Metal Reviews

I like it but then I am an Iron Maiden fan boy.

Overall it's not one of their best efforts post-1995 anyhow. To me it sounds like a watered down version of A Matter of Life and Death.

Another problem is that Iron Maiden seem to be spiralling back to Virtual XI days when every song was long and relatively repetitive.

But it's still enjoyable and that's the main thing.

I love how they embraced their progressism and accepted they're old man on this one. Not all the songs are great but it's a much better effort than I excpected. I just hope they'll learn to shorten the songs a bit on their next album. If they do that and the compositions remain as they are on Final Frontier, it'll be a great album where Final Fontier is only a good one.
Anyway, their best effort since Brave New World...Easily.

What?

I might be wrong, but I think he's expressing his opposite opinion to you there.

I just saw the 2010 set-list for The Final Frontier World Tour, and I am amazed but also understand why at this point in time that the set-list contains just one track from the latest album.

The tour began before the album was released, so not wanting to spoil the impact of the release of the new album, Maiden only played the single from the new album during the gig (El Dorado).

July 15, 2010

"Iron Maiden guitarist Janick Gers says the band felt forced to risk fans' anger by touring in support of new album The Final Frontier without playing more than one track from it.
Mike Portnoy of support act Dream Theater recently commented on some supporters' negative reaction on discovering the tour set mainly features tracks from Maiden's last three albums, and the only new number is El Dorado, which they released free a month ago."
"Gers explains Maiden were faced with a dilemma because their world tour began in June while The Final Frontier isn't released until August 16. They felt constrained to leave the new tracks at home in order to avoid spoiling the album's release impact – and says fans are in for a surprise if they think El Dorado demonstrates the full range of its musical breadth."

I really feel sorry for the fans who went to these early concerts (USA, Canada, Europe/UK), because the album wasn't released yet and they only got to hear one track from the new album.
I find it strange that they can call it "The Final Frontier" world tour and yet play 1 song from the new album amongst the 16 or so total tracks (mostly songs from BNW, AMOFAD & DOD).

I can consider myself lucky, that when Maiden come to Australia in February 2011 for their own gig, plus headliners in the Soundwave Festival, that the album would have been released for 6 months and that early set-list will (hopefully) be altered to cater for more Final Frontier tracks.

So, TFF has topped the UK charts. It's a bloody shame I wasn't able to pick the album. Will be doing it today.

I will admit that my first impression of this album was a rather wretched one but with continued listens, I'm finding that TFF has it's own integrity and merit. I need to curb my super high expectations when it comes to new Iron Maiden albums. I immediately enjoyed everything from 'Brave New World' and 'Dance of Death'; which I was hoping would continue but these past two releases have taken time for me to appreciate. So, I retract my disdainful first posting in regards to 'The Final Frontier'.

Knew you'd come around.

Why, oh why must Maiden torture me so?

When I first listened to the album, I hated it. It sounded so...lethargic? I had to force myself to pull through the whole album and at the end I hated it. I was very disappointed as I'm a big Maiden fan. But after a few spins, I started to get the hang of it. I won't say I love it now, but it does have a special place in me. The music's great, the lyric's beautiful. Let's not start on the singing because we all know Bruce will never be the old Bruce again. We, and not even he, can help it.

I think i finally found the trick to enjoying new Maiden albums (post BNW): think of them as a prog-rock band, not the old heavy metal band. Perceptions actually help in the enjoyment, IMO.

If I think of Iron Maiden as a progressive rock band I find them lacking greatly. I prefer considering them with Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Scorpions, Whitesnake, aka "The-Great-Old-Ones-That-Used-Be-Awesome-And-Still-Can-Deliver-Some-Good-Music".
Actually, the less I'm expecting from bands I place in that category, the more I can have a good surprise which is the case with The Final Frontier.

What's wrong with the singing? The El Dorado chorus is pure power and Bruce brings it throughout the Talisman, in particular.

He lets it fly for Mother of Mercy, too. And in parts of the Alchemist.

His voice isn't exploding on some of the other songs b/c they're mellow.

Is he 1985 Bruce? No. But I don't hear any major failings in the songs Maiden is attempting here.

I tend to agree .. going back over some of their old songs, he sounds quite similiar when reaching for the upper register. Mostly, I think the tone of his voice has changed at certain pitches.

They aren't failings, it's just the many of us miss the Bruce of the 80's. Of course, we're not complaining. Singing for 30 years is a huge feat, factoring the amount of 'wear and tear' his vocal chords go through. Anyway, I think his singing here is better than AMOLAD.