Epic, double, packed with changes of pace and power, elements of folk and prog, and filled with references to the ravages and ironies of history, ancient and modern, the time is ripe to indulge in the quintessential British metal band’s 17th studio album. Run to the record shops, and thence to the hills. “Once our empire's glorious, but now the empire's gone / The dead gave us the time to live and now our time is done,” sings the unmistakable Bruce Dickinson on The Writing On The Wall.” Post-Brexit, climate change, Hollywood sleaze and a whole lot more comes in this album, and that’s just in one song. The eight-minute title track opener mixes southern rock with prog, folk and metal, in a stormy evocation of a crumbling era, Darkest Hour recalls war scenes, and Death of the Celts is a 10-minute journey into bloody battles of ancient times moving between acoustic to full-on metal gallop. It all sits brilliantly on the fence of parody and sincerity, but is also thrilling in scale and enjoying to immerse into, combining apocalyptic fantasy and reality. Out on Parlophone.
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