Review by Daniel for Iron Maiden - Brave New World (2000)

The Blaze era was a disaster for Iron Maiden as far as I’m concerned. I really struggled with those albums & I highly doubt that I’ll ever revisit them. It wasn’t just Blaze’s vocals though. Everything about those records was diabolical & I don’t even think the presence of the great Bruce Dickinson could have saved them from critical & commercial failure. Therefore even the prospect of a Bruce Dickinson & Adrian Smith reconciliation album didn’t exactly set my hopes soaring. I would certainly have settled for another pleasant (if inconsistent) outing reminiscent of “No Prayer For The Dying” or “Fear Of The Dark” but I feared that may have been asking too much.  

Luckily it wasn’t. It seems that Iron Maiden were able to exorcise most of the demons that had plagued their previous couple of albums & managed to tap into the sort of atmospheres we’d come to love from them over the years. “Brave New World” really sounds like an Iron Maiden record & that would have been a relief for so many people. I have to admit that on first listen I felt there was a noticeable amount of cheese present in some of the songs but after a few spins the hooks kicked in & I found myself struggling not to like tracks like “Blood Brothers” & “The Nomad”. I don’t love everything about a fair few of these tracks but almost all of them have epic singalong choruses that help to overcome my doubts & ensure that I enjoy my listening experience. There are quite a few extended atmospheric sections but the song-writing is substantially better than anything we’ve heard from Maiden since “Fear Of The Dark” & the production is also more solid.  

There are a fair few high quality heavy metal anthems here. Tracks like “Brave New World”, “The Mercenary”, “The Nomad” & “Dream Of Mirrors” (my favourite) are highly engaging & quite memorable. I’m not sure any of them are true classics though. They all fall a touch short in some area for mine. The rest of the album is all pretty solid. In fact I think this is their most consistent release since the 80’s. “The Fallen Angel” is really the only subpar effort. Bruce puts in an energetic performance & it feels like coming home after a long (& most unfortunate) holiday. The rest of the band seems reinvigorated too. There’s a positivity there that was missing during the Blaze era.  

I like “Brave New World” quite a bit. It’s a very good comeback & a genuinely solid & consistent effort. I’m not going to conspire to the idea that it’s a classic Maiden album though. I agree that it’s their best since “Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son” but I’m not sure it stands side by side with their 80’s material. It’s just missing the two or three truly magical tracks that their great records all possessed. I’m really proud of the boys for putting together such a solid & enjoyable album though. “The Fallen Angel” is the only thing holding me back from awarding it a 4/5 rating.