Iron Maiden - Brave New World

There was something curiously strange about this album from the moment it was announced. The kind of hype surrounding it had to be seen to be believed, including proud statements how this one single cd would be the shining almighty saviour for metal in the wasteland of the United States. No matter that Maiden's existance in the past decade has been less than stellar, just look at their previous effort Virtual XI and you will see a fine example of how low the once champions of metal have sunk. They were quick to hoist the blame off on singer Blaze Bayley. It was true that Blaze's voice could get extremely annoying very quickly but was it his fault that the material that he was given was pure and utter shit? Everyone seems to have forgotten that Maiden's 'glory years' were in a relative short time period through the early to mid 80s, coming to a head with "Seventh Son of Seventh Son" and then sinking greatly with "No Prayer for the Dying". Yet, with a shred of hope, and expectations blown out of porportions, the masses held out their arms, ready to welcome the band back to their loving embraces. "Our hero (Bruce) has returned the evil (Blaze) is dead*!"... they chanted.

Now their opus arrives on my doorstep, with its ominious looking cover, and personally Im not expecting much, since unlike the easily forgetful, I still carry the wounds of the band's past flops and approach this new 'saviour' with much caution. After a couple of listens, I can say without a doubt, that "Brave New World" is as big of a heap of dung as "Virtual XI" was, and maybe moreso. With an air of smugness and all prepared to read some accounts of the fallen remains of the now-certain rotting corpse of the Maiden franchise, I was more than shocked to see that my opinions are in the minority. Loud and overly excited posts to boards and reviews of this metallic abomination wax on with exclamations of "Up the Irons!", "Fuck yeah! Maiden is BACK!", "A classic on a par with Seventh Son!". Now I must wonder if listening to the album causes mental damaging, or if by chance, my copy is a sad and early demo of this elsewhere highly praised 'masterpiece', or perhaps there's a subliminal message hidden in the music somewhere that repeats over and over "Maiden rules", that with my poor hearing I'm immune to?

Whatever the case may be, I think we have finally found the weak link in the band's rusty chain, which would be Steve Harris. He has written most of the music in the past ten years, with Bruce and Adrian Smith out and about pursuing their own careers, sometimes coming together to collaborate on such excellent Dickinson solo albums as "Accident of Birth" and "The Chemical Wedding". The plodding mess on "BNW" is tragic and unforgiveable. From the uninteresting opener "The Wickerman" with 'stock' guitar riffs and regurgitating chorus to the coma inducing "The Thin Line Between Love and Hate" which totally erases the line between the two so that the hate can spill over and murder the love side, leaving nothing but a feeling of being tortured with just having to listen to the song, "Brave New World" goes nowhere, and takes its sweet time doing it. If plodding, predictable and ridiculously repetitive songs are your cup of tea, then this album was just made for you, for it all can be found in abundance. Adding insult to injury is the pitiful excuses for choruses, which are comprised of the song title, with perhaps one other variation, and repeated dozens upon dozens of times with absolutely nothing thrown in to add variety. Just when you think things could possibly not get any worse, you land upon the fruity "Out of the Silent Planet" which is one of the worst songs I have ever heard in any genre, any musical format. Words cannot describe the total and complete hatred I feel toward this miserable song. And what possessed them to do a shameless butchered ripoff of MSG's classic "Assault Attack", stick an annoying chorus and a few jazzed up, yet boring riffs to stretch out the time, call it "The Fallen Angel" and then have the nerve to claim it as an original song, is beyond me.

The only saving grace is Bruce Dickinson, his voice is still as powerful and dramatic as it was ten years ago. In emotional range, it has simply improved with age (just look at his song on Ayreon - 'Flight of the Migrator' entitled "Into the Black Hole". Solid, archived proof of this 'theory') Unfortunately on this abysmal 'effort' (or lack thereof), Dickinson is nothing but a misused tool, with the material he's given, his voice in all its power, repeating the same lines until the listener experiences nausea and sickness, is actually more of an annoyance than even Blaze was on the "Virtual XI" release. This is simply because Bruce is a fabulous vocalist, and capable of so very much more but listening to "BNW", no one would know it. With not just two, but three axeslingers, its amazing that they couldnt come up with some better riffs than the disjointed lead breaks and typical galloping rhythm guitar that is vomited up here. A handful of the solos are nice enough, showing tiny glimpses of fire, but devoid of any passion or conviction. The cut and paste feel is present throughout, the solos seem more like a clashing afterthought than anything else. Rhythm section is nondescript, just 'being there', adding nothing positive but it does gradually increase the headache that this album quickly induces. Production-wise, its passable despite the fact that a couple of the songs sound as if they could have easily been recorded in a high school gymnasium. This is one area where I thought the disc would surely not suffer, for they could afford a nice production job, yet it feels greatly inferior to some of the slick, sharp results we have seen in this modern day era (most recently AOR outfit Kharma with their "Wonderland" album, which has set a new standard for album mixing and production).