IRON MAIDEN - SEVENTH SON OF A SEVENTH SON Home

Released in 1988, a year before I was born, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son was and still is, Maiden's only conceptual album. The album as a whole is probably my favourite Maiden album along with their Somewhere in Time album. The album starts and ends with similar verses, and the opener "Moonchild" is an extension of the starting verse. The tracks of the album are very different, from each other as well as anything Maiden have previously written. The opener Moonchild has an air of mystery around it, as it should have. The song has a very powerful and catchy chorus.

Infinite Dreams, is a perfect song coming in after Moonchild. It has Dickinson's best performance in the whole album and has an amazing ending, with Dickinson's "Agaaaain". Can I play with Madness, is a track which is regarded quite comical by many fans and hence ruins the whole theme of the album. I have to agree, but seeing as Maiden did'nt put out Seventh Son as a conceptual album until they figured it out, there's no harm in the song, especially since its got a very fun tune. The Evil that Men Do, is a very powerful and moody song. Its one of my favourite songs along with Hallowed be thy Name, from the Number of the Beast album. The track is very powerful and looks like a love song. Thats quite true, if you look at the lyrics. The song title is borrowed from a line of Mark Antony's speech in William Shakespeare's Julius Caeser but otherwise has nothing to do with Caeser.

The glorious epic, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son follows. This song is nearly 10 minutes long but unlike The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, is not monotonous. The song features a spoken portion in the middle of the song, and the drumbeats at the time are, if nothing, mindblowing! The instrumental section, starting from the spoken part is amazing, and is probably the best I've ever heard. The Prophecy is an amazing track with a nice fade out acoustic ending. The songs guitaring fits perfectly with the mood of the song. If there's a song with a good ending, there's one with a good beginning. Steve Harris' bass intro in The Clairvoyant makes sure of that.

Only the Good Die Young has probably the best chorus ever for a Maiden song, with Adrian Smith's seconds blending in perfectly with Bruce Dickinson's poweful voice. The song on the whole sounds amazing and the last verse after Dave Murray's solo, is a repeat of the first, which opened the album.The recording on the album, goes a little softer on the guitars and the bass and drums are louder than typical. Very different from the first few Maiden albums. Also, interestingly, Maiden have used Keyboards on this album even though the keyboardist is not credited in the cover sleeve. The production for this album is done by Martin "Disappearing Armchair" Birch (yet another nickname for the producer). The last album he would work with Maiden, was one of theirs and his finest works.

Maiden once again, shows the world that they are not one to be following any set trends or flows. During 1988 most bands were either writing radio friendly ballads or were doing completely the opposite, hoping to ride along with Metallica's success by writing heavy and hard riffs and thundering drumbeats. Maiden cleaved their own path, by writing an album which seemed Progressive Heavy in most ways. This album could be seen as an extension to Maiden's 1986 release Somewhere in Time which shocked most fans by using heavy guitar synths and progressive songs. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son just followed flowed along with it, and has been looked upon by many as the time when Maiden was quite unstoppable and defined themselves as the biggest Heavy Metal band in the world.

Song List

1) Moonchild
2) Infinite Dreams
3) Can I Play With Madness
4) The Evil that Men Do
5) Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
6) The Prophecy
7) The Clairvoyant
8) Only the Good Die Young