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Rating: At the parish oratory, in the early 2000s, the older kids flaunted T-shirts adorned with monsters, electric guitars, and mysterious words that puzzled us younger ones: Iron Maiden, Blind Guardian, Angra, Children of Bodom, Savatage. It was a primordial encounter with music that was a matter of faith, a rite of identity, a clan discipline. A pass that ushered you into adolescence and then into youth, a sort of ID card whose features included the now-familiar Eddie, or the pitch-black hoods of evil priests in mystical robes. Or yet, the necroses of the most horrifying creatures.
If you listened to music that was too pop, or even if there was just a little too much melody amidst the electric guitars, you’d receive the seniors' timely rebukes. So, you accepted the initiation rite, or at least you tried. Metallica, immediate love (and a T-shirt to go with it), Death... not yet, I'm not ready. Iron? Of course. Even the girls listened to Iron Maiden and you’d hear them talking on the dusty soccer fields about how beautiful Dream of Mirrors was. Those a few years older insisted on the latest album, Rock in Rio. It was an omnipresent topic, along with feminine charms, and somehow you had to speak that language to be taken seriously.
These sociological elements also fit into the trajectories of how my love for music was born. Soon abandoned, those dictates somehow return here and there in my personal journey. I loved Metallica with my own, individual feeling, partly because they were opposed by the predominant group up at the parish. Their strongest faith was in the Maidens. So, my relationship with Steve Harris's band has always been somewhat dialectical, of love and hate. Even knowing Iron Maiden’s discography by heart didn't make you interesting, because everyone knew it, down to the deepest recesses. In fact, you had to really know all the important lyrics to earn a bit of respect. Life down here is just a strange illusion.
In short, I never really felt they were mine. I know a few albums well, the first and obviously The Number of the Beast, but with that touch of coldness towards the most institutional moments. For me, they sounded a bit banal and light compared to Metallica's sounds. Over time, I've understood the greatness of tracks like Hallowed Be Thy Name, but I've also paused over less popular passages like Remember Tomorrow and generally the albums with Paul Di'Anno. Then, over the years, I've given them more chances, but now not for a sacred fire of passion, only for a taste of philological completeness. I've moderately appreciated the works of their golden age. Without ever being dazzled. Unfortunately, the vast discography doesn’t help, but you explore it piece by piece. Many albums and many tracks with sometimes similar names, and the difficulty of identifying a trajectory of evolution and substantial differences between the various phases of their career, making the listener’s journey a bit more complicated. They’re not easy to approach retrospectively.
Recently, enlightenment. I've simply fallen in love, madly in love with Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. Which I previously knew poorly, through a few tracks listened to on live albums, without fully understanding the peculiar characteristics of the work. Beautiful, and I’m certainly not needed to explain why. Nice compact guitars, solos in abundance, but also expanses colored with synthesizers, melodies that might remind you at times of Queen and, at the same time, some progressive-leaning structures. It hadn’t happened before that I didn’t get bored at all with a Maiden album, I don't feel there are fillers and even the “minor” tracks have a reason in terms of melody, construction of counterpoints. I’m dying for the chart-busting boldness of Can I Play with Madness, the duels and speed of The Evil That Men Do, and shortly after, the maximalism of the title track. The guitars can be alluring, atmospheric, or splendidly rocky. The bass gallops wonderfully, without ever being self-referential. The sound is denser than before, but illuminated in a different way, there’s great clarity even in the complexity of the architectures. The obsession with wanting to constantly come across as grim and gothic is gone. For me, it’s the golden section of their music.
I've been listening to it repeatedly for days; I'm happy to have found a true passion, something I feel is mine, for a band I've always felt was everyone's and therefore nobody’s.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Moonchild (05:41)
Seven deadly sins
Seven ways to win
Seven holy paths to hell
And your trip begins
Seven downward slopes
Seven bloodied hopes
Seven are you burning fires,
Seven your desires...
I am he the bornless one
The fallen angel watching you
Babylon, the scarlet whore
I'll infiltrate your gratitude
Don't you dare to save your son
Kill him now and save the young ones
Be the mother of birth strangled babe
Be the devils own, Lucifer's my name
[ Chorus ]
Moonchild - hear the mandrake scream
Moonchild - open the seventh seal
Moonchild - you'll be mine soon child
Moonchild - take my hand tonight
I count the heads of those unborn
The accursed ones I'll find them all
If you die by your own hand
As a suicide you shall be damned
And if you try to save your soul
I will torment you - you shall not grow old
With every second and passing breath
You'll be so alone your soul will bleed to death
[ Chorus ]
The twins they are exhausted, seven is this night
Gemini is rising as the red lips kiss to bite
Seven angels seven demons battle for his soul
When Gabriel lies sleeping, this child was born to die
One more dies one more lives
One baby cries one mother grieves
For all the sins you will commit
You'll beg forgiveness and none I'll give
A web of fear shall be your coat
To clothe you in the night
A lucky escape for you young man
But I'll see you damned in endless night
[ Chorus ]
02 Infinite Dreams (06:09)
Infinite dreams, I can't deny them
Infinity is hard to comprehend
I couldn't hear those screams
Even in my wildest dreams
Suffocation, waking in a sweat
Scared to fall asleep again
Incase the dream begins again
Someone chasing, I cannot move
Standing rigid, a nightmare's statue
What a dream, when will it end
And will I transcend?
Restless sleep, the mind's in turmoil
One nightmare ends, another fertile
Getting to me, so scared to sleep
But scared to wake now, in too deep.
Even though it's reached new heights
I rather like the restless nights
It makes me wonder, it makes me think
There's more to this, I'm on the brink
It's not the fear of what's beyond
It's just that I might not respond
I have an interest, almost craving
But would I like to get too far in?
It can't be all coincidence
Too many things are evident
You tell me you're an unbeliever
Spiritualist? Well, me, I'm neither
But wouldn't you like to know
The truth
Of what's out there, to have the proof
And find out just which side
You're on
Where would you end? In Heaven or
In Hell?
Help me, help me to find my true
Self without seeing the future
Save me, save me from torturing
Myself, even within my dreams
There's got to be more to it
Than this
Or tell me, why do we exist?
I'd like to think that when I die
I'd get a chance, another time
And to return and live again
Reincarnate, play the game
Again and again and again
03 Can I Play With Madness (03:31)
Give me the sense to wonder,
to wonder if I'm free.
Give me the sense to wonder,
to know I can be me.
Give me the strength, to hold my head up,
spit back in their face.
Don't need no key, to unlock this door,
gonna break down the walls,
break out of this bad place.
Can I play with Madness?
The prophet stared at his crystal ball,
Can I play with Madness?
There's no vision there at all.
Can I play with Madness?
The prophet looked and he laughed at me!
Can I play with Madness?
He said you're blind, too blind to see!
I screamed aloud to the old man,
I said don't lie, don't say you don't know!
I say you'll pay for this mischief,
In this world, or the next!
Oh then he fixed me with a freezing glance,
and the hellfires raged in his eyes,
He said do you want to know the truth son?
I'll tell you the truth!
Your souls' gonna burn, in a lake of fire!
Can I play with Madness?
The prophet stared at his crystal ball,
Can I play with Madness?
There's no vision there at all.
Can I play with Madness?
The prophet looked and he laughed at me!
Can I play with Madness?
He said you're blind, too blind to see!
Can I play with Madness?
The prophet stared at his crystal ball,
Can I play with Madness?
There's no vision there at all.
Can I play with Madness?
The prophet looked and he laughed at me!
Can I play with Madness?
He said you're blind, too blind to see!
04 The Evil That Men Do (04:35)
Love is a razor and I walked the line on that silver blade
Slept in the dust with his daughter, her eyes red with
The slaughter of innocence
And I will pray for her
I will call her name out loud
I would bleed for her
If I could only see her now
Living on a razors edge
Balancing on a ledge
Living on a razors edge, Oaah
Balancing on a ledge
Balancing on a ledge
Living on a razors edge
Balancing on a ledge... You know, You know
The evil that men do lives on and on...
The evil that men do lives on and on...
The evil that men do lives on and on...
The evil that men do lives on and on...
The evil that men do lives on and on...
Circle of fire my baptism of joy at an end it seems
The seventh lamb slain, the book of life opens before me
And I will pray for her
Some day I may return
Don't you cry for me
Beyond is where I learn
Living on a razors edge
Balancing on a ledge
Living on a razors edge... You know, You know
The evil that men do lives on and on...
The evil that men do lives on and on...
The evil that men do lives on and on...
The evil that men do lives on and on...
SOLO
Living on a razors edge
Balancing on a ledge
Living on a razors edge... You know, You know
The evil that men do lives on and on...
The evil that men do lives on and on...
The evil that men do lives on and on...
The evil that men do lives on and on...
The evil
The evil
The evil that men do
The evil
The evil
The evil that men do, Oaah, Oaah
05 Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (09:53)
Here they stand, brothers them all
All the sons, divided they'd fall
Here await the birth of the son
The seventh, the heavenly, the chosen one
Here the birth from an unbroken line
Born the healer, the seventh, his time
Unknowingly blessed and as his life unfolds
Slowly unveiling the power he holds
Seventh son of a seventh son
Seventh son of a seventh son
Seventh son of a seventh son
Seventh son of a seventh son
Then they watch the progress he makes
The Good and Evil which path will he take
Both of them trying to manipulate
The use of his powers, before it's too late
Seventh son of a seventh son
Seventh son of a seventh son
Seventh son of a seventh son
Seventh son of a seventh son
Today is born the seventh one
Born of woman the seventh son
And he in turn of a seventh son
He has the power to heal
He has the gift of the second sight
He is the chosen one
So it shall be written
So it shall be done
06 The Prophecy (05:05)
Now that I know that the right time has come
My prediction will surely be true
The impending disaster it looms
And the whole of the village is doomed
Why won't you listen to me
Is it so hard to understand
That I am the real seventh son?
Your life or death on me depends
Suffering and pain impending disaster
Souls crying the devil's laughter
Heard the cry of the seven whistlers
Lucifer smiles, looks on and waits
I'll take your life in my hands
Your fate, your fortune's in my visions
Heed what I say and you'll see
What will be
Please listen to me
Now that they see the disaster is done
Now they put all the blame unto me
They feel I brought on a curse
Don't they know that the torment
It stays with me, knowing that I walk alone
Through the eyes of the future I see
They don't even know what fear is
Don't they know I'm the one who is cursed
Purgatory beckons souls lost forever
Life after death or heaven hereafter
Heard the call of the seven whistlers again
Now Lucifer laughs, hell awaits
I had their lives in my hands
Their fate, their fortunes in my visions
No one believed in my true prophecy
And now, it's too late.
07 The Clairvoyant (04:27)
Feel the sweat break on my brow
Is it me or is it shadows that are
Dancing on the walls.
Is this a dream or is it now
Is this a vision or normality I see
Before my eyes.
I wonder why, I wonder how
That it seems the powers getting stronger
Every day
I feel a strength an inner fire
But I'm scared I won't be able to control it anymore
There's a time to live and a time to die
When it's time to meet the maker
There's a time to live but isn't it strange
That as soon as you're born you're dying.
Just by looking through your eyes
He could see the future penetrating right
In through you mind
See the truth and see your lies
But for all his power couldn't foresee his own demise
There's a time to live and a time to die
When it's time to meet the maker
There's a time to live but isn't it strange
That as soon as you're born you're dying...
...and be reborn again?
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Other reviews
By velvetunderground
This album is a masterpiece, dark, tormented, reflective!
Iron Maiden is one of the few bands from which high-ranking lyrics arise, as if we were facing a text of history and literature.
By Hellring
"Seven deadly sins, seven ways to win, seven holy paths to hell, and your trip begins."
"Seven are your burning fires and seven your desires, I am he the bornless one, the fallen angel watching you Babylon."
By Maiden_87
Seventh Son of A Seventh Son is worth the entire album, perhaps the most beautiful heavy metal track in history.
This remains the best Iron Maiden album along with The Number Of The Beast... it represents the highest point of the band’s history from a creative standpoint.
By cptgaio
This album has the magical power to open the doors (at least those of my house).
I find it hard to save any of their ’90s albums, but this one shaped prog metal and remains powerful and reflective.
By pepozzo
A true masterpiece from every point of view.
The keyboards blend perfectly with the distorted guitars to create an album concept that gives chills.
