keeps playing, he’ll stay alive.  At the end of the movie, Bergman cuts away to three guys silhouetted on a hill.  They’re dancing a jig – the Dance of Death.

Gates of Tomorrow – Janick Gers’ beginning riff reminds me of something I heard on The X Factor, but I can’t put my finger on it.  As for the lyrics, they’re impenetrable.  Is the Internet the “gate of tomorrow”?  This is my ‘skip’ track on the album. 

New Frontier – A first in the Maiden canon – a songwriting credit for drummer Nicko McBrain.  A born-again Christian, the prospects of human cloning bothered Nicko, hence this song.  This is a pretty fast one – I like it!  Steve Harris is slacking here because he doesn’t have a writing credit for this song [he does for the rest…].  For a first song from Nicko, it’s a damn good one.

Paschendale – Blood and gore in the Third Battle of Ypres in World War I (31 July – 10 November 1917, approximately 310,000 British casualties, 260,000 German casualties), where there was much fighting and dying for little ground gained.  It’s similar in scope to the Battle of the Somme (1 July – 18 November 1916 – approximately 640,000 Allied casualties, 465,000 German casualties).  The song is as epic as the battle.  Note to Metallica and Judas Priest – this is how you incorporate strings into metal music.  This one is definitely in my Maiden Top 10.

Face in the Sand – The album was being recorded as our country was getting ready to invade Iraq [blood and gore in the desert].  Bruce Dickinson had this in mind when he wrote the lyrics to this:

Everybody's waiting for something to happen

Everybody's waiting for something to see

Lunatics waiting for bigger disasters

Everyone's waiting for news on TV

Winding lives at the end of the spiral

Waiting dictators with their next big thrill

Everyone's looking but no one is listening

Everybody wants to be in at the kill

Age of Innocence – Steve Harris is plenty pissed off at the state of Britain’s criminal justice system.

Journeyman – The only all-acoustic song in the Maiden canon is a damn good one.  If any song says “carpe diem,” it’s this one.  There’s an electric version but I haven’t heard it.  I don’t need to – this one is fine the way it is.The chorus is as good an explanation of the free spirit as one will ever hear:

I know what I want
I’ll say what I want
And no one can take it away…

 

Why I Like Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden has been around a very long time.  They are not trendy, they do what they want at their own pace.  They know what their fans want and expect, and they deliver.  They get no support from radio yet they still sell out live shows.  Aside from those clichés, what are the things that make me like Iron Maiden?

Literate songwriting.  If you are looking for songs about sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, Iron Maiden is not the band for you.  Both Bruce Dickinson and Steve Harris draw lyrical inspiration from history, television, movies, folklore, religion, science fiction, mythology, the occult, current events, etc.  Their sources for inspiration are endless. 

The Epics.  Before Maiden the only band that I could think of that regularly had songs that lasted more than ten minutes was The Doors. Maiden regularly create songs that last more than eight minutes, and sometimes they break the ten-minute barrier.  Their most epic is Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which is almost fourteen minutes.  One might think this is just a band that doesn’t get to the point, but with all those guitarists, why not let them play?  Steve Harris has often talked of his love of progressive bands like old Genesis, old Yes and Jethro Tull [Maiden once covered Cross-Eyed Mary].  These bands liked to play long songs to give their musicians the chance to stretch out and play.  Maiden usually has one or more “epic” on each of their albums, and the guitarists get to play…a lot!  There is no downside to this.

The live shows.  I have never seen them in person, but I have the live DVDs Rock in Rio, Death on the Road, Flight 666, and Live After Death.  These guys put on a great show.  They are fun to watch.

Bruce Dickinson.  This man is nicknamed the Air Raid Siren for a reason.  The dude is in his fifties and he can still out-sing most people half his age.  But in the early Eighties I was drawn to this guy for a different reason.  Back in 1983, one of the biggest albums out at the time was The Police’s Synchronicity.  In many an interview at the time Sting used to drone on and on about what book he’s currently reading.  I think he was just trying to show he isn’t a prototypical idiot rocker.  Or maybe he was just a pretentious shithead, who knows…  But one day I saw Bruce give an interview where he said “I read just as many books as Sting does…I just don’t make a big deal about it.”  You sold me, Bruce.  Is there a more energetic frontman in rock?  If there is, I haven’t seen him.  And wherever he goes, he has the audience in the palms of his hands, especially when he demands “Scream for me!”  And like me he is a history nut. J  In the early Nineties he had the balls to walk away from the Iron Maiden gig so that he could prove himself as a solo performer.  Having done so with Accident of Birth and The Chemical Wedding, he made better albums than Maiden did with Blaze Bayley [although The X Factor is better than Fear of the Dark and No Prayer for the Dying].  He’s back in Iron Maiden because he wants to be there, not because of any failed solo career [Note: it was a pretty successful one…]. 

The Three Amigos.  Iron Maiden is the only heavy metal band that I know of that has three guitarists –Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, and Janick Gers.  Each has his own style.  Dave Murray is the guy who can play whatever comes to his mind.  His inspiration is Hendrix.  He doesn’t look it, but he’s the “assassin” of the three guitarists.   Adrian Smith takes a more deliberate approach to his playing.  He likes to work out his solos ahead of time, and of the three guitarists he is the one most likely to assume the rhythm guitarist role [which he likes].  Both Dave and Adrian are precise in their playing.  Janick Gers is the wild card of the bunch.  He’s more loose in his playing like Jimmy Page.  They like playing together and don’t step on each other.

Steve Harris.  Make no mistake – Iron Maiden is Steve Harris’ band.  He is the “first among equals,” and he is the visionary one in the band.  His songs established Iron Maiden as a band to be taken seriously.  He has written the lion’s share of Maiden’s songs, though lately he has relaxed his creative stranglehold because he has five other capable songwriters to work with.   He has a unique bass playing style – he sounds like a galloping horse.  It’s a very distinctive, almost percussive sound and if you hear it, you know exactly who it is.  In all the videos and DVDs in which I’ve seen him play, his fingers are a blur.  I don’t know how he does it.

Nicko McBrain.  Yes, that really is his name.  He doesn’t use double-bass drums like some drummers do [Alex Van Halen, Neil Peart], but he sounds like he does.  The man is tireless.  Tommy Lee once described him as an octopus [a description I’ve also heard applied to Ginger Baker].  He has a huge drum kit, and he uses every drum on his kit.  He and Steve Harris make a fantastic rhythm section.  He has been in the band since Piece of Mind.  Only Steve Harris and Dave Murray have been in the band longer.

Eddie.  Not many bands have their own mascot, but Maiden has Eddie.  He started out as just a skull called Eddie the Head.  Is he a mummy or a zombie?  I’m not really sure, but he’s been on almost every Iron Maiden album cover [I think the original Live at Donnington is the lone exception].  Iron Maiden probably have the coolest album covers and Eddie is a big reason why.  Eddie is iconic – he’s synonymous with Iron Maiden.  A creation of artist Derek Riggs, Eddie has appeared in many guises, to include [but not limited to]:

a Pharaoh/God on Powerslave

a tank-riding soldier on A Matter of Life and Death

a straight-jacketed mental patient [complete with lobotomy] on Piece of Mind

a puppeteer of Satan on The Number of the Beast

the Grim Reaper on Dance of Death

a tree monster on Fear of the Dark

a futuristic Terminator on Somewhere in Time

half of his body removed on Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

an axe murderer on Killers

Iron Maiden has put out many compilation albums.  I don’t know why they felt the need to put out so many compilations, but they did.  They include:

Best of the Beast [1996]

Ed Hunter [1999]

Edward the Great [2002]

The Essential Iron Maiden [2005]

Somewhere Back in Time: The Best of 1980-1989 [2008]

From Fear to Eternity: The Best of 1990-2010 [2011]

If I was going to put together a 2-CD compilation of what I think is Maiden’s best work, it would look like this:

Paschendale [Dance of Death, 2003] – The setting of this is the World War I battle of the same name fought in Belgium.  Maiden incorporated strings into their music in a big way on the Dance of Death album, especially this epic about the horrors of war in the trenches on the Western Front.

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son [Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. 1988] – The title track from the “concept album” is the lynchpin of the entire album that is core to the story.  One of many Maiden epics that is both loud and quiet, fast and faster, brilliant in its execution.

Stranger in a Strange Land [Somewhere in Time, 1986] – This has absolutely nothing to do with the Robert Heinlein book of the same name.  It has a rock-steady beat that one doesn’t often hear in a Maiden song.  It’s actually about a doomed Arctic expedition, one of the survivors of which Adrian Smith actually met.

The Clairvoyant [Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. 1988] – This one starts with a memorable Steve Harris bass riff.  The Seventh Son can’t tell the difference between his normal vision and what he dreams. He wonders why he seems to be growing stronger, and he’s scared he can’t control his growing power anymore. Then in mid-song, the narration goes from first person to third person. The narrator is somewhat befuddled that the Seventh Son, despite all his powers of clairvoyance, couldn’t foresee his own death.  But what really killed him? Did his supernatural powers consume him, or did the people from the village do the deed?

Tailgunner [No Prayer for the Dying, 1990] – This is the leadoff track from the first album with Janick Gers.  Iron Maiden did a lot of songs with a “war” theme.  This is one of them.  This is written from the point of view of a bomber tailgunner.

Aces High [Powerslave, 1984] – This is the leadoff track from Powerslave, written from the point of view of RAF fighter pilots who fought the Battle of Britain.

2 Minutes to Midnight [Powerslave, 1984] – This reference to the Doomsday Clock is a Smith/Dickinson masterpiece.  It is proof that Steve Harris couldn’t write all the great Maiden tracks himself.

The Wicker Man [Brave New World, 2000] – After a long absence Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith returned to Iron Maiden in 1999.  This is the first song from their first album back in the fold.   Welcome back gents!

Wildest Dreams [Dance of Death, 2003] – This one is a very catchy, short burst of high energy to kick off Dance of Death.  Steve Harris’ lyrics paint a picture of a guy snapping out of a funk and taking charge of his own life.  Great solo from Adrian Smith.

Moonchild [Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. 1988] – This is the opening track from Maiden’s lone “concept album,” Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.  Lucifer [“the bornless one,” “the fallen angel watching you”] comments on the birth of “the chosen one” and also warns his mother that no matter what she does “this child was born to die.” 

Ghost of the Navigator [Brave New World, 2000] – If you’ve been navigating on the seas of life you might run into this character… Janick Gers came into his own as a songwriter when he wrote this – it’s a damn good one.

The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg [A Matter of Life and Death, 2006] – Who is Benjamin Breeg?  Only Steve Harris knows, but he did something terrible for which he feels a lot of guilt.  It is one of Maiden’s slower songs.  Adrian Smith is the more rhythm-oriented player of the three Maiden guitarists, and he locks in tightly with Steve Harris and Nicko McBrain and beats the listener into submission.  Great solo from Dave Murray.

Journeyman [Dance of Death, 2003] – Maiden unplugs for this one that closes Dance of Death.  Like Paschendale before it, Journeyman features a string arrangement that works very well.  By far this is the most unique song of the entire Maiden canon.  Like Wildest Dreams that opened Dance of Death, this is another song of empowerment – I know what I want/I’ll say what I want/ and no one can take it away… Bruce’s singing is simply magnificent.  There’s an electric version of this song – I haven’t heard it, I don’t need to hear it.  This one is perfect.

Rime of the Ancient Mariner [Flight 666, 2009 – original version on Powerslave, 1984] – This is what NOT to do if your bird shits on you… This is inspired by the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem of the same name, and the most epic of all Maiden epics [13:41!!!].

Wrathchild [Rock in Rio, 2001 – original version from Killers, 1981] – Something old, something new, something from our Jurassic period…

Powerslave [Powerslave, 1984] – I don’t wanna die, I’m a god, why can’t I live on?  Even pharaohs can’t escape the power of death.

The Trooper [Piece of Mind, 1983] – A song inspired by the Charge of the Light Brigade, this song probably has the most memorable riff of any song in the Maiden canon.

The Number of the Beast [The Number of the Beast. 1982] – Christians everywhere were convinced this song was proof that the guys in Iron Maiden were devil worshipers.  Steve Harris claims the song was a result of a dream he had after watching Damien: Omen II.  He also claims to have been influenced by Robert Burns’ Tam o’ Shanter when writing the song. Bruce’s scream at the end of the first verse was a result of pent-up frustration because Martin Birch made him sing the first verse over and over again.  That scream must have been very cathartic.  For the record, Vincent Price did NOT read the verse from Revelations.  He wanted too much money – Maiden couldn’t afford him.

Run to the Hills [The Number of the Beast. 1982] – This one documents the clash between American Indians and European settlers who pushed westward to settle in America’s heartland.

Flight of Icarus [Piece of Mind, 1983] – He flew too close to the Sun you know…  I think this is the first song Bruce Dickinson wrote for Iron Maiden [or was it Revelations?  I’m not sure…].  Like Stranger in a Strange Land that came three years later, this one is at a slower pace with a rock steady beat.

Hallowed Be Thy Name [The Number of the Beast. 1982] – The singer is waiting in a cold jail cell, reflecting on his life while waiting for his date with the Hangman.  A song that starts out quietly and slowly gets loud and fast in a hurry.  By my count there are three tempo changes throughout, but the guys in Maiden handle it with no problem.  Is it Maiden’s best song?  Probably.

El Dorado [The Final Frontier, 2010] – Bruce the “snake oil salesman” recruits others to help him on a fool’s errand to look for the lost City of Gold.

The Longest Day [A Matter of Life and Death, 2006] – A turning point in the history of Western Civilization is June 6, 1944 – the invasion of Normandy.  It was the beginning of the end for Hitler’s Germany.  A movie with the same name about that momentous day came out fifty years ago.

Mother of Mercy [The Final Frontier, 2010] – Here’s another “war” song, told from the point of view of a soldier fighting in one.

Sign of the Cross [Rock in Rio, 2001 – original version on The X Factor, 1995] – This was the first song from the first album with Blaze Bayley.  It’s inspired by Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose.  I picked this version because Bruce sings it better.

Bruce Dickinson - The Chemical Wedding

In the early 1990s [around 1992], Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson was having a crisis. He had much success as Maiden’s singer, but in his heart he wasn’t sure if he really deserved the success. The only way he would know for sure was to leave Iron Maiden. This he did after one last concert with the band in August 1993. He recorded an album with producer Keith Olsen but was unsatisfied with the results. He heard a band from Los Angeles called the Tribe of Gypsies, whose lead guitarist and producer was a guy named Roy Z. Having heard these guys play, Bruce loved what he heard and wanted to work with them, especially Roy Z. So with Roy Z, Bruce started anew on more material. The result was the album Balls to Picasso. Some people like it, some didn’t [I’m one of those who did]. When it came time to do another album, the Tribe of Gypsies had moved on with their own career, so Bruce decided he would form a his own band. He called this band Skunkworks. The idea was submerge his identity within a band, much like David Bowie had with Tin Machine. According to Bruce, the Skunkworks idea worked as well as Tin Machine, which is to say it didn’t work very well. He liked the album they created together [also titled Skunkworks], but he was in a small minority.

By this time Roy Z and the Tribe of Gypsies were released from their record deal, free to make music with whomever they chose. Roy Z asked Bruce if he wanted to make a heavy metal record. Bruce wasn’t sure if anyone was interested in anything he did anymore, but once he heard one of Roy Z’s backing tracks over the phone, Bruce made up his mind. Not only did Bruce make an album with Roy Z, he asked Adrian Smith [who left Iron Maiden himself in 1990] to come along for the ride. Expecting this to be the last record he would make, Accident of Death turned out to be an astonishing return to form for Bruce Dickinson. It was Bruce Dickinson doing what he did best – sing heavy metal with a heavy metal band. This brings us to the follow-up, and the subject of this blog – The Chemical Wedding.

Bruce wanted a loose concept for The Chemical Wedding, and he came up with subject matter one wouldn’t expect from a heavy metal album – occult science, alchemy and the art and poetry of William Blake. The cover of The Chemical Wedding is Blake’s painting The Ghost of a Flea. In between some of the songs, Arthur Brown reads excerpts of Blake’s poetry. Some of the songs from this album can be traced back to Blake’s work – The Book of Thel, The Gates of Urizen, and Jerusalem. Satan figures prominently in couple of songs [King in Crimson, Killing Floor]. The alchemy bit comes in with the title song and The Alchemist. My personal choice from this album would be The Tower. Blake was an advocate of free love during his time. I suspect this song was influenced by that somewhat. One of the bonus tracks [Confeos] sounds like Deep Purple. Bruce once described the vocals of another bonus track [Real World] as sounding like someone bit down on one of his nuts because the vocals were vari-sped too high. I think it’s a cool guitar track with pretty good vocals. The sounds on this album are pretty dark and gloomy, thanks to Adrian Smith and Roy Z re-stringing their guitars with bass strings [I bet their fingers hurt a lot!]. They make a formidable guitar tandem. Until I bought Bruce’s solo albums, Roy Z had been an unknown quantity to me. But now that I’ve heard him play, he reminds me a lot of Michael Schenker. Adrian Smith was always my favorite guitarist in Iron Maiden, and his playing here reinforces that sentiment. He still plays lots of rhythm but he gets to do his fair share of shredding. The rhythm section of bassist Eddie Casillas and drummer David Ingraham are rock solid. Bruce returns to his “human air raid siren” voice that he abandoned on the last two albums he made with Iron Maiden, No Rest for the Dying and Fear of the Dark. But ultimately, this albums rock very hard. Bruce once said the following:

“I have a simple rule. I ask myself ‘does it rock?’ And if it does, who gives a shit what it’s about? All the information’s there if people choose to dig for it. And if they don’t then it doesn’t matter, as long as they enjoy it. The point is – this album rocks like a bastard.”

Indeed it does. In my feeble mind, I think the concept of The Chemical Wedding, and Accident of Birth before it, is a very simple one. The concept as I see it – “out-Maiden” Iron Maiden. When Bruce left Iron Maiden, Steve Harris was quoted as saying that Bruce would put out a country & western album if he thought it would sell. So I believe Bruce was inspired to one-up Steve Harris. I have the two albums Iron Maiden made with Bruce’s replacement Blaze Bayley, The X Factor and Virtual XI. Maiden’s performances on those albums sound subdued, lackluster. There’s nothing about either album that is memorable. Some of the songs are very repetitive and, dare I say, boring. If you compare Accident of Birth and The Chemical Wedding with The X Factor and Virtual XI, Bruce’s albums are superior in every way – musically, lyrically, songwriting, energy, singing and production. Bruce blows Maiden out of the water.

With these two albums, Bruce Dickinson earned the success he was seeking that prompted him to leave Iron Maiden. It was somewhat surprising to learn in 1999 that both he and Adrian Smith would permanently rejoin Iron Maiden. But in retrospect, in looking at what Bruce did immediately prior to his rejoining Maiden, I think Bruce proved a point that he could be successful with or without Maiden, and that he was in a pretty good position to have greater input as a songwriter into Iron Maiden’s future work. That may not have been explicitly said, but in looking at what has come from Maiden since the reformation [Brave New World, Dance of Death, A Matter of Life and Death, The Final Frontier], Steve Harris’ stranglehold on songwriting has been somewhat relaxed. All the band members have more input to the music. I think The Chemical Wedding may have had some effect on that state of affairs, and that’s a good thing. I don’t have any proof one way or another – it’s just one pinhead’s point of view. One thing is certain - The Chemical Wedding is an outstanding album. Whether or not you’re an Iron Maiden fan, this album is well worth having. It is a great metal album.

The Tower

The Book of Thel

Gates of Urizen

Jerusalem

Real World [Bonus Track]

Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

Seven deadly sins
Seven ways to win
Seven holy paths to hell
And your trip begins

Seven downward slopes
Seven bloodied hopes
Seven are your burning fires
Seven your desires...

So begins Iron Maiden’s seventh studio album, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son [1988]. Bassist and chief songwriter Steve Harris has drawn inspiration from many sources: television [The Prisoner], movies [Run Silent, Run Deep, Children of the Damned], history [The Trooper, Aces High], poetry [The Rime of the Ancient Mariner], and contemporary literature [Sign of the Cross]. For Iron Maiden’s seventh album he had just finished reading the story of The Seventh Son series of books written by author Orson Scott Card. This series draws on the English folklore tale of a boy, the seventh son of a seventh son, is born with supernatural powers – the power to heal, the power to see into the future [“the gift of second sight”]. Not content to write a song or two about what he read, Steve Harris thought it would be great to base an entire album around such a story. Concept albums are a mixed bag – some can be great [The Who’s Tommy], but some can be downright cheesy [Judas Priest’s Nostradamus]. But luckily for Iron Maiden, the band has two very literate lyricists – Steve Harris and frontman Bruce Dickinson. Somewhere in Time, Seventh Son’s immediate studio predecessor did not feature any songs from Bruce Dickinson. The songwriting was split evenly between Steve Harris and guitarist Adrian Smith. On Seventh Son, the songwriting spoils are shared by Harris, Smith and Dickinson, with one writing credit going to guitarist Dave Murray. With all of this musical and lyrical input from the entire band, Seventh Son presents a very strong band effort.

The leadoff track, Moonchild, starts with the aforementioned lyrics with only an acoustic guitar. The after the “seven your desires” comes a synth passage, then power chords from Adrian Smith and Dave Murray. It’s Lucifer [“the bornless one,” “the fallen angel watching you”] commenting on the birth of “the chosen one” and also a warning to his mother that no matter what she does “this child was born to die.” Moonchild is in my Maiden Top 20. In Infinite Dreams, the Seventh Son’s father has dreams that torment him, so much so that he’s afraid to fall asleep. In Can I Play With Madness, the Seventh Son’s father goes to see a prophet to see his future, only to find that his soul is going to “burn in a lake of fire.” On a side note, Graham Chapman of Monty Python appears in the video for the song. It would be one the last times Graham Chapman would appear on television. As for The Evil That Men Do, I’ve seen it written that it is a song about his falling in love with the devil's daughter, his agony over the effects of the evil schemes against him as well as his own failings, and his quest for redemption and the road that remains ahead after his death. Both God and Lucifer want the Chosen One for himself, and here’s how Lucifer tries to get him. I’ll go with that as one finds this in the title song:

Then they watch the progress he makes
The Good and the evil which path will he take
Both of them trying to manipulate
The use of his powers before it's too late

The title song also sets the stage with this:

Today is born the seventh one
Born of woman the seventh son
And he in turn of a seventh son
He has the power to heal
He has the gift of the second sight
He is the chosen one
So it shall be written
So it shall be done

In the next song [The Prophecy], the Seventh Son sees disaster for his village, but nobody believes him. When disaster does strike, the villagers blame him for all that went wrong. They feel as if he brought a curse upon them. What the villagers don’t realize is that the Seventh Son is the one who is cursed – they don’t know what it’s like to be him and have the powers he posses.

In The Clairvoyant the Seventh Son can’t tell the difference between his normal vision and what he dreams. He wonders why he seems to be growing stronger, and he’s scared he can’t control his growing power anymore. Then in mid-song, the narration goes from first person to third person. The narrator is somewhat befuddled that the Seventh Son, despite all his powers of clairvoyance, couldn’t foresee his own death. But the explanation is here “fate”:

There's time to live and time to die
When it's time to meet the maker
There's time to live but isn't it strange
That as soon as you're born you're dying...
...and reborn again??

But what really killed him? Did his supernatural powers consume him, or did the people from the village do the deed?

The album concludes with Only the Good Die Young. This tells of how corrupt and sinful people are, and is given in the form of a sort of lecture, as from an angel, finishing with the lines:"So I think I'll leave you, with your visions and your guilt, and until the next time have a good sin", giving the impression that the deliverer of the speech doesn't expect the guilt to last long. Only the good die young – all the evil seems to live forever. Bruce Dickinson leaves us with this:

Seven deadly sins
Seven ways to win
Seven holy paths to hell

[Bruce chuckles because he knows you've already made the trip to Hell]

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son was the last Iron Maiden to feature guitarist Adrian Smith until 1999’s Brave New World. For some reason, everything clicked - the songwriting, the stellar musicianship, the crisp production. As Maiden's singer this would be Bruce Dickinson's finest hour. This album would prove over time to be the high water mark for Iron Maiden. This was the culmination of a string of excellent albums - Killers [with Paul DiAnno], The Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, Powerslave, Live After Death, Somewhere in Time, and this one. After Smith’s departure in 1990, the quality of Maiden’s output dropped significantly until both he and Bruce Dickinson returned to the fold in 1999.

Up the Irons!

Moonchild

The Clairvoyant

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

Iron Maiden: Flight 666

In 2008 Iron Maiden put on their Somewhere Back In Time Tour. The band invited filmmakers Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn to film not only what transpired on stage, but also behind the scenes. Flight 666 documents everything - interview segments with all the band members, a look into what it takes to stage an Iron Maiden show, and we also get a look at what the band members do on their rare days off while they’re on the road. The first leg of the Somewhere Back In Time tour took them over 45,000 miles. They played 23 concerts in 45 days. They averaged about 2,000 miles between each of the tour stops. They were able to achieve that feat by flying around the world in a customized 757, dubbed “Ed Force One.” The idea of specially modifying a plane to take the band, 70 crew and over 12 tons of equipment, had never been attempted before. It took a year to get the engineers to come up with the plans to make sure the 757 could handle the stress of flying all that equipment. It was a very ambitious undertaking. During the film they kept a running tally of the distance travelled on the tour ["Day 16 - 16,6277 miles." "Day 23 - 27,366 miles." "Day 38 - 30,646 miles."].

Bruce Dickinson, the band’s singer, is a licensed airline pilot. When he is not touring with Iron Maiden or as a solo act, he has a day job flying for the UK charter airline Astraeus. So during this tour, Bruce got to indulge himself in his other job and flew the band, crew and all their gear around the world. According to Bruce:

“The aeroplane idea started off as a crazy gleam in my eye. I went “wow, if you could get all your gear into an aeroplane, you could cut down hugely on the amount of dead space we have in touring.”” So I said, “What if you join up all the countries that accountants say ‘You can’t go there it costs too much’?” And we just join them up. And we go…’Yes we can ‘cause we’ve got our own magic carpet.’”

Usually bands get their equipment from one venue to the next by eighteen-wheel truck. Not so this tour.

Usually bands tour only when they have a new album to plug. Not so for Iron Maiden in this case. The Somewhere Back In Time Tour of 2008 was a “thank you” for their fans. When asked by XM Radio DJ Eddie Trunk if Iron Maiden were just going back and revisiting the catalog, Bruce Dickinson replied:

“No. Not at all. We’re not some old fossil dragging the bones of old songs around. What you’ll see tonight is not just a celebration of our old songs. It’s the celebration of a lot of young new fans, who have never seen us play these songs.”

“Anytime you go out and you play songs that you’ve played before, there’s always an element of people going ‘I’ve heard these songs before.’ But the purpose of this tour was really very different, because our entire audience for the last eight years has been getting steadily younger. So as a big thank you, large Christmas present wrapped up in a box with a big bow on top, here, have a classic World Slavery Tour. And that’s why I get bent out of shape any time anybody tries to play ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ and the tail they’re trying to pin on us is that this is some kind of antique revival show. And it’s not that.”

The Tour Stops: Mumbai/Perth/Melbourne [2 shows]/Sydney [2 shows]/Brisbane/Yokohama/Tokyo/Los Angeles/Guadalajara/Monterrey/Mexico City/San Jose (Costa Rica)/Bogota/Sao Paolo/Curitiba/Porto Allegre/Buenos Aires/Santiago/San Juan/East Rutherford, NJ/Toronto

The setlist itself was modeled on that played during their World Slavery Tour of 1984/85. One quick glance at the setlist below and you can see there are a few songs they didn’t play on that tour because they hadn’t been written yet. But it was a real treat to see the band play songs like ‘Ancient Mariner,’ ‘Powerslave,’ ‘Aces High,’ and ‘Revelations.’ The big treat for me is ‘Moonchild’ from Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. I’ve always wanted to know what that particular song sounded like live, and with this DVD I finally got the chance. ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ is another highlight. Bruce Dickinson told Eddie Trunk of all the songs he looks forward to singing, by far for him it was ‘Ancient Mariner.’ Of note, when he introduced the song, he made a point to repeat the song intro he did in 1985 in Long Beach [captured for posterity on the Live After Death album] – “This song is about what NOT to do when a bird shits on you.” That line has cracked me up for going on 25 years now…

The setlist: Churchill’s Speech/Aces High/2 Minutes to Midnight/Revelations/The Trooper/Wasted Years/The Number of the Beast/Can I Play With Madness/Rime of the Ancient Mariner/Powerslave/Heaven Can Wait/Run to the Hills/Fear of the Dark/Iron Maiden/Moonchild/The Clairvoyant/Hallowed Be Thy Name

After they left Los Angeles and headed south of the border for Latin America, there was a sense that the “holiday was over” and there was a bit of trepidation among the band that “boy, I hope we’re as good as the audiences are.” For them there is always a feeling of going somewhere where something, anything is on the edge of exploding. In Columbia they encountered riot police. In Chile, they set foot in a country that once banned them from playing because the supposed ‘Satanic’ content of their lyrics. They needn’t have worried because every time I’ve seen Iron Maiden, either on TV or on film [I’ve never seen them live], they always seem to put on a very professional, high energy show. That was the case in this documentary as well. These guys are all in their 50s, but they’re running around on stage like people half their age. One can tell they very much love doing what they do, and they don’t just go through the motions. After the first tour stop in Mumbai half the band got sick [food poisoning I think], but that didn’t stop them from putting on the same high-voltage show they always put on. Such is their dedication to giving their fans what they want and what they expect.

Iron Maiden fans are a pretty fanatical bunch, but in South America that’s taken to a higher plane. Wherever they went, be it Brazil, Argentina, or Chile, they were mobbed by fans like they were the Beatles at the height of Beatlemania. To hear guitarist Adrian Smith tell it: “The fans do get a bit much sometimes, when you’ve been traveling and people expect you to stop and sign and have photos and look all cheerful. The way I look at it, once you’re in a hotel that’s my home away from home. Outside the hotel, we’re fair game .”

Nicko McBrain: “When you’re on the road as much as we are, you don’t want to sit in your hotel room and mope or watch movies. Everyone has their activities that they do. I think it keeps you sane.” What do the guys do on their rare days off? Nicko McBrain and Dave Murray play golf. Adrian Smith plays tennis, goes fishing, and goes diving. Steve Harris is always up for a game of football. Janick Gers likes to hit any Irish pub he can find. There’s footage of some of the band visiting the Mexican pyramids at Teotichuacán. Since Bruce is doing double duty as both pilot and singer, there isn’t any footage of him doing anything else. Between the two activities there probably wasn’t enough time for him to do anything else except sleep and get fresh for the gigs.

As for the concert footage, there are sixteen songs in all, each filmed in a different city on the tour. Now if one wants to skip all the documentary stuff, there is a bonus disc that shows the whole live set uninterrupted. Even though the songs are each filmed in different cities, the set flows together as if it was one concert.

All things considered, this is a well-done documentary. If you’re an Iron Maiden fan like me, you owe it to yourself to get yourself a copy. Up the Irons!