The Curio Cabinet Of Metal #3

Iron Maiden - The Wicker Man (U.S. Promo)

Muthas, Iron Maiden has always released multiple singles from each of their albums, and this was true in the year 2000 when the band released their Brave New World album.  In the United States they released this album on the Columbia Records imprint Portrait.  This imprint had recently been resurrected as a heavy metal label with the signings of Ratt, Cinderella, Great White, and The Union Underground.  Maiden moved from CMC Records to the label when Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith rejoined the band.  Anticipation was through the roof when a new album was released and the metal world eagerly awaited hearing anything from the album. 

The first single released from the album was “The Wicker Man” and in the United States it sounded like this:

I loved it!  It was a bracing blast of old, peppy Maiden of the kind that I love and that they rarely seem to do anymore. I ran out and bought Brave New World on release day, but, much to my dismay, the version of “The Wicker Man” on the album is different from the promo version!  WTF? Here’s the album version for comparison:

Notice that once the chorus of the promo version is different than the album version.  The promo version features the lyrics “Thy Will Be Done” following “Your Time Will Come” and eliminates a guitar part from the album version in the chorus.  I think the promo version is superior to the album version and I have no idea why the promo version wasn’t chosen for the album, and I can’t find any explanation for the difference in the research I’ve done.  By the way, the Iron Maiden song “The Wicker Man” is completely different from the Bruce Dickinson solo song “Wicker Man” which was recorded in 1997 but not released until 2001, just to confuse everyone further. Check out Bruce Bruce’s “Wicker Man” below:

I wanted the “Thy Will Be Done” version of “The Wicker Man” but where could I find it?  It clearly wasn’t on Brave New World so that led me to the single versions of the song.  I figured that the label probably put this video version on the various singles that were released.  Unfortunately, CD singles were rarely released in the United States by the year 2000 and “The Wicker Man” was no exception to this as Portrait/Columbia records didn’t release it as a single.  Well, my next step was to get some import singles from Europe because Iron Maiden was still releasing singles in Europe and they were fairly easy to get in the States.  Thanks internet!

I ended up ordering the following singles:

EMI Cat. No. 7243 8 88687 0 9

This is a four track single released in Europe on May 8, 2000.  This is part one of a two CD set and features the following track listing:

1.       The Wicker Man

2.       Man On The Edge (Recorded Live – Ed Hunter Tour 1999)

3.       Powerslave (Recorded Live – Ed Hunter Tour 1999)

4.       The Wicker Man – Enhanced Video

I eagerly cracked it opened to listen to track one hoping that it was the “Thy Will Be Done” version, but alas, it was the album version.  The track four video is also the album version in glorious 2000-era pixel vision! It’s beyond horrid. So this single was a dead end, but at least it did have a poster with the band and these ladies:

This left me with part 2 of the single release:

EMI Cat. No. 7243 8 88688 0 8

This is another four track single, but it came packaged in a clear pvc sleeve rather than a jewel box like part one. The disc is a cool looking clear picture disc featuring Eddie as a wicker man.  The track listing is as follows:

1.       The Wicker Man

2.       Futureal (Recorded Live – Ed Hunter Tour 1999)

3.       Killers (Recorded Live – Ed Hunter Tour 1999)

4.       Futureal – Enhanced Video (Footage Taken From The Ed Hunter Tour 1999)

Once again I was out of luck with this single because track one was also the album version.  So much for that idea!  I was at a dead end and I put the search on the back burner for a while.

Well, some years passed and I became aware of the fact that there was a promo only version of “The Wicker Man” which was issued in the US to radio stations only.  I don’t remember how I found this out, but I started a search for it at that point.  I finally tracked it down at a tiny online vendor that I had never heard of and I ordered it.  Luckily for me it was a legit shop and in a couple of days I had this in my hands:

Portrait/Columbia Cat. No. CSK 12766 

This promo has the following tracklisting:

1.       The Wicker Man (Radio Version)

2.       The Wicker Man (Radio Edit)

I popped it in my CD player and finally I heard the “Thy Will Be Done” version of “The Wicker Man!”  It had only taken a couple of years for me to track this down. Hooray!  Clearly the artwork is from the session with a similar cover to the European single.  The back cover features the wicker man but this time it’s unburnt unlike on the back cover of the European single.

This is probably the rarest Iron Maiden piece in my collection as this version of the song has never appeared anywhere else since the year 2000.  Add to that the fact that it was a U.S. only radio promo and its rarity only increases. I don’t really think it’s that expensive – it might go for $35-$50 – but that’s a pretty hefty fee for one song! I would imagine that it will eventually appear on a future reissue of Brave New World as a bonus track.  Have your credit card ready Maiden collectors!

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I hope you enjoyed this bizarre little oddity from the Iron Maiden discography and another installment in The Curio Cabinet Of Metal.

As always, MAKE MINE METAL! 

Book Of Lols?

Iron Maiden – The Book Of Souls

BMG – 2015

Muthas, have you noticed that every recent album from the Old Masters of Metal has been praised to the hilt as being superb – Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, AC/DC, and now Iron Maiden?  Let’s face the truth, most of these albums range from awful, to forgettable, to passable, to average.  None of them is “the best thing the band has ever done” regardless of what most reviewers and the band members themselves claim.  So that brings us to the latest album from Iron Maiden – The Book Of Souls.  Most of the reviews of this album have devolved into nothing more than a hagiography of Maiden, with such absurd claims that it’s the best album since Brave New World, or Fear Of The Dark, or Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, or even more absurdly Powerslave.  Come on man, that’s total bullshit.  Let’s not go crazy here, and instead let’s take a look at this album with an honest, critical eye.

Two things are immediately apparent upon the first listen to this 93 minute double album- the production by Kevin Shirley is fucking atrocious and Bruce’s vocals are very strained on the majority of the tracks. It’s is baffling to me that the band retains the services of Shirley because his production jobs are universally terrible.  There is absolutely no separation of the various instruments and the drum sound is particularly bad.  Poor Nicko’s drums sound like state of the art cardboard box drum sound from 1995.  Awful.  Bruce is really pushing it on most of the songs and the results are disappointing and troubling.  Bruce needs to take a page from Rob Halford’s book and pull it back a notch and realize that age has caught up with him.  The tongue cancer and chemo can’t have helped matters either.

What about the songs?  Well, there are eleven of them spread over two CDs.  Disc one clocks in at 50 minutes and disc two at 43 minutes. Of course there are some longer tracks, but there are many sub eight minute cuts for a change.  The album kicks off with “If Eternity Should Fail” and it’s a very good opener, with a catchy chorus and doesn’t feel its eight minute length.  The next song is the lead single, “Speed of Light” which feels dull and lifeless at first, but does get somewhat better with repeated listens.  There is a cool video game themed video for it which you can check out below:

“The Great Unknown is a good song that delivers the goods and has that vintage Maiden sound, but the album comes to a screeching halt with the next cut, “The Red And The Black.” Unfortunately, this is not a cover of the killer BOC song, but rather a bloated thirteen minute cut that could really use some judicious trimming.  Of course this is a Steve Harris construction and exhibits all of his worst modern day songwriting habits.  There’s probably a great five minute song lurking in there someplace, but I don’t have the patience for Steve’s bullshit. 

Thankfully, this is followed by “When The River Runs Deep” which shows tons of pep and is not repetitive at all which helps to clean the palate after “The Red And The Black.” Disc one closes with the ten minute title cut, and of the three ten-minute-plus songs on the album it’s the best.

Disc two opens with “Death Or Glory” which sounds like the Iron Maiden of the days of yore and is easily one of the best songs on the album.  It’s direct, full of energy and is a fun listen.  “Shadows Of The Valley” is enjoyable and sounds like something that could have been on Somewhere In Time without the synth guitars. 

“Tears Of A Clown” has cringe inducing lyrics about a comedian that’s really sad inside and it’s dedicated to Robin Williams. Maiden deserves a round of cock punches for this trite horseshit.  A clown that’s sad?!  How inventive!  I’ve never heard of that before.  Fuck off with this.  Paradoxically, the music is very good on this track with some very nice guitar work.  Too bad about the lyrics being hot garbage.

“The Man Of Sorrows” is a bit lackluster and sort of just plods along. It’s not the worst song on the album, but it’s one of the more forgettable compositions.  By the way, really inventive song title there Maiden.  It’s not like Bruce has a far superior song with the same title or anything.    

And that leaves us with only the eighteen minute and three second “Empire Of The Clouds” which many are hailing as a masterpiece on par with “Rime Of The Ancient Mariner.”  Those people are fucking idiots. This song is thirteen minutes too long and is a perfect example of self-indulgent, repetitive twaddle featuring Bruce Dickinson at his pretentious worst.  Egads.  There isn’t even a guitar solo until ten minutes into this journey to the center of boredom.  The rest of the band was probably like, “Oh fuck!  Bruce has cancer!  We’d better indulge this horseshit because who knows how long he’ll be around.”  Of course it’s about a blimp that crashed in 1930.  How exciting!  I’d rather listen to Bruce recite passages from a 747 maintenance manual.  Fuck this shit. Boo!!!!

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Well this is harsh.  It's not that bad.

The Bottom Line:  The Book Of Souls is not a great Iron Maiden album, but it is the best Iron Maiden album since the reunion.  Of course, that’s not much of a high bar to hurdle, but they did at least achieve that.  If you are a fan of the band from their classic period you will find a lot to enjoy here even with its flaws.  It’s bloated with several tracks that are absurdly long, but you can always skip the nonsense.  If this sounds like something you’d like, then go buy it, or better yet, go buy Bruce’s Accident Of Birth and The Chemical Wedding which are far better than anything that Maiden has put out since 1988.

As always, MAKE MINE METAL!