Whether trekking Europe, reviewing every Maiden album track or even sharing stages with Bruce Dickinson at Clive Aid, there doesn’t come many more fanatical IRON MAIDEN heads than this one.
So, after Best Of The Beast, Ed Hunter and Edward The Great, you may well ask me, do we really need yet another Maiden greatest hits? Maybe not, but take a closer look before jumping to the trademark, stereotypical conclusions.

For Maiden – masters of the Heavy Metal Universe – have left this as a best of from their nugget years – and there’s a whopping 15 tracks! Why should you buy this instead of the others? Simply put, the track-listing is up there with Maiden’s finest previous efforts, accurately picking out the bands finest material from this era. It also throws in some killer live versions of bona fide Maiden vintages, notably 'Phantom Of The Opera', from Maiden’s quintessential Live After Death set. Live versions of 'Wrathchild', 'Iron Maiden' and 'Aces High' (featuring Churchill’s Speech) also surface, the only weak link here being Bruce Dickinson’s rather worn vocals on the first track, a rare blip on an other wise legendary set.  

   
All the Maiden standards are here, 'The Number Of The Beast', 'Run To The Hills', 'Hallowed Be Thy Name', 'The Trooper', 'The Evil That Men Do', 'Can I Play With Madness' et al. Although the beauty of this disc is the appearance of lesser-heard gems, such as 'Children Of The Damned', 'Powerslave' and 'Wasted Years'. 

      
Superb for the new Maiden convert, it’s a riveting listen in hearing the contrast not only between Bruce Dickinson’s and Paul Di Anno’s vocal interpretation of early Maiden material, but also the changing vibe of the Iron’s sound circa 1986. Of course, the reason for this was Maiden added guitar synths on Somewhere In Time tracks (1986) and keyboards on Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son tracks (1988).      

   
No doubt a best of from 1990 to 2007 will surface sometime, and one can only lick ones lips at the prospect. Maiden are as vital metal band in 2008 as they were in 1988, an absolutely remarkable achievement from a band that continues to deliver classic album after classic album and still sound incredible live. They will never die – as will the music they live and breathe – and they win new converts and a new generation over day by day. For that reason alone, the release of 'Somewhere Back In Time' – chunk after chunk of blistering heavy metal – can only be a good thing.       

Rating 4.5/5.0

Andy Law  

Release Date: 12th May 2008