Legendary Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris has
decided to go forth and produce a solo record,
it’s hard to picture how a solo album would
sound seeing as he is on the frontline of Iron
Maiden’s writing process and gives that
his heart and soul, hard to picture this being
much different. That being said it is unfair but
a fact that this record is going to be attached
to Iron Maiden so I will try my best to try and
keep these separate unless there’s anything
of strong presence leading me to make such remarks.
Those expecting a slight twist on material associated
with Iron Maiden need to calm down, this is nowhere
near the likes of the NWOBHM legends but instead
takes on a classic hard rock style, in all fairness
to Mr Harris with over 30 years with Iron Maiden
he has managed to steer clear of bringing those
same stylistic elements into his solo project,
except for the odd twinge which in all fairness
is unavoidable when a man becomes associated with
an act. Herein lies the problem; Iron Maiden’s
music is timeless, British Lion’s music
is just lesser standard of quality, you’ve
got “Us Against the World” and “Judas”
which I hate to say it definitely has some Iron
Maiden style qualities in it, “Eyes of the
Young” which is really upbeat and powerful
which is great on this record, “The Lesson”
which is a soft ballad containing acoustic guitar
piano and vocals which is also another really
strong point of the album.
Not really living up to its hype, it’s not
a bad album but never the less it’s not
even going to compete with any of the albums already
released for my top 10 this year, it’s great
for a few listens but nothing really sticks with
me here. It’s not an Iron Maiden rip off
its a ballsy hard rock record which is great as
it would have been easy to just produce more of
the same to make a bit of money but Harris has
steered clear of that but that doesn’t take
away from the fact it’s still been done
to death before now.
3/5
Review by James Webb
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