So, I tried revisiting Seventh Son of a Seventh Son a while ago. Honestly, I still think it's underwhelming and, at times, really grating. The album marks the beginning of Iron Maiden taking on some utterly ridiculous habits when it comes to their songwriting and one of them that
absolutely stands out is the excruciating amount of times the chorus happens to repeat in any given track. This makes the tracks (and the album) quite stale and artificially lengthens the album in order to make it appear "ahem" EPIC
. However, I've heard many metal fans heap a metric ton of praise on it most of the time. Probably due to this supposedly being their peak.
I've also heard some (not on this forum, though) proclaim that this is when Iron Maiden "got progressive". No. If we're really about to put SSoaSS in the same vein of '80s progressive/power metal, then the album utterly pales in comparison to anything released by Dark Quarterer, Queensryche, Crimson Glory, X Japan, Heir Apparent, etc. At least with those bands, I know the compositions justify the length. That's why Rime of the Ancient Mariner was good. You would have thought they knew that, judging by that song. As far as '80s Maiden goes, you're pretty much better off with everything preceding that album.
While there are some bright sections that show genuinely good writing and performance, this album, when judged as a whole, is a ponderous, slow, ungainly bore.