• Iron Maiden - Brave New World (2000) - I'm actually missing Blaze Bayley on this record - 73% (06/10/14)

    Iron Maiden - Brave New World (2000)

    “Brave New World” has always been a mixed bag for me. Many songs on the album were still written with Blaze Bayley in the band. If I take into consideration how great Blaze Bayley’s first solo record “Silicon Messiah” turned out to be, I would have adored listening to a record that mixes the best tracks from that solo release and this comeback album with new old members Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith in the band. Most fans may disagree but I think a potential third record with Blaze Bayley would have been the better possibility.

    As strange as it may sound, Blaze Bayley’s darker, very emotional and more grounded vocals would have fit better than Bruce Dickinson’s more expressive, high-pitched and theatrical tones on most songs of the record. A good example would be the melancholic ballade "Blood Brothers" that sounds a little bit too epic for a thoughtful swansong dedicated to Steve Harris' late father. "Dream of Mirrors" is a progressive metal song with a cumbersome atmosphere that could have found its righteous place on the previous release and would have been the best song on that album. I'm really imagining Blaze Bayley's darker and more emotional vocals each time I hear the song and think Bruce Dickinson's vocals sound too forced and strained on this track. Overall, this new record feels as if two worlds collided: the slower, epic and emotional tracks written in cooperation with Blaze Bayley and the more traditional, straighter and faster songs developed with Bruce Dickinson. These two sides don't always fusion well. While Bruce Dickinson performs truly well on the tracks he was involved in, he doesn’t manage to add that certain human and yet magic touch to the songs written without him in the band. 

    Another negative point is that I’ve heard the phenomenal live release “Rock in Rio” before discovering the studio versions on this album. I must admit that several tracks that build up great atmosphere, electrifying energy and vivid pace on stage sound rather boring on here which may also be due to a rather lifeless production. Especially the longer tunes such as “Brave New World”, “Blood Brothers” and “Dream of Mirrors” are lacking a certain kind of energy on the studio release.

    On the positive side, the band’s overall song writing is much more balanced on this release than on several other post-reunion albums like “A Matter of Life and Death” and “The Final Frontier”. This release includes a few energizing and short hymns such as the powerful opener “The Wicker Man” or the quite heavy and slightly hysterical “The Fallen Angel” that add both to the diversity and the flow of the release. One gets a few calmer and laid-back epics that can be seen as transitions from the last record with Blaze Bayley to the new era such as “Brave New World” and “Blood Brothers”. Finally, the band also delivers a couple of more progressive rock and metal infused tracks with long introductions and different promising ideas such as the Middle Eastern folk sounds on “The Nomad” and the complex yet rocking closer “The Thin Line Between Love and Hate”. From this point of view, the record never gets too boring. The problem with the last category of songs is that it includes several great instrumental and vocal melodies but that the overall song writing isn’t always concise. What I mean is that several longer tracks on the record are composed of different parts that work well on their own but don’t always seem to fit together. They feel a little bit hectically patched together here and there. These tracks also include a few unnecessary lengths that drag interesting atmospheres on for too long or take out the dynamic elements of a track. In these moments, the band is really losing me and I guess that fans of shorter and more traditional heavy metal songs may feel alike.

    All these reasons lead to a point where I feel slightly confused about this release. I really like Adrian Smith’s signature guitar sound and the use of three different guitar players who are all quite diversified song writers. In general, I also think that Bruce Dickinson still has a phenomenal voice and may even sound better in certain songs on this release than he sounded in the late eighties and early nineties where he started to lack enthusiasm. Now, he is back with a fresh spirit and one really feels that the band put all its heart blood into this release. The song writing is balanced and diversified and the record is very entertaining as it includes shorter tracks that impress quickly and more complex tunes that open up as time goes by. Still, many parts of the release feel patched together in a hurry and don’t always fit together. Several songs already indicate a problem that would get even bigger on the next releases as many tracks include more or less fitting overlong introductions and plodding instrumental parts. The production is also little bit too calm and lifeless for a heavy metal comeback release in my opinion. In the end, the positive elements are still stronger than the negative ones. I must though admit that there is no Iron Maiden release I have listened to less than to this one. I know it’s a solid record but it has somehow become a dust collector in my collection. In Iron Maiden’s extensive and groundbreaking discography, I would categorize this overhyped record as a slightly below average effort. Among the so-called post-reunion records, I clearly prefer both the extremely diversified “Dance of Death” and the coherently dark and almost concept-like “A Matter of Life and Death” to this album.

    « Therion - Lepaca Kliffoth (1995) - Progressively ambitious with a healthy balance - 72% (03/10/14)Exodus - Blood In Blood Out (2014) - Snort in, spit out - 14% (11/10/14) »
    Partager via Gmail Delicious Technorati Yahoo! Google Bookmarks Blogmarks Pin It