Release Date: 1988
Genre: Heavy Metal
Tracklisting:
DISC ONE
1. Moonchild (05:42)
2. Infinite Dreams (06:09)
3. Can I Play With Madness (03:31)
4. The Evil That Men Do (04:35)
5. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son (09:54)
6. The Prophecy (05:05)
7. The Clairvoyant (04:27)
8. Only The Good Die Young (04:43)
DISC TWO
1. Black Bart Blues (06:41)
2. Massacre (02:54)
3. Prowler ’88 (04:07)
4. Charlotte The Harlot ’88 (04:11)
5. The Clairvoyant (live) (04:27)
6. The Prisoner (live) (06:09)
7. Infinite Dreams (live) (06:04)
8. Killers (live) (05:03)
9. Still Life (live) (04:38)
Total Length: 01:28:20
Moonchild has a fantastic intro that is a really nice bookend to the album, and the main song itself has a cool start-up as well. The chorus is incredibly infectious and this song is classic Maiden at its best. This song gets better each time I hear it. Infinite Dreams is a song that took me some time to get into. I liked it well enough the first time, but it definitely has to grow on you and has a lot of cool moments. Can I Play With Madness is the most pop-oriented track on the album, and definitely has a pretty catchy chorus. The band doesn’t quite sound like themselves in a sense with this song, but I’m almost always a fan of experimentation.
The Evil That Men Do also has a great chorus, it’s a very cool song. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son is a big song. The band started to mess around with progressive rock ideas here, and it is a great melting pot of stuff here. The first few minutes could kind of count as standard Maiden fare, with again a chorus that sticks to you like glue. One of the other highlights for me is the use of a chorus of voices near the end. It’s something the band hadn’t done before and takes the song to a new level.
The Prophecy has some cool riffs in it, and I really dig the acoustic ending. The Clairvoyant hearkens back to the band’s earlier albums in style, and again the standout part is the chorus. Only The Good Die Young is very catchy but my favorite thing by far is that it has a freakin’ bass solo, I can’t get enough of those in music like this. It also rephrases the intro from the album to end everything, which is very nice. This ends the main album, which is great on its own and is the majority of what I will be basing the final score on because the bonus disc is conflicting.
Black Bart Blues has a terrible, long intro and then the song itself isn’t too great and goes on too long. There is then what I suppose are random little outtakes from the recording of the album, and there is only one moment that is at all interesting. Massacre is a Thin Lizzy cover and honestly not interesting in any way to me. Prowler ’88 is pretty aptly titled, it’s the band re-recording a song from a previous record, as is the next one. This song is still fun and it’s honestly one of my favorite things when bands do stuff like this.
Charlotte The Harlot ’88 is still great, you can’t really dislike this song. The remaining tracks are all live, but being live bonus tracks they are obviously not as polished as those for an actual live album. They still sound fairly nice though. The Clairvoyant adds a bit more energy than the record version. The Prisoner kind of misses the mark for me though, not sure exactly why. Infinite Dreams has the same thing as before where it’s got a bit more energy to it. Killers sounds pretty great here. Still Life is the song I’m least familiar with, but it sounded fine here. The bonus disc isn’t bad, but I only really enjoyed some of it. The overall album though is pretty pleasing, and I’ll generally just skip everything on disc two except for the ’88 tracks. I’m still getting acclimated to the album overall, but I enjoy it more each time I hear it.
Final Rating: 8/10
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