Iron Maiden

There’s rarely anything wrong with an Iron Maiden release, especially when it pulls from their glory days. Given that even Bruce Dickinson and crew have opted to tread that ground, as opposed to offering up new material, as of late, even they get it. With Somewhere Back In Time however, something smells fishy. Yes, each of the 15 tracks here is definitive Maiden ("Aces High,” "Wasted Years,” "Iron Maiden,” "The Trooper” and more) but virtually all of these songs, save a couple of Powerslave tunes, have been released both on their official albums as well as via the Ed Hunter videogame, Best Of The Beast compilation and Edward The Great compilation, which are basically the same thing themselves. Factor in that the five live tracks are pulled straight from Live After Death, which was re-released mere months ago, and this doesn’t sit right. There’s capitalising on your strongest output and there’s milking the fans. This clearly falls into the latter territory.