Disco de Iron Maiden: “Somewhere Back In Time-the Best of 1980-1989”

The Good

1980-1989 was the "golden era" for the British heavy metal legends, BUT...

The Bad

ANOTHER IRON MAIDEN HITS ALBUM?! For crying out loud. It seems after every new Iron Maiden studio album, it's immediately followed by a greatest hits collection (The Essential Iron Maiden [2005], Edward the Great [2002], Eddie's Archive [2002], Best of the Beast [1996]). I can only hope the group has no control over that, because what Iron Maiden fan doesn't have all these songs? What songs you ask? "Number of the Beast," "Aces High," "2 Minutes to Midnight," "The Trooper," "Waysted Years," "The Evil That Men Do," etc. All the songs included here have appeared on every Iron Maiden hits compilation that came before this one. In addition, there have already been two, that's right two double disc best of collection by Iron Maiden that include a much more vast collection of fan favorites. And would it kill them to include studio versions of "Phantom of the Opera" and "Iron Maiden?"

The Verdict

If you've always wanted to check out Iron Maiden but have waited this damn long to do so, Somewhere Back in Time is the best of the best material the band has to offer. However, if you are a fan of the group, you already have this material (four times over), and you should feel insulted that they're trying to milk you for another $12. The songs deserve a 5 out of 5, but for the album itself....

Iron Maiden should already have a place in your music collection if you're into rock'n'roll, metal or whatever genre you like. If you don't own anything by Maiden you probably shouldn't consider yourself a metalhead, they are essential to the genre. They are one of my favorite bands and are without question one of the most influential bands in rock music. Maiden's prime was definitely during the 1980s, I don't feel like they released a bad album during this decade (but some are obviously better than others) and this compilation Somewhere Back in Time: 1980-89 covers this special time. It was released in 2008 along with the excellent Live After Death DVD(from the World Slavery tour of 1984-85) promoting Maiden's tour which graced the same name of this compilation (oh and as usual with Maiden's artwork I love it the mix of Powerslave with Somewhere In Time looks terrific), Somewhere Back In Time, in which they put emphasis on the classics during this tour.

What's in this compilation? :

First we have 2 songs from their self-titled debut and 1 from Killers with singer Paul Di' Anno sang by Bruce Dickinson on Live After Death. They sound great even if they're not the originals but I just wish that they could have somehow put them here. Then there are 4 songs from The Number of The Beast on this compilation and rightfully so as it's often pointed out as their best album. I'm quite disappointed that they only included The Trooper from Piece of Mind that album was great and there were plenty of songs that could have been selected to be here, Where Eagles Dare, Die With Your Boots On, Flight of Icarus and Revelations weren't good enough? There are 3 songs from Powerslave, one live from Live After Death good representation of one of their strongest albums. Wasted Years was selected from Somewhere In Time but it would have deserved at least another song. 2 songs from Seventh Son of A Seventh Son were chosen. Somehow 14 songs that have pretty much all been used on other greatest hits aren't as effective and get less respect from true fans after the fifth time(Churchill Speech was included as well on Somewhere Back In Time and serves as a great intro but I don't consider it a song)am I the only one who thinks this?

This Greatest hits technically covers the years 1982-1988 as the songs from the first two albums (Iron Maiden 1980 and Killers 1981) were taken from 1984 live and Seventh Son of A Seventh Son was released in 1988 and was their last album of the 1980s. It would have been nice to have the original songs from the Di' Anno because the new fan who buys this will only be able to judge Bruce's interpretation of "his" songs. They selected pretty much the best from the rest, the songs are great. As said before I'm disappointed there is not more from Piece of Mind on here but the rest is terrific. On the bad side, this is Iron Maiden's fifth compilation album and the fact that some of the previous ones are much better doesn't help. The song listing here does not differ greatly from the others and does not give the old fans anything new. It's really for someone who is new to Maiden and doesn't know which greatest hits is best. I'd recommend The Essential Iron Maiden over this as it has two discs, is much more complete and career spawning for a good price, or get The Number of The Beast or Powerslave albums they would make a great introduction as well. It does get one thing right: the idea, it covers the 1980s specifically which was the best era of the band, start with this era.

When I first heard Iron Maiden was releasing a retrospective of their 80's material, I thought it was a good idea. Indeed, there are already lengthier compilations of their career, but for my money it is their period between "Iron Maiden" and "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" that is their peak. Putting together a set that focus only on this material seemed only appropriate. However, the final result was a real dissapointment. I cannot complain about the selection of songs. The songs that are included are indeed samples of Maiden's best work. However, the compilation gets only 3 stars for 2 main reasons:

1) There are 4 lives versions of songs here, and they are all taken from "Live After Death". That is not to say the versions are horrible. To be honest, "Live After Death" is one of my favorite live albums. However, on a compilation, I think it is best to include the original studio versions...especially when the record compnay owns the rights to these as well! I am not sure if somehow they felt including Paul Di'Anno tracks constitute some sort of insult to Bruce Dickinson, but in case one or two live tracks would have sufficed here.

2) Only one track from the landmark "Piece of Mind"? "Number of the Beast" had 4 tracks features, rightly so. But, next to that album, most Maiden fans would pick "Piece of Mind" as their favorite. They should have, in the least, included "Flight of the Icarus". At 71 minutes, they could have probably squeezed in a couple of tracks.

As stated before, one can't fault the songs in the compilation, but this could have been turned into a truly classic essential retrospective with a little more attention to details.

IRON MAIDEN release another best of. Why? Well, they are touring this summer so why not release a cd to make some money, right? IMO they don't need to do this, they are turning into a money machine. We can buy the new DVD (Live after death) and be happy with that. This compilation is only worth the money if you have to have everything Maiden! There are no rarities on this one just plain old Maiden which is great but...

2 stars for the cover!

So obviously, I'm a huge Maiden fan, and am going to see them on the Somewhere Back In Time tour in 2008 (June 6th, Edmonton, Rexall place, hell yah! Have good seats as well!), and this compilation has been released, supporting it. Given the fact that this is to support the SBIT tour, the focus is mainly what the title says (except it should say 1980-1988 on the cover), as is the setlist of the tour. Granted, this is gonna be a great tour, but why release ANOTHER compilation????? This is the same stuff we've heard, and some older stuff, such as "Phantom of the Opera", "Children of the Damned", but where's the REAL classics, like Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Remember Tomorrow, The Lonliness of the Long Distance Runner, Infinite Dreams, or Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son? Ah well, whatever, this is perfect for Maiden newcomers. Sound quality is great, cover art is great, lots of good singles, and overall, this is good for those NEW to Maiden. However, to die hards, this is nothing new, only buy it if you're a completist, as you probably already own all their albums (like I do! O.O). I'd say check out Ed Hunter instead, that's a better compilation than this.