Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier

Under A Funeral Moon

Well, I'm sure most of you have listened Iron Maiden's latest offering, "The Final Frontier" and had adequate time to form an opinion of it.

So, how do you rate it compared to their older albums?
How do you rate it as an album but not comparing it to its predecessors?
What is/are you favourite song(s) on the album?
What's your least favourite song on the album?

As an avid Iron Maiden fan, I love it. My favourite song from the album is definitely Coming Home. The Alchemist, Starblind, When the Wild Wind Blows and The Man Who Would Be King are also fantastic songs. I can safely say El Dorado is an awful song. I'd actually go as far as to say that it's possibly their worst song ever.

Overall, I'd rate this album 9.5/10. I've had it in the car since I bought it on its release date.

Anyway, what are your thoughts?

GrizzlyMan

havent really given it a good listen yet, i think it will prob gather dust along side Dance of death!

Love maiden but dont think they will ever come out with another classic record! Although they did well with Brave New World one!:)

jpm4

Have to admit I probably need to give it a few more spins but I have to say I am very dissapointed with it. How they managed to go from the inspired sounding AMOLOD to this I just don't know. The whole epic/prog thing is just starting to get a bit ridiculous at this stage, if they keep on like this they are going to have the same problem Metallica had on Load and run out of CD space! Bruce sounds like he is getting bored again.

Coming Home is a great, lighter-in-the-air singalong song . How on earth Steve let Bruce away with writing a song that is basically about flying planes is beyond me though. Don't like Where the Wild Winds Blow - it's as if Steve Harris knows he is well and truely playing 2nd fiddle to Smith as a songwriter now, so Harris just makes sure his sole song is the longest and most epicist of the bunch.

Anyways it's not completely terrible, but I would give a lot to hear Maiden make a punchy, non flabby album again that's under an hour long.

Nephilim Wolf

GrizzlyMan wrote: »

havent really given it a good listen yet, i think it will prob gather dust along side Dance of death!

Love maiden but dont think they will ever come out with another classic record! Although they did well with Brave New World one!

Brave New World was a fantastic album.

jpm4 wrote: »

Have to admit I probably need to give it a few more spins but I have to say I am very dissapointed with it. How they managed to go from the inspired sounding AMOLOD to this I just don't know. The whole epic/prog thing is just starting to get a bit ridiculous at this stage, if they keep on like this they are going to have the same problem Metallica had on Load and run out of CD space! Bruce sounds like he is getting bored again.

Coming Home is a great, lighter-in-the-air singalong song . How on earth Steve let Bruce away with writing a song that is basically about flying planes is beyond me though. Don't like Where the Wild Winds Blow - it's as if Steve Harris knows he is well and truely playing 2nd fiddle to Smith as a songwriter now, so Harris just makes sure his sole song is the longest and most epicist of the bunch.

Anyways it's not completely terrible, but I would give a lot to hear Maiden make a punchy, non flabby album again that's under an hour long.

I agree as well. To me this album is extremely dissapointing and boring. It's just to slow, laid back and most importantly it lacks both memorable songs and aggression. I just wish they would go back to a more high energy style like 'Piece of Mind or Somewhere in Time'. Unfortunately thats not going to happen at this stage. This album completely also lacks any punchy short songs like 'The Wicker Man, The Mercenary etc. It is also for me the most dissapointing album of 2010.

Kess73

My opinion on TFF has not changed since I got it in August. There are at least 10 Maiden albums that are far better than it, so in my opinion it is near the bottom of the pile.

I don't think it is a bad album, but it is probably a 6 out of ten album, and I am most likely rating it that highly because I have been a Maiden fanatic since 1982.

I think if a new band had brought out the same album as their first album, then it may have gotten a partial listen and then start life as a dust gatherer. The Maiden addict in me pretty much means that anything Maiden release will get repeated listens to gauge it.

peter1892

It's a good album, but it hasn't grabbed me in the way the AMOLAD did when it came out (I listened to that one for ages)...

So, how do you rate it compared to their older albums?
I'd rate it somewhere in the middle - better than their 90's output (by quite a distance) not quite as good as the previous 3 albums. Compared to the 80's stuff, well it's very different!

How do you rate it as an album but not comparing it to its predecessors?
Probably 7.5 out of 10. Solid album, not perfect but a fine record all the same.

What is/are you favourite song(s) on the album?
When The Wild Wind Blows, Mother of Mercy, Coming Home, Starblind

What's your least favourite song on the album?
The Alchemist - sounds like something off 'Virtual XI'

I've been an avid Maiden fan since 1987 and have pretty much everything they've ever done. There are certain things about this album that I love, 'When The Wild Wind Blows' is just epic, great storytelling & amazing musicianship, 'Starblind' has incredible drumming and I do like the fact that they tried something completely different & off the wall (for them) by using a demo track for the intro (Satellite 15).

But...I really love the previous 3 albums. I think they're every bit as good as the material the band were producing in the 1980's and this one just falls little bit short for me.

Something that annoyed me was the packaging. Back 'when I were a lad' getting a new Iron Maiden album (well casette in my case, never had a record player) was a big deal. Even on that small format you always felt as if you were getting value for money because of all the liner notes, info and of course the covers themselves. Now, obviously this has changed, and album packing is very different now but the tin-box thing was a let down and the on-line videos were a bit of a waste of time. AMOLAD had an extra disc (DVD) with interviews and videos, and for a Maiden anorak like meself that was great.

Still - 12 years ago I didn't think that Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith would ever be returning to the fold. But they did, and since then Maiden have gone from strength to strength and I'm glad they're still recording & touring. And the gig in the O2 was excellent (IMO).

jack presley

It's my least favourite of the Bruce II era but still better than the 2 Blaze albums and NPFTD and FOTD.

There are a few good tunes on it and The Final Frontier would be a great track if it wasn't for the first few minutes of an introduction!

One thing I don't like and it was a big problem with AMOLAD as well is the slow acoustic minute or so intros into songs. They should just skip them and get to the crunch!

Nephilim Wolf

To answer your question.

So, how do you rate it compared to their older albums?
I don't like at all, so to me it dosn't compare to the older albums at all, not even 'Fear of The Dark' or 'Brave New World'.

How do you rate it as an album but not comparing it to its predecessors?
Again I don't like it, so it's impossible to compare it to anything.

What is/are you favourite song(s) on the album?
None.

What's your least favourite song on the album?
I don't like anyhting on the album. It's a real dissapointing album for sure!

Vanhalla

ah its not so bad. starblind is a great track.
lets face it, they aint gonna produce a great album again. i hope im proved wrong.

kinda off topic,
when did bruce cut his hair?!

jack presley

Vanhalla wrote: »

ah its not so bad. starblind is a great track.
lets face it, they aint gonna produce a great album again. i hope im proved wrong.

kinda off topic,
when did bruce cut his hair?!

Don't know exactly but it was definitely gone by the time BNW was released.

jpm4

What baffles me about this record is the almost unanimous praise it has recieved across the broad. I could understand it getting good reviews I guess, but the praise is crazy out of proportion to the actual record.

It's almost like just as Maiden could do nothing right in the 90s, they can do nothing wrong now.

Kess73

Vanhalla wrote: »

when did bruce cut his hair?!

Around the time that he released Skunkworks in 1996 because he had the hair short when he toured that album..

breffni666

It is a solid if not brilliant album. They havnt really kicked on since AMOLAD. Brave New World album is an all-time classic album considering where they were up to that point. Dance of Death again had some quality moments Paschendale probably their best song in 20 years imo. TFF has probably too many proggy moments in it, that's not to say its not enjoyable but I always have BNW on rotation but a year down the line TFF I can take or leave if a track comes up on my ipod shuffle.
My all-time fav band though seen them 15+ times. Incredible live performers.

jack presley

I haven't listened to it in a few months so I must give it a spin again. My initial thoughts were that it was good but not great, probably my least favourite of the Bruce/Adrian Mark II albums.

Riddle101

I'm of the opinon that Iron Maiden's day of churning out a classic hit are well past them now. At best you can only hope for a decent album. Which Final Frontier is.

My favourite song from the album is El Dorado.