Coffee And Anger.: August 2010

The new Maiden came out the other day and I am in awe that these dudes can make such consistently good albums time and time again. Actually I take that back, I'm not in awe, nor am I surprised.....it was expected. You can't really expect anything less (in my opinion) from the best band to ever exist.

I've had this discussion with fellow Maiden friends and they usually say something along the lines of "Maiden has albums that are better than others, but none of them suck". I agree completely. For example, for many Number of the Beast is the quintessential Maiden classic. Number of the Beast, 22 Accacia Avenue, Run to the Hills (sigh), and of course the ever so epic Hallowed Be Thy Name. Sure, No Prayer for the Dying doesn't have that special quality that Beast had but it isn't to say that the album sucked by any measure. Holy Smoke is a fun tune, and Mother Russia is a hard hitting epic in vein of many of the tales Maiden likes to discuss in they're lyrics. In other words, Maiden is the best. They don't put out garbage. Nor do they even settle for Mediocre. I didn't care for the last album as much as others, but does it suck? Hell no. Different World is such a jam, as are some other tracks of the album.
Onto the new album

Iron Maiden-The Final Frontier
Grade: 9.5/10
I have to say this is by far the most progressive album they've put out. Perhaps the closest thing that compares would be Dance of Death. Regardless, it kicks ass. The beginning is quite unique for Maiden, it has an intro! It has an eerie sort of shredding by Murray and Smith alongside McBrain's almost Neil Pert-esque prog rock drumming. There's even some quite prominent double bass work. You go Nicko. It basically puts you in the mood for time travel. Why hadn't they explored this idea sooner? Arguably they did it with Somewhere In Time, but that was more just a few songs here and there that reference various sci-fi novels.
I personally liked this album much more than A Matter of Life or Death. I feel like this album has much more substance and is in some ways a little more in the theatrical vein Maiden fans are so familiar with.
Like Dance of Death, I think this album might take a few listens for people to get really into it due to its non typical less straightforward galloping and aggression found on earlier albums.
My favorite track is probably the single, El Dorado.

For some reason I am always a little thrown off as to what singles Maiden chooses to release, but not this one. For example, Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter lacks so much compared to the rest of No Prayer. Wicker Man, off of Brave New World is in my opinion the weakest song among such a great comeback album. Don't even get me started with Run to the Hills... my LEAST favorite Maiden song, yet strangely they're biggest hit.
Other outstanding tracks on the album area Mother of Mercy, the Talisman, and lastly the sheer intensity of When the Wild Wind Blows just might make you shed a tear. Nicko McBrain commented saying that he thought When the Wild Wind Blows is just as good if not better then Hallowed Be Thy Name. Wow dude, that's bold. But hey, he isn't far off. Although I wouldn't go quite that far it is an absolutely amazing way to end an album. But then again, Maiden always saves the best for last. The album title does suggest that this MIGHT just MIGHT be the end for the worlds best band. I'm crossing my fingers that isn't the case. I still haven't seen Afraid to Shoot Strangers live and until that day I will going through life feeling unfulfilled.

THE FINAL FRONTIER, ALL KILLER NO FILLER.

Lets switch gears for a moment and talk about what I think most Maiden fans never want to talk about, the Blaze Bayley years. For those of you who don't know, Blaze Bayley replaced Bruce Dickinson after the highly acclaimed Fear of the Dark album (my all time favorite!) came out. Shit lets face it, those are some hard damned shoes to fill. How can one even come remotely close?
Well in my opinion a band has two options. One is trying to replace the singer with another that replicates the exact sound that the original was going for. Similar to what Priest did with Ripper Owens replacing Halford...which sucked (although Ripper went on to do some amazing things). OR the band could replace the singer with an entirely different style all together and go for something different. An example of this would be like Dio's (RIP DUDE!!!) awesome contribution to a pretty stagnant Black Sabbath after Ozzy left. Dio completely reinvented Sabbath and arguably made some of the best material the band had put out since the first few albums.
Maiden on the other hand did something very strange. They picked a dude, Blaze Bayley, with almost no vocal range and to put it bluntly...almost no vocal talent. He just sounds, brutish and winded. He also looked like a half assed balding Danzig. Cool chops dude?

However, in my opinion it is in these years that Maiden wrote some of the most heartfelt dark and gut wrenching songs. Apparently X Factor was written while Harris was going through a pretty excruciating divorce and almost lost custody of his kids during this time. Virtual XI talks about struggles with drug addiction, something that has NEVER surfaced in lyrics of Maiden until that point. Not only that, but the musicianship was top notch(big surprise?). It was as if, all the anger of losing Dickinson and family/band turmoils was taken out on the music forcing a unique and special Maiden sound that we really haven't heard since Bayley's departure.
Songs like Sign of the Cross deal openly with losing religion and faith in humanity.

Or even The Clansman, which is more in traditional vein for the band. It is in my opinion one of the best songs ever written. I will NEVER forget seeing this song played live and it hands down stood out above any other song they played. A real headbanger.

Blaze is obviously no Bruce. In fact the two names really shouldn't even be used in the same sentence together. It's obvious who's better. Strangely enough though, Bayley grew on me. I learned to accept those albums for what they were. Dark, troubled, slower, but still Maiden. And although they're different, and there is no Bruce, the passion and excitement of old Maiden is still there. I'd even go as far as to say I prefer Bayley singing SOME of those songs like Clansman over Bruce. Not sure why, pretty blasphemous to say...but whatever. I guess all I'm trying to say is Bayley isn't as bad as people might make him out to be. Sure its odd why Maiden didn't pick someone like a Halford or a Dio, but fuck it...whats done is done. And now Bruce is back. And better than ever.

Whats better then some of the most ass kicking Maiden jams from X Factor and Virtual XI Bayley days? Well...
Bruce singing them of course!