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

Through no conscious effort on my part, I completely missed the Blaze-era albums that Maiden put out in the 90s. The fact that I have never heard or read a good word about that period anywhere has ensured that I have never bothered to find out if I was missing anything at all. I guess I am comfortable for once in not knowing if the criticism was justified or not. As such, listening to Brave New World is essentially me listening to the follow up to Fear of the Dark. Acknowledging that this approach does neglect an important comparator, it is still more than a valid reference to base my review on and arguably is unique amongst the Bayley-bashing that normally goes on.

Fear of the Dark was poor, making up for none of the lost ground that No Prayer for the Dying sacrificed before it. In my review scenario then, if I am not treating Brave New World as a standalone release, it has an easy task. The bar was already low, let’s be honest, before BB entered the fray. Brave New World feels like it would have been a great opportunity to kick on from the duller years and make this a proper reunion album that realised once again the glorious melodies that Maiden had for so many years been able to consistently deliver. And you know what? They almost get there. In fact, no, in fairness they do get there for some of the album. The first three tracks are consistent winners, well-written and hooky as you like. Later, too there are treats like ‘The Mercenary’, ‘The Nomad’ and ‘Out of the Silent Planet’. Whilst I could not go so far as to say the reunion is held together by the same glue that made them such a strong songwriting machine for so many years (Bruce does sound a little disconnected at times), it is encouraging to find some enjoyment from an artist I had all but written off some years before this album had been released.

Consistency is my main gripe with Brave New World. Tracks like ‘Blood Brothers’ and ‘Fallen Angel’ are just not of the same quality as the above-mentioned ones. The terrible closing track is perhaps one of the worst tracks I think Maiden have ever released and I can only guess that they simply had little other material to bring for consideration given the track is frankly laughably bad. Has this album managed to pique my interest into any later releases? Well, yes and no. I won’t be dashing off to jump into Dance of Death by any means but I have been able to take heart from some semblance of quality still being present in one of my teenage go to bands of yesteryear.