Review Summary: Iron Maiden’s Songwriting Formula: Emin-C-D Chord Progression (sometimes Emin-C-G-D), Verse-Bridge-Chorus Structure, a Driving, Power-Chord-Hugging Bassline, and a Lead Guitar Part that often mimics Bruce Dickinson’s vocal line.
Iron Maiden and progressive rock have always been like Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. When combined, everything could be breathtakingly beautiful one moment and balls-achingly awkward the next, as seen with
The X Factor and
Virtual XI respectively. While the good stuff ultimately outweighs the painful stuff in the grand scheme of things, Iron Maiden’s flirtations with the progressive rock genre still possess an inherent flaw which has made the band incredibly inconsistent over the years.
The problem ironically lies in Iron Maiden’s stubborn refusal to alter their songwriting formula, which clashes with the progressive elements they try to employ because prog rock at its core is all about change and experimentation. While Iron Maiden has made progressive elements work, it’s not always been in the traditional way. Looking back on great albums like
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son and
A Matter of Life and Death (both of which were noted for their progressive influences), one sees that the band’s successful use of those elements didn’t come from subverting their formula or abandoning it altogether, but from taking the formula to ambitious heights while making the tone of the album memorable. This latter part was especially important, as
Seventh Son’s mystic, otherworldly vibe and
AMOLAD’s aggressive, end-times sound added depth and thematic resonance to those albums. Neither were fantastic because they represented a great leap forward for the band’s songwriting. Rather, they were fantastic because the tones of those albums gelled with their ambitious themes and the formula’s accessible framework.
With all that in mind,
Brave New World is a good record, but its tone isn’t as memorable as Iron Maiden’s other records and the progressive elements it employs too often feel constrained by the formula. This isn’t to say that the record has terrible production or that the compositions are bad.
Brave New World has much more weight and power in its sound than its limp predecessor,
Virtual XI, and the band can still write riffs and powerhouse choruses like nobody’s business. However, the tone of the album isn’t provocative in the way that
Seventh Son,
AMOLAD, and
The X Factor were. The guitars crunch, the bass rumbles, and the drums hit hard, but this just makes
Brave New World loud. It has a sound that any metal band could use, not something that screams “IRON MAIDEN!” like the Martin Birch records or “IRON MAIDEN SOUNDS F*CKING PISSED!” like
A Matter of Life and Death.
As for the songwriting, I mentioned before how the progressive elements combined with Iron Maiden’s signature style can lead to some awkward moments.
Brave New World has a bunch of these moments, and what makes them awkward is that they’re usually a jarring shift in tempo or tone which lacks a smooth transition or purpose in the context of the song. Examples of such moments include:
-Every transition between verses, bridges, and choruses in “ Ghost of the Navigator,” a hodgepodge of song ideas that each sound like they came from different songs,
-The misguided inclusion of orchestral strings on “Blood Brothers,” which makes an otherwise affecting ballad about Steve Harris and his father come off as cheesy and overblown in the opening seconds of the song,
-The slow, repetitive chorus of “The Mercenary,” which grinds the song’s momentum to a halt for 32 seconds each time it occurs, while the lines “Show them no fear/show them no pain” are mindlessly repeated over and over,
-The heavy, aggressive intro to “Dream of Mirrors,” which is followed by nearly six minutes of non-heavy, slow-building tension,
-The slow, syncopated second verse of “Out of the Silent Planet,” which contrasts too wildly with the driving first verse and rousing chorus preceding it, grinding another song to a halt.
Bear in mind, if one were to listen to parts of each of these songs individually and out of context of the rest of the song, they’d still be really good song ideas (for the most part). For example, the disparate parts of “Ghost of the Navigator” all sound like great foundations for multiple songs. When forced alongside each other in one song though with weak or non-existent transitions, it comes off as a mess.
The best thing I can say about
Brave New World is that for every questionable songwriting choice or transition, there’s two or three incredibly potent moments which stand out as highlights in Iron Maiden’s career. These are moments like the end of “The Wicker Man,” the slow-jam in the latter half of “The Nomad,” and the midway point in “The Thin Line Between Love and Hate,” when all three guitarists build on each others' leads to create something monumental and beautiful. None of this should come as a surprise; Iron Maiden has almost always excelled in crafting memorable guitar parts, powerful vocal hooks, and driving rhythms, even on some of their lesser albums. They only seem to run into trouble when they strive to go bigger without changing the tools much. Iron Maiden’s formula, theming and tone are like the logs in a Jenga tower. With proper balance and an eagle eye for putting everything in its place, they can (and have) reached those progressive heights they so often aspire to. Likewise, if things don’t balance properly, they’ll ultimately come up short of greatness.
Recommended Tracks:
“The Nomad”
“The Wicker Man”
“Brave New World”
Skip-Worthy:
“The Mercenary”
Special Commendation:
“The Fallen Angel,” whose perfect 4-minute length helped to bring my 2-mile running time down to 16 minutes.
