Review by Adam M on January 6, 2026.

This was a great album that required time and dedication to appreciate fully.  It was a long an epic work that has the hallmarks of a great album by the band because of the grand nature of the material.  There is a feeling that everything has a purpose and a main theme.  The entire album is quite inventive and makes use of interesting guitar work combined with vocals to make for an adventurous and thoughtful listen overall.  There is very little to fault with this ambitious record, but it does drag at times.

The musicianship on The Book of Souls is quite stellar and makes for a great experience.  There is a very dynamic use of guitars to paint an interesting landscape that is quite expansive and adventurous.  There is a great production job as well and this makes the recording quite vibrant and colourful.  The overall use of instrumentation is quite stellar and unique.

The flaw with the record is that it is not consistently good throughout and suffers from some down periods that prevent it from being completely glorious.  It is at times shown to become somewhat dragged out and generic.  Still, the majority of the music to be found here is very solid and interesting and some of the band’s best material, such as on the ballad “Man of Sorrows”.

In conclusion, I found the material here to be strong and among the outfit’s strongest to date.  It is a very epic and adventurous record that has a great scope and is quite compelling.  Still, I long for the old days when a great deal of more catchy songs were created.  This is still strong material and highly recommended to fans of the outfit.

Rating: 7.6 out of 10

Review by JD on March 7, 2016.

What can you say about a band that has been around for so long, without gushing like a twitter pated teenager at a Justin Bieber concert? You just say the two words that make it all right… Iron Maiden.

Since 1975, this East London band has been one of the backbones of the metal movement and lead metal proudly to be what it is today. Their last few albums (Dance Of Death, A Matter Of Life And Death, The Final Frontier) have been lackluster at best, disappointing and downright puzzling… for a long-time fan like me, it’s been hard. Now with the ambitious two disk The Book Of Souls Iron Maiden is back, and showing the world they still kick ass!

From the start of the first disk to the final strains of the 18 minute 'Empire of the Clouds' it is sort of encapsulating their career in two shiny pieces of metal. From the classic Maiden tilt of 'If Eternity Should Fail', to the symphonic epic of 'Empire…' they show that they are more than relevant; they are to be followed by all. My personal favorite tracks are 'If Eternity Should Fail' and 'Death Or Glory'… both are so strong and impressively intriguing at the same time, and still made you think on many levels.

My only critique is that 'Speed Of Light' should have not been their first choice for being the first single… I really think that it should have been If 'If Eternity Should Fail' - but that is just me. It does not affect my rating, because I can only give this one the number that says it all – a perfect ten overall.

Listen to it and revel in the majesty that can only be Iron Maiden. Up the Irons, people!

Rating: 10 out of 10