IRON MAIDEN — The Final Frontier (review)

IRON MAIDEN — The Final Frontier album cover Album · 2010 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Stephen
"The Final Frontier" marks the fifteenth album of the British heavy metal beast. I've been listening to them for about 20 years now and honestly said, this is the first album since Bailey's era that made me scratch my head and shockingly confused. I know they wandered quite far with the previous album but this one is just too much. By the moment "Satellite 15" is on, I know this is going to be a complex ride, but with a noisy chattering on top of Bon Jovi's "Lay Your Hands" drumming pattern, the first four minutes is just plain awful. The rest of the track is quite okay, but definitely a completely decent track. The same goes with their single, "Eldorado", not good and powerful enough to be the frontline track, but luckily the chorus is catchy enough to sing along.

"Mother of Mercy" started picking up what they have left off on the prior albums but still failed to deliver what I’ve been expecting and "Coming Home" is a nice power ballad, radio friendly stuff, a safe passage but however, nothing’s special. "The Alchemist" is the real first track that I love here. The harmonic guitars, signature scream, explosive chorus, all the thing that I love about Maiden is there. "The Talisman" is the second tune I like, started slow as usual before bursting out into a flaming arrangement, this is traditional Maiden at their best, what a great track! "Starblind" and "When The Wild Wind Blows" ain't bad at all, but still far from great.

After an intense listening, overall I found this to be a between-decent-and-good release, some compositions are just too safe, some I think they're trying too hard to be progressive, and I'm just hoping this isn't the declining sign of the gods. This is by far the worst release since Bruce return to the camp in 2000, but still an interesting release of 2010, a great buy for "Alchemist" and "Talisman" tracks alone.

As this review's written, I've been waiting impatiently to be a part of a historical concert tonight with the rest 20.000 Indonesian people, for the first time ever Maiden finally came to our country, after 20 years of waiting, finally!
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Pekka wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Good, I'll be seeing the same show in July :)
Stephen wrote:
more than 2 years ago
yeah Kim, i will post the short report at the forum buddy :)
Time Signature wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I envy U!
Stephen wrote:
more than 2 years ago
It's a superb show bro, still speechless! :o
Pekka wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Have a good show!

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