After releasing a stellar album (Accident of Birth) Bruce returns to the studio to give us another excellent offering.This is an album based on the poetry of William Blake.Its a lot in the vein of Accident Of Birth, some of the '90s heaviness and crunch combined with the '80s style leads that made Maiden famous.This time around they attached bass strings to the guitars which make it even heavier, this did turn some people off, saying it was 'too sludgey', not me however, I still love it, although given choice I prefer Accident Of Birth.The songs on that seem to grab you a little better.Other than that there's not much difference, same musicians as before, great production, Bruce's vox are as strong as ever too.The lyrics are filled with imagery, which shant dissappoint.

"King In Crimson" is a triplet style heavy shuffle."Chemical Wedding" sounds vaguely similiar to the Andrew Loyyd Webber Phantom of the Opera.Its on of those songs that is semi interesting, but doesn't quite rock, nor is it a ballad."The Tower" is excellent, nice bass groove throughout, awesome lyrics, catchy as hell."Killing Floor" is the most brutal sounding song with Bruce screams "SATAN!!" in the chorus, it has a cool interlude as well."Book Of Thel" is by far the best song on the album, great lyrics, catchy and epic, cool intro and outros, excellent interlude with great drum fills and chanting."Gates Of Urizen" is rather boring."Jerusalem" is a ballad of sorts, great acoustics, excellent lyrics again, the ending resembles Zeppelin's "Battle of Evermore"."Trumpets Of Jericho" and "Machine Men" both rock, and are pretty damn catchy."The Alchemist" I never got into much, there's a blank spot and a narrative at the end I can only describe as strange. As a whole I think most metal fans would appreciate this, so go get it if you haven't.

This review is credited to:
Death_Explosion