Review by Paul Monkhouse for MPM
He’s been to hell and back but Paul Di’Anno is a survivor, his time with Iron Maiden as their iconic frontman for their first two seminal albums and his rollercoaster career since well documented.
With ‘The Book of the Beast’ a new volume is being added to a rich and eventful life and it’s one that brings welcome fresh sounds whilst also paying tribute to past triumphs.
Initially due some months ago, the originally recorded album has now been added to with bonus tracks and it all adds up to something that shows just where the man is now and the impression he’s left on countless fans throughout the years.
It’s certainly a release that sees him dip heavily into both heavy metal and punk in thrilling style, the fire of his days with Maiden burning as brightly as ever but there’s also his own maturity that colours the material with a lyrical content that still has an edge.
Grittiness and a sense of raw honesty informs everything here and there’s a fire that burns brightly as the roar and thunder of numbers like ‘The Beast Arises’ hits with a freight train punch. The album is liberally peppered with blistering barnstormers and the mix of lacerating riffs, thunderous percussion and the main man’s iconic voice on such fare as ‘Feel My Pain’ and ‘Chemical Imbalance’ is enough to get any rivethead’s heart racing.
Whilst the release is full of head shaking thunder, there’s a lot lyrically to appeal to the more cerebral side of life as ‘The Forgotten Ones’ highlights the very real issue of those young people living in poverty and ‘Die by the Gun’ rails against the gun culture that’s taken so many needlessly.
With Di’Anno currently confined to a wheelchair due to various health issues but battling to get back on his motorbike, there’s an indomitable fire here that is determined to roar rather than give up and slink into disgraceful retirement. The man himself lives and breathes music and this shouts his determination against whatever life can throw at him, the whole encapsulating the ethos of doing things on his own terms that has directed his career for better or worse over the past decades.
As well as the original material, Di’Anno reclaims both ‘Remember Tomorrow’ and Wrathchild’ from those classic nascent Maiden days and sees him joined by Crowley sorceress Lidya Balaban, ex Sabbath powerhouse Tony Martin and former Dragonforce titan ZP Theart joining him on vocals.
With other mouthwatering additions thrown in to sweeten the pot further, it’s the legend’s covers of both T Rex’s ‘Children of the Revolution’ and Venom’s ‘Black Metal’ that show you can put your own spin on such classics whilst not detracting from their original heart, both truly incendiary.
Life may have given him a good kicking at times but Di’Anno is far from throwing up his hands in surrender, ‘The Book of the Beast’ his finest album yet and one that thrills with it’s feral, heartfelt and unrelenting force. Incredible.
Order The Book of the Beast here: https://pauldianno.tmstor.es