Four sons of Horus Thoth, the god of wisdom and knowledge, and also the baboons which chatter when the sun rises raising their hands as if in worship. The jackal (or possibly dog) is linked to Anubis and the act of embalming and also Wepwawet the "opener of the ways" who seeks out the paths of the dead. The hawk is associated with Horus himself and also Seker the mummified necropolis god. Imseti, the human, may be linked to Osiris himself or Onuris the hunter. The Egyptians themselves linked them with the ancient kings of Lower and Upper Egypt, the Souls of Pe and
The Book of Souls as [Harris's] songwriting gets, [but] this time around it's a delight to hear". In contrast, "Paste" were slightly critical of all three of the album's longer songs (also including the 10-minute title track), stating "in the end, the prog-jam logjam causes these songs to lose some of their impact, even after multiple listens", although they did commend "The Red and the Black" for having "the pace and feel of "Powerslave"’s "Rime of the Ancient Mariner. "The Book of Souls" received the Album of the Year award at the 2015 Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards, collected the 2016 "Metal Hammer"