IRON MAIDEN - THE FINAL FRONTIER

[TageRyche]

IRON MAIDEN

The Final Frontier

Universal Music - 2010

http://www.ironmaiden.com

 

Iron Maiden has gone once more unto the breach and this time, like the Star Trek Enterprise, they are headed towards the Final Frontier.

Ahead of the album's release a website was set up with the latest online video game you can play as you listen to some of the album preview tracks.

Unfortunately, the band would've put their time to better use if they'd left off with the video game and put a more concerted effort into the entirety of the album itself.

There has been a vocal portion of the Maiden fanbase that hasn't loved everything the band has done since the return of Bruce Dickinson to the lineup. I am not a member of that particular faction but I do have to say that this album despite the high points is the first that I have found myself disappointed with since the first time I heard the very first two Maiden albums with singer Paul Di'Anno on vocals.

The album opens with the song "Satellite 15...The Final Frontier". It has a curiously long music intro that goes on for 2 1/2 minutes, during the first lyrical passage that lasts about 2 minutes it was painful. So for an 8 minute and 40 second song there is 4 1/2 minutes of ear rot. The music does get better from that point onward but the repetition of the title of the song really grated on this listener's ears.

I've always appreciated the epic length tracks that Maiden has laid down, they are some of the best songs the band has ever recorded. But the song "Isle of Avalon"  and "Starblind" were painful to wade through. While the former has the multiple pacing changes you would expect, there is just nothing to  latch on to as being worthy of being labeled a standout track. The chorus in "Starblind" was substandard. These two songs also highlight what to me was a problem in the phrasing of the lyrics. While Dickinson sounds fantastic as always, the way the lyrics are delivered at times reminded me of driving along in a car, suddenly stopping for no reason, and then trying to quickly get back up to speed. This drove me nuts.

"The Man Who Would Be King" was also something that just had me wishing the song would end already."

Okay, so that's the bad. Now before I'm crucified by whatever Iron Maiden fans have been sharpening their blades, let's get to the good.

I noticed that a few of the songs tended to really stick in that mid-tempo kind of groove until the high points of the song where the pace picked up. The exception to that would be "The Alchemist"  which was kicking out the licks from beginning to end.

The first song to be released to the public to whet the appetite for the full disc was "El Dorado". I successfully avoided hearing it until I finally played the CD myself. It's a decent song. "Coming Home" was also pretty sweet to hear.

The track "The Talisman" opened with a slow and deliberately "quiet" feel to it. The lyrics throughout the song fit the tempo. During the opening the words felt perfectly composed for the pace. Later, when the song kicked up into a machine gun salvo, the lyrics were again well cast to be spit out in a more rapid fire manner.

The album closer "When The Wild Wind Blows" included sound effects of the wind blowing and given the atmospheric feel the band conveyed, it was a great choice to coincide with the title of the song and the lyrics. It was a superbly told story, a great total band performance and heck, they even managed to throw in a big twist in the tale at the end. It is a cautionary tale told in 11 minutes and an apt demonstration of the ability of the band to convey such a story.

My personal favorite track was "Mother of Mercy". The song had a great set of lyrics and a really heavy vibe.

Since Iron Maiden is loathe to go out with a new studio album and just play 1 or 2 songs from it, let me be bold enough to suggest that an altered set list to reflect this album's material include "Mother of Mercy", "The Alchemist", "The Talisman" and "When The Wild Wind Blows" as The Final Frontier's concert representative tracks.

If this was school, it would be easy to grade the album. 4 out of 10 I didn't like. It would be a barely passing D. But this isn't school and while I do have a great sense of disappointment with the four flat tracks, the other tracks make up for them quite nicely.

I guess I just wish that while Mr. Air Raid Siren himself sounded fantastic, whoever was supplying the lyrics for the songs in question had done a more uniformly interesting job crafting what Dickinson was singing.

GRADE: B PLUS

 

[RJhog (Admin)]

Nice review TagRyche...entertaining as always.  By the way, I have the album but haven't gotten past the first song or two (I'm not much of a Maiden fan).

[TageRyche]

I had the album since the first day of release but only just this week got around to unwrapping it and listening to it.

[Scott]

I see your points, but as a fan of the more AOR oriented Iron Maiden this one works really well for me.  I hit play on this one a lot at the gym, it works real well on the treadmill.  But ...  I don't usually plug this one in to just listen to as I would other Maiden releases, so I think your spot on with your B+ grade.

[TageRyche]

Scot, I think you got it right. This album does not lend itself to repeated playings just for kicks like their other releases.