Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, commonly abbreviated "SSOASS", is a heavy metal album by Iron Maiden. It was released in 1988 as Iron Maiden's seventh album.
Many fans regard this as Iron Maiden's best album, because of both great songwriting and great creativity. At least three of the album's songs ("Seventh Son of a Seventh Son", "The Prophecy" and "The Clairvoyant") can be directly related to a main storyline. There are several interpretations of the other songs that make them fit into this storyline, making this a concept album. Some fans' interpretations of the album can be read in this thread (http://forum.maidenfans.com/index.php?showtopic=2838) at the Maidenfans.com forums. The fact that the album begins and ends with similar lyrics supports these theories. The main storyline seems to be loosely based on the novelSeventh Son by Orson Scott Card.
The album went straight to no. 1 in UK charts as well as no. 12 in the U.S, while the singles "Can I Play With Madness", "The Evil That Men Do", "The Clairvoyant" and "Infinite Dreams" reached no. 3, no. 5, no. 6 and no. 6 positions.
Track listing
"Moonchild" (Smith/Dickinson)
"Infinite Dreams" (Harris)
"Can I Play With Madness" (Smith/Dickinson/Harris)
This album was the last to feature guitarist Adrian Smith until the album Brave New World in 2000 (he did write a song that Bruce Dickinson finished for the next album, 'Hooks in You').
Many of the musical and lyrical features prevalent on the albums The Number of the Beast through SSOASS disappeared as obvious musical markers on subsequent albums, and it is this 1982-1988 period in the band's history that stands as its "classic" period.
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