Somewhere in Time

Somewhere in Time is the sixth album on which Iron Maiden, while keeping dashing riffs and narrative, boldly adds new color through synthesized guitars. Steve Harris’s bass powerfully carries the songs forward, and the guitars of Adrian Smith and Dave Murray layer intricate, beautiful lines many times over. A sci-fi, refined sound world covers the whole. From the speed of the opener “Caught Somewhere in Time” and “Wasted Years,” whose earnest melody strikes the heart, to the floating “Stranger in a Strange Land” and the grand narrative of the epic “Alexander the Great,” it well shows the album’s breadth, while cuts like “Heaven Can Wait” and “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” enrich its soundscape. Its significance lies in how it beautifully digests the new experiment of introducing synths without impairing Maiden’s strength at all. To the former speed are added a more refined lyricism and a futuristic expanse. Greatly widening the band’s expression and opening a path to the next masterpiece Seventh Son, it is a fulfilling record.