Somewhere in Time: Remastered

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Editorial reviews

Description
Iron Maiden's 1986 SOMEWHERE IN TIME contains more than a few highlights, such as the ferocious album opener, "Caught Somewhere in Time", as well as softer singles "Wasted Years" and "Stranger in a Strange Land". And as with the band's preceding studio release, POWERSLAVE, another masterful composition closes the album, in this case the sprawling "Alexanderthe Great". Departing from the familiar sounds of stellar earlier releases like THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST and PIECE OF MIND, this album explores new musical territory with the addition of synthesizers, while maintaining its trademarks--galloping bass, heavy guitar riffs, and operatic vocals. Though there were some doubts initially, the addition of synthesizers didn't alienate the band's headbanging following. In fact,the change, along with this album's commercial success, wasa clear indication of the band's musical progress.

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-02-26 rating:
My pick of Maiden
If I could have 1 maiden album, it would be Live After Death. If I could choose an extra, this would be my pick. It's stronger than the first 5 IMO and is interesting. My least favourite is probably The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, which although heavy, is basically just a weaker version of Sea of Madness. As with a best track, it changes on every listen. Overall it'd be Stranger in a Strange Land or Alexander the Great. A few tracks are a bit forgettable (mainly 1 and 8), but those are actually among the best songs here. Epics are never particularly memorable at first. You enjoy them when listening, but once you finish listening to them, you forget everything except awesome. For that reason I won't rate those two songs.

02 - Wasted Years: This is about being on the road. The music is quite upbeat, and rather melodic. I think this is one of Bruce's favourites (check out on Youtube, Wasted Years '86 Gothenburg show). 9/10

03 - Sea of Madness: Also upbeat. This is heavier, not so happy like the previous song. Check it out as I really like this one and I think most people do. 10/10

04 - Heaven Can Wait: My second least favourite song here. Despite a great chorus, the rest of the song is not really that special. 8/10

05 - The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner: My least favourite. Read what I said above. 7.5/10

06 - Stranger in a Strange Land: Thankfully this album doesn't go into mediocrity. (4 & 5 suggest a continuous turn downhill) But this is a favourite of mine. It's very melodic, with one of my favourite guitar solos ever.

07 - Deja Vu: A good song, this is a very progressive metal song in the vein of Dream Theater. 9/10

Highlights - Sea of Madness, Stranger in a Strange Land and Alexander the Great.

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review by: date: 2007-12-04 rating:
Great band, terrible "remastering"
Iron Maiden is of one the greatest bands out there, but this cd sounds just awful. This so called "remastering" sickness wich the label companies are fighting for is basicly nothing else but cranking up the loudness of the cd by compressing the sound to shadders and leaving no dynamic range of the cd's and the result is that after a couble of tracks you are getting a headache. If you like Iron Maiden then don't buy this awful remix, find the originals wich sound great.

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review by: date: 2007-08-27 rating:
Stranger in a Strange Land...
The above title seemed appropriate when comparing this album to it's predecessors.

Somewhere in Time, to me, is one of Maiden's strongest albums along with Powerslave and Seventh Son. From the opening title track that sets the tone for the album to the epic finale from the magnificently composed Alexander the Great, I loved it (although The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner seemed a little weaker when compared to the other songs).

The inclusion of synths, although different to the previous albums, was a nice touch for the themes portrayed in the album and I don't really see a problem with them.
The instrumental was strong throughout and the guitar work was some of the best yet with songs like Stranger in a Strange Land and Alexander the Great displaying just how good the band was, with memorable riffs and well crafted solos from Adrian and Dave. The vocals by Bruce are as good as they were in previous albums and retain their trademark sound.

Overall, it's a good album with a successful venture from the band, not to mention one hell of an excellent cover from Derek Riggs. The B-sides of the singles are worth a look into as well.
Five stars.

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review by: ANationalAcrobat date: 2007-08-14 rating:
A Step Down in Quality
Iron Maiden were the greatest heavy metal band of the 1980's, however I can't help but feel that 'Somewhere in Time' is weak in comparison to the other Iron Maiden releases of the 80's.

'Somewhere in Time' marks a slight change in direction, not only because it is the first Maiden album to feature Synthesisers but some of the material is perhaps a little more commercial than on previous albums (with the exception of 'Run to the Hills'). The change in direction is emphasized by Martin Birch's unusually cheesy dated production, the guitars are very shiny and chorused and everything has just a touch to much reverb. However to Martin Birch's credit Nicko's drum sound is pretty much the same as previous releases and there's not a trace of the Def Leppard drum sound (which strangely appeared on 'Fear of the Dark').

Although this change in style is perhaps not my favourite, I would have no problem with this if the song writing was as excellent as the previous five albums, however the band (most notably Steve Harris) have had a slight slip in quality control. Also of note is that 'Somewhere in Time' features no writing credits from Bruce Dickinson, which is a shame really as he is and was undoubtedly a fine writer as displayed by previous writing credits such as 'Powerslave' or 'Revelations'. Shame really as I consider Br00se to be easily one of the finest songwriters in 'eavy metal, if you need proof check out the 'how the hell is this so damn good' Chemical Wedding album. 'Somewhere in Time' is also notable for featuring a lot more of Adrian Smith's songs which is suited to the more polished sound of the album as Adrian consistently writes good melodic songs which were two of the singles from 'Somewhere in Time', 'Wasted Years' and 'Stranger in a Strange land'. Yet again Dave Murray remains relatively quiet on the writing front only co-writing the rather uninspired Deja-Vu.

If 'Somewhere in Time' was somewhat of a let down in terms of song writing, the playing itself is as strong as ever. The guitar interplay between Adrian and Dave is as usual excellent, they provide wonderful melodic solos and some extremely catchy harmonies, which even in lesser songs is enough to keep me interesting. Nicko as per usual gives the songs more than a solid backbone with his imaginative and unique style. Bruce, although one could suspect him of being a tad disinterested as none of his songs are included still gives a passionate vocal performance.

Although this is a step down in quality after five albums of amazing material, 'Somewhere in Time' does still feature some classic Iron Maiden songs. 'Caught Somewhere in Time' is probably the best song here, featuring some great tempo changes and a fair few air guitar moments. 'Wasted Years' is a upbeat rocker and one of the bands most commercial songs but still excellent. 'Heaven Can Wait' yet again is very commercial despite its length but still was a strong enough song to remain in the set list for some years. Despite these excellent songs, at points during the album the band seems to be on autopilot doing things they'd already done much better. For instance 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner' is just an average Iron Maiden gallop by numbers song. 'Alexander the Great' is a particularly confused number which comes off like a poor relation to 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. However unlike 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' 'Alexander the Great' feels overlong and comes across as self parody.

So although 'Somewhere in Time' is Maiden's weakest of the 80's it's by no means a bad album. I can still recommend this to Iron Maiden fans, who knows perhaps you'll like it better than I did. Thankfully Maiden had a rather stunning return to form with 'Seventh Son of a Seventh Son'. 7/10


review by: date: 2007-08-10 rating:
Epic
One of Maiden's best. 'Heaven Can Wait' is one the of the most Epic songs in the history of heavy metal.

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