Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time (1986) Reviews

Fresh off of the success of 1984’s ‘Powerslave’ and the 1985 live album ‘Live After Death’, Iron Maiden were well and firmly at the top of the metal world, and their run of strong releases would continue with ‘Somewhere in Time’, an album which saw the band continue to enter progressive territory with their writing, with longer songs and the addition of keyboards.

However, stylistically this is still very much Iron Maiden. By this point the band have clearly defined their sound, and there’s not much point in tweaking what already works. With blistering guitar harmonies and wailing vocals, Maiden have clearly hit their stride here. The use of keyboards adds an atmospheric, spacey feeling to the music, giving ‘Somewhere in Time’ its own identity amongst the bands discography.

With a solid production and some of guitarists Adrian Smith and Dave Murray’s finest guitar tones, the sound here is timeless. Even after all these years, the album holds up well for both its sense of melody and its metal edge. The lyrics are a lot more introspective than previously, a sign of the bands world-travelled weariness after their constant touring. But it also makes for some of their most sincere and personal songs, particularly in ‘Wasted Years’.

With highlights including the aforementioned ‘Wasted Years’, ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’, ‘Caught Somewhere in Time’, ‘Deja-Vu’ and ‘Heaven Can Wait’, there’s an abundance of quality material here, making ‘Somewhere in Time’ another in a string of classic albums.

Simply amazing. Iron Maiden continue to shock me with the amount of talent and songwriting ability they displayed at such an early time for metal. Every song has stand out riffs and fantastic vocals from Bruce, and more than a couple show off the individual talents of the rhythm section far beyond anything Maiden had done yet.

Some of the songs add a hint of progressive elements, technicality, and a bit more keys than they’ve used before. But there’s really no major change; this is Maiden just being Maiden, and instead of running out of ideas, they’ve simply gained wisdom and skill and created an entire album of bangers. No band at this time was using dual guitar harmonies to the extent and success of Maiden, and by the looks of how metal turned out, it’s pretty clear how influential this band was on the entire landscape of the genre.

It’s mind-blowing to me that Maiden, 6 albums into their career, were still crafting some of the most memorable songs in Heavy Metal. There’s not much else to say because they really aren’t doing anything different; just playing honest Heavy Metal, better than anyone else ever had, and maybe ever would.

Maiden had by this release managed to hone their songwriting to an almost flawless level.  Over eight tracks ‘Somewhere In Time’ presents a memorable and now fast becoming dependable sound of a band truly enjoying being at the top of their game.  Side A of the record enjoys instant success, opening with the title track before building on that moment with ‘Wasted Years’ and ‘Sea Of Madness’ providing a continuation of that hybrid sound.  ‘Heaven Can Wait’ does fumble the ball a bit to finish the first half of the album, whilst never completely finding the floor the track smells too much of the more mainstream appeal I would associate with some of the 90’s era output from the band.

I would say that the mid point of the album is probably the low point also.  ‘The Loneliness of the Long Distant Runner’ just literally goes on and on, sadly becoming a victim of its own parody of sorts.  I more than get the joke, but come on, it is just so dull.

Thankfully the rest of the record is completely on point.  Culminating superbly on the same epic note of the previous release this time opting for the story of Alexander the Great.  Although the final three tracks do pull the album back on course it doesn’t quite complete the rescue mission well enough to award the album the full five stars.