IRON MAIDEN — The Final Frontier (review)

IRON MAIDEN — The Final Frontier album cover

Album · 2010 · Heavy Metal

3.5/5 · 2010-10-26
Pekka

Throughout their fourteen album run Iron Maiden have been accused by some of always sounding the same. This is obviously nowhere near the truth, but come the fifteenth album not even the ignorant can ignore anymore the fact that there's more to Maiden than the gallop and the air-raid siren. Most of the album certainly sounds like the Maiden that they have evolved into over the years, but...

If someone put on the opening track without telling me which band was in question, there's no way in hell that I'd have guessed it's Maiden. With heavy use of synth bass and a drum machine the intro called Satellite 15 is the most un-Maiden thing the band has ever recorded, and while it's an admirably brave jump in the dark, in the dark it's easy to stumble. And that's what they do in my opinion. It's a fittingly dramatic piece to open the album, but I can't help feeling that the piece would be much more enjoyable with the more conventional sound filling the rest of the album. In an effort to sound futuristic the band risks sounding dated, whereas the full band sound is timeless. The title song, tacked on the same track for some reason, is completely unrelated and in its midtempo rocking feel quite an oddball as a Maiden opening track.

When Maiden released El Dorado as the leading single, I wasn't very impressed by it, but on the album it works a lot better, perhaps because it's preceded by an even lesser track. The chaos opening seems even more redundant now that the opening track ends with a similar kind outro, but otherwise the track is a good step up, which is continued on Mother of Mercy, Coming Home and The Alchemist, all somewhat compact tracks with great melodies and performance especially by Bruce. The Alchemist, no relation to the Bruce's solo masterpiece from The Chemical Wedding, is the album's sole uptempo rocker.

In another never before seen move the album is constructed of two very different sides, the first containing the 'songs' and the second containing the 'epics'. This kind of polarization may sound like a weird idea, but it actually works really well. Perhaps more than ever the new Maiden album feels like a journey, which is perhaps helped by the fact that it begins with the weakest track and ends with one of their finest ever, with an overall ascent in quality being present all the time. All five tracks of the second side are multi-part compositions running through many different landscapes, featuring some quite unconventional instrumental sections, like the mess of soloing guitars and something that resembles a pedal steel in The Man Would Be King, as well as some of the good ol' galloping, which especially dominates The Talisman. Closing the album as the ultimate triumph is When the Wild Wind Blows, once again showing the masterfulness with which Steve Harris handles melodies and a gripping storyline and structure.

This album has some completely new things and approaches and a slight change from the harmonizing guitars to an emphasis on vocal melodies. Some of the new things work and some don't, but in the big picture that's irrelevant. What's important is that Iron Maiden is still evolving and searching, it would be a pity is this was the end. Luckily by their recent comments it seems that there will be more.