Anything Maiden

Maiden dont write bad songs imo, While not an amazingly brillent album I find myself liking the songs more and more after each and every listen. Very much like the tracks they pre-released. The album seems to have a freshness and a swagger thats great on the ear.

wandatowell's quick quote review............. "great f_cking album"

Listened to it earlier. Pretty darn good, as someone mentioned above, a LOT better than Matter of Life and Death imo. A lot of very long songs (although that said Satellite 15.... The Final Frontier is basically 2 completely different songs)

scudzilla wrote: »

It's a good album, not a great one IMO

Mother of Mercy is my fav track so far, but that may change with more plays.

Totally freaked out by opener Satellite 15...The Final Frontier, unlike anything i've heard from Maiden before, especially album opener, don't think i like it

I downloaded it, and I have to say I'm not really that impressed with it. The opening song was quite good in parts, but I honestly expected the first part to be very exciting, and have a lot of unsual lead riffs that might conjour up sci-fi images. I've listened to it three times and I find it to be somewhat underwhelming and a bit boring unfortunately.:( AMOLAD was a much better album, but even it had songs I wasn't mad about either. Another thing I noticed is that although there are three guitarists, at times it just feels like there are just two. I think they should've utilised the sound so that you can hear all three guitars at the same time, or have some riffs where there are lead parts in the background of two different tones.

The cover is actually very colourfull and eye catching, but the problem is that I'm not really liking this new Eddie that much. I much prefer the Eddie of old, with the brownish corpse like skin, skull eyes with electricity in them and those yellowed teeth.:D Maybe I ought to give it a few more listens.

Nephilim Wolf wrote: »

The cover is actually very colourfull and eye catching, but the problem is that I'm not really liking this new Eddie that much. I much prefer the Eddie of old, with the brownish corpse like skin, skull eyes with electricity in them and those yellowed teeth.:D Maybe I ought to give it a few more listens.

A few more listens won't help the artwork

Just into my second listen now.


First impressions are a bit mixed for me. I had listened to Dance Of Death and A Matter Of Life And Death quite a bit this week, just so I could put the new album up against them with them fresh in my mind. I saw no point trying to compare it to the Maiden albums that I grew up with in the early to mid 1980's, as I would not expect an album from them now that beats the earlier stuff.


So back to the new album.

I loved the Satellite 15 intro. It is not what I expected and just works so well with The Final Frontier which follows it.

So a good start top the album.

Next came El Dorado which has grown on me somewhat since it first came out. Not a classic Maiden song, but not awful either.

Mother Of Mercy continues what is now a trend with Maiden. Slow quiet starts to songs, which build as the song goes on. Decent song.


Coming Home. For some reason this sounds more like a Dickinson solo song than a Maiden track. A bit plodding but not a bad song.

The Alchemist. This song reminds me of the like of Tailgunner or Be Quick Or Be Dead. One of the more up tempo songs on the album. Catchy when listening to it, but a bit nothing new.

Isle Of Avalon. Long slow build up again. Turns into quite a decnt track, the word decent popping up a lot on the first listen.

Starblind Again the slow build up. This sounds like it was written around the time of AMOLAD whilst listening to Deep Purple if that makes any sense. Trudges along, is well played, but I just found it very very boring.

The Talisman. Hmm another quiet and slow start to a song. I was not too optimistic at this point, then suddenly my speakers erupted with roaring guitars and a galloping bass. This is more like it. Maiden sounding like they are twenty years younger than they are.


The Man Who Would Be King Another slow start but like the song before it, it really builds into a powerhouse of a track. Album seems to be ending quite strongly at this point.


When The Wild Wind Blows Yet another slow start, but yet again it is to build into a very catchy track, and may even be the strongest track on the album. Great track to end an album.


So my impression after one listen was that the album started well enough for the first three tracks, then faded somewhat in the middle, but ended very strong with the last three tracks being the best upon my first listen, plus those three final tracks clock in at over 28 minutes.

Anyone expecting Maiden to sound anything like their first six or seven studio albums will not find anything like that here, Maiden are a very different band now, with the prog element that has been there for the last decade still going strong.

The new album does sound like one that will take a few listens to grow as it is quite a layered album, but I cannot shake the feeling that it might sound a lot better with two or three tracks missing, which would still have it clocking it at close to the hour mark. I doubt if it will convert any non Maiden fans to the cause though.

Will most likely go down as a good album but not a great one. In Maiden terms I can think of four or five of their albums that it is probably better than, but nine or ten that are better than it.

blastman wrote: »

For the collectors and/or old fogies out there:

I was in HMV Blanch at lunch time and they had one copy left of the double vinyl picture disc version (which I promptly bought). It was €21.99, which is considerably cheaper than Amazon's online price of £25.73/approx. €31.50. It's £24.99 + £2.50 (I presume standard delivery charge is still the same) with HMV online which comes to about €33.50!

Like I said, I got the only one that HMV Blanch appeared to have left, but it might be worth checking out other HMVs if you're looking for this version of it.

I wonder if that HMV put the wrong price on the picture disc? That is the same price as HMV Limerick have on the metal box version of the CD, but much cheaper than the price they said they sell the picture disc at.

As for Amazon, there is no postage to Ireland on any item that price.

Kess73 wrote: »

I wonder if that HMV put the wrong price on the picture disc? That is the same price as HMV Limerick have on the metal box version of the CD, but much cheaper than the price they said they sell the picture disc at.

As for Amazon, there is no postage to Ireland on any item that price.

Do you mean HMV put the wrong price on the pic disc on the website or...?

That Amazon price doesn't include postage, because there's none as you rightly said. That's the price when they use the Irish VAT rate. I used XE for the currency exchanges and rounded up to the nearest 50 cent to allow for a slightly worse real-world rate and fees, etc.

RayCon wrote: »

A few more listens won't help the artwork

HAHA. What I meant is that the cover is pretty good, but I should also give the album itself a few more listens.;)

Mental Mickey wrote: »

Can anyone suggest a site where I can listen to the album? I want to check it out before I buy it?? I've heard mixed reviews on it, and don't want to waste cash on it??

Its all on youtube.

I really can't get into this album at all. The intro to 'The Final Frontier' itelf is great, but when the song starts up I just found the riff to be painfully average, which is shame because I had very very high hopes for this album, and the fact that they are my all time favourite heavy metal band. Bruce's vocals seem a bit strained as well. The rest of the songs are not really clicking with me either.:(

I thought AMOLAD was quite good, and I definitely think that it is somewhat better than this album. Out of all the reunion albums 'Brave New World' is still my absolute favourite.:D

Kess73 wrote: »

I have been a Maiden fanatic since Beast came out in '82, but I think I have always been able put my biad aside and say whether past albums were good or bad, in my opinion of course.

What Maiden do get from me though is a willingness to relisten to their albums over and over before I make my mind up.

I was driving done to Waterford this morning from Limerick, and then back up again, and went through a fair few albums, but one that I gave a blast to was Somewhere In Time, and damn has that album held up well and it really put The Final Frontier in it's place in terms of Maiden albums.

It really hit me when Deja Vu was blasting out, that here was an album track that is not a live favourite or anything like that, that pretty much beats almost every song on The Final Frontier.

I still think there is a good album in the Final Frontier, the near 30minutes of the final three tracks are excellent, but it does have it's fair share of filler tracks that are well played but somewhat bland.

It is probably on par with the likes of Death Magnetic, which was mostly praised, which I guess shows how consistent Maiden have been over the last 30 years if an album like The Final Frontier seems to be getting a lukewarm reception from fans, but a Metallica album of similar quality, imho, was praised.

Great to see someone else who really loves 'Somewhere In Time' like myself, because it's also one of my absolute favourite Maiden albums, and the album that got me into heavy metal and metal in general in the first place.

Unfortunatley it's somewhat of an underated album.:( I also had a great time listening to the title track 'Caught Somewhere in Time' on one of my playlists on my iPod, while driving up from Tallaght to Gorey. When it was playing I was thinking to myself that they have not really come up with any riffs that are as exciting, and any solos that are as stunning and as memorable as the ones from that excellent album.

I also really love 'Deja Vu' and 'The Loneliness of The Long Distance Runner' is really class as well. There are no bad songs on it IMO. One thing that also dissapointed me about 'The Final Frontier' is that I've heard some reviewers say that the new album has more aggression than the previous albums, but I just don't hear it at all. I honestly wish they would go back to the Aggressiveness of albums like 'Somewhere in Time' and some of the earlier class albums like 'Piece of Mind' as well.

Read an interview with their guitarist Dave recently that made me think that they might call it a day soon. I've also heard comments from Steve Harris before, for the last few years, talking about how long you can perform and what age feels right to stop.

That said, they're still not as old as Ozzy or Mick Mars, and they're still getting out there and doing it.

I'm not saying they'll stop completely, and might do the odd show over the next 5 to 10 years, but I think after the tour in support of Final Frontier is over you might see the end of Iron Maiden as a traditional metal band - as in releasing studio albums and touring worldwide in support.

jack presley wrote: »

You mustn't have bought Virtual XI then?

I actually like The Angel And The Gambler, but yeah, The Final Frontier is miles ahead overall.

Motley Crue wrote: »

Read an interview with their guitarist Dave recently that made me think that they might call it a day soon. I've also heard comments from Steve Harris before, for the last few years, talking about how long you can perform and what age feels right to stop.

That said, they're still not as old as Ozzy or Mick Mars, and they're still getting out there and doing it.

I'm not saying they'll stop completely, and might do the odd show over the next 5 to 10 years, but I think after the tour in support of Final Frontier is over you might see the end of Iron Maiden as a traditional metal band - as in releasing studio albums and touring worldwide in support.

I think thats happening too for some strange reason. Then to call the album The Final Frontier, would seem very apt.