Impressions - New Music - Iron Maiden: The Final Frontier

Yes Iron Maiden are still releasing new album!  After a few years of touring they have crammed themselves back in the recording studio, helmed once again by the talented Kevin "Caveman" Shirley at the mixing board.  The Final Frontier marks the bands utterly incredible 15th album of original content.  Wheather you like them or not, you have to atleast give them credit for being so successful for the past three decades. 

So how does the new material stack up to favorites such as Piece of Mind and Powerslave?  Well anyone who has been following the band in their more recent releases Dance of Death and more recently A Matter of Life and Death, the Maiden of the new millenium is not quite the same as the metal gods of the foredays.  Now a days they have skewed their sound to keep up with more modern sounds.  That isn't to say that they have lost their image, they have just updated it.  It is still very music heavy with all the talents of the band's six members, the songs are just more mainstream then they used to be.  But being able to adapt has helped them rule over the charts worldwide for years.

The first song you hear when you pop in the cd, (or dump the mp3s on your ipod,) is the hybrid Sattelite 15/The Final Frontier the former being an instrumental lead-in to the latter title track.  The instrumental is rather obnoxious with its almost techno-ish base line and lack of any real "melody", but luckily the title track does well to make you forget what you just heard.  It provides a more Maiden-like sound that fans have come to expect and just might sooth that headache caused from Satellite 15.

The title track is followed by El Dorado, which is a single the band released before the album was released.  This track is somewhat unique in that it leads in with what Rock Band players might call a Big Band Finish which kind of sounds like what the end of the last song of a concert might sound like. As for the song itself, it is a bit bland lyrically, but the music is good and that is the most important part.

The next two tracks, Mother of Mercy, and Coming Home, are both solid songs.  They feature good harmonies and more substancial lyrics and are just all around excellent of how Iron Maiden is still relevent all these years later.  Paired with the slower tempoed, The Alchemist, the first half of Maiden's latest creation is all around a good listen.

Next up is track 6, The Isle of Avalon.  This one is not as great as the previous tracks and not a good start for the back half of the cd.  It starts out very slow and just kind of loses itself somewhere in the middle sounding more like everyone playing something different then a whole song.  It almost finds itself again in the last third of the song, but having to go that far is not something you can ask the audience to do.

Starblind, though not as good as the better three from the first half, atleast picks up some slack left behind from the previous track.  It features many breaks and some even better harmonies and accents.  With a band that has three guitars to play off of each other, it is nice to see it implemented so well.

The Talisman is good return to what you really want.  It picks right up into some rocking doesn't let you go tell the end.  By far this is the song that vocalist Bruce shines on and it might even be the best song on the whole CD in terms of all the members coming together for a truly remarkable sound.

Another lack luster track, 9: The Man Who Would Be King, this one starts off good enough but the song just get away from them in the middle.  Lyrically it is as if Bruce is fighting to get all his lines out.  Even with a decent finish, this is not going to be your favorite track.  Luckily Iron Maiden knows something about a strong finish.

Weighing in at 10 minutes and 59 seconds, When the Wild Winds Blow is quite a piece of music.  Maiden has never shied away from long tracks, (neat fact: that is a major contributing factor to why you don't hear them on the radio!) and this one has somewhat cinimatic feel reminicent of The Wall though not as good of an implementation, obviously.

Ultimately, The Final Frontier is a good buy if you are a fan of the formula.  It is unfortunate that, with all the good music, vocalist Bruce just can't do it like he used to be able to.  What can you expect from someone who has been doing it for so long?  But don't him that, he will record and tour until his vocal cords fall out because that is what he and the rest of the band love to do!  Along with some excellent cover art, (expect nothing less from the band that gave us Eddie!) and an attractive case for the Mission Edition and you could certainly find worse things to spend 16 dollars on!  A must buy for  Maiden fans and a good choice for fans of the genre.