El Dorado Single, 2010

"Iron Maiden released "El Dorado" as a one-track online single freely available for download promoting their 2010 album "The Final Frontier".

"El Dorado" is an interesting song. In many ways, it is a typical Iron Maiden track with catchy melodies, gallopping guitars and bass, and guitar solo trading and all that wonderful stuff. Yet, it also seems stripped down in comparison to the incresingly progressive trajectory that Iron Maiden have been following since Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith returned ten years ago.

Although I love the way the song starts, I was a bit put off by the following guitar riff (not the layer of galloping guitars), but as the song progressed it became obvious to me that it served the greater good of the entire structure of the song, which builds up from the stripped down and straightforward rock 'n' rollish beginning to a more epic-sounding bridge, before it breaks down back into the simple riffing. And in the perspective of the entire song, these contrasts work very well.

The more I listen to "El Dorado", the more I like it, although it will probably never be me favorite Iron Maiden song. But it served its purpose well and now I can hardly wait for the new album to be released.

(Review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"