IRON MAIDEN – The Final Frontier CD
EMI Records
For me the days of getting excited about a new IRON MAIDEN release are long gone. It has nothing to do with the band per say but moreover the timeline. I got into IRON MAIDEN when they first started out and saw them in concert twice, first with Paul DiAnno on vocals and soon afterward with Bruce Dickenson. I think their first five full lengths, their self titled debut to Powerslave, are essentials to anyone’s metal collection. The mid eighties is where my enthusiasm for them laxed because their releases became generic with a couple of decent songs surrounded by filler. The rest is history which I never bothered with up until the band did that recent world tour. It was great to see them in the spotlight again but I have to be honest. MAIDEN are a nostalgia act and when you go see them, like two friends of mine did this year, you wanna hear the great old songs. My friends even admitted to not recognizing certain songs from their post Powerslave catalog but then not many people do unless you’re from Brazil.
I look at The Final Frontier in the same way I looked at recent releases by JUDAS PRIEST and HEAVEN & HELL. They all have that “classic band” factor going for em so you just can’t use words like “shit”, “crap” and “suck” towards them. Although my good friend James At 15 called that HEAVEN & HELL release a turd, oh well. Overall this reminds me of the releases from their career mid period. There are some good cuts and a hit (the title cut) plus lots of filler. The very beginning of this is gonna throw ya for a loop so just let it pass. Musicianship wise you can’t help but like the Murray/Smith solo extravaganza and yeah that other guy, Janick Gers, is involved somewhere, but does anyone really care? Dickenson’s vocal performances vary from sad to decent through the cuts. On “El Dorado” he’s singing over the solo but his chorus is first rate. His best performances, which remind me of the band’s classic days, are on cuts like “The Alchemist” and “The Talisman”, go figure? Maybe it’s that “the” factor as in “The Trooper”? For all the much publicized pre-release hype this thing got I really feel sorry for the well wishers who sat out in front of stores waiting to buy this. Now they know how METALLICA fans felt. There are only three good cuts on here. The dust is waiting for this one.
www.emimusic.com/
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