IRON MAIDEN — No Prayer For The Dying (review)

IRON MAIDEN — No Prayer For The Dying album cover Album · 1990 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Time Signature
Holy smoke...

Genre: heavy metal

This album has received a lot of flak for its stripped down approach to rock music compared to Maiden's previous releases. I can understand why. I mean, there were a lot of changes on this album - perhaps more than the average fanboy could bear:

- the band had lost an integral member when Adrian Smith left

- the music is stripped down and simplified compared to their previous progressive releases

- Bruce Dickinson had attained a raspier singing style than his quasi-operatic screaming

- the album was recorded in a barn and the production is not as fat and polished as usual

- the Eddie continuity had been broken and the cover artwork simplified; all the visual goodies that you could find in a Maiden album were gone here

For some reason, although I am a Maiden fanboy, I was never disappointed with this album, and the changes in Maiden's style did not bother me (that disappointment came with "Fear of the Dark", though), and I think there is plenty of good stuff on this album. Also, the guitar harmonies are still there and so are the quirks. There are just not as many of them as usual.

Stand-out tracks are "Tailgunner" with its engaging buildup and groovy bridge, the melancholic ballady title track whose guitar theme I absolutely love and the epic-sounding "Mother Russia".

There are many of obscure tracks on this album that do not get the attention they deserve such as the two Murray tracks "Public Enema Number One" and the more straightforward yet captivating "Fates Warning", both of which are among my favorite tracks of this album. "Run Silent Run Deep" is a galloping song about u-boat warfare and it contains everything a Maiden fan ought to love such as a prominent galloping bass and guitars, guitar melodies, war lyrics, complex twin lead guitars and a bridge of several different parts. Yet somehow, it never achieved the status of a Maiden classic. "Hooks In You" is a more straightforward rocker with contributions by Adrian Smith; it's okay, and I like the guitar in the chorus, but it's not my favorite Maiden track.

Then there are the two hits "Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter" and "Holy Smoke", both of which are simple rock songs and both of which are a bit silly. I can appreciate the humor in them, but I think that they were promoted too much in comparison with some of the other and more substantial tracks on this underrated album.

My appreciation of this much bashed album goes counter to mainstream opinion (admittedly, "mainstream" opinion is a bad choice of expression when it comes to heavy metal), but I think that this album would be a good entry point into heavy metal for those who are used to hard rock but not yet ready for the affinities of the more prog side of Maiden and metal in general.
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