Culture Bully.com Review :The Final Frontier is Iron Maiden‘s 15th album, and one that initially brought with it rumblings that it would be the legendary band’s swan song. After all, it is called The Final Frontier and founding member and bassist Steve Harris has put 15 albums on the board as the predetermined lifespan of the group. In recent interviews Harris has scoffed at the unofficial marker though, subsequently adding a cheeky exclamation point to an album that has been eagerly awaited since the release of Maiden’s last studio album, 2006′s A Matter of Life and Death. And without much of a shock the opening track looks back, touching on a sound that is sure to please old-school fans, though it’s likely to attract its share of curious looks along the way.
The introduction to the album comes in the form of a two-part track, “Satellite15/The Final Frontier”: the first half of the opener is strange song which sounds uncharacteristically hollow and—truth be told—wouldn’t harm the rest of the album had The Final Frontier bypassed it completely. As soon as “The Final Frontier” takes off, the opening riff connects in classic Maiden fashion, representing as a nod to the past as the band moves ahead into the future. Next comes the record’s lead single, “El Dorado,” which thematically follows a deceptive character’s narrative as the band chugs along behind Bruce Dickinson’s ever-youthful sounding vocals. Setting the tone for the album, the song’s solo does well in acting as a stunning interlude between the track’s chapters of dialog.
“Mother of Mercy” continues with a less frantic pace than the previous tracks, warming up as a lyrical portrait of a battlefield and its casualties is slowly painted. Nicko McBrain steps in with a rumbling beat before the band follows suit and chimes in with an oh-so-familiar rhythm. Later, following the song’s solo, Dickinson further solidifies the focus of the track, “Rivers flow with blood, there’s nowhere left to hide/It’s hard to comprehend there’s anyone left alive/Sick of all the killing and the reek of death/Well, God, tell me what religion is to man?” A relative-ballad in comparison to much of the album, “Coming Home” follows, including one of the record’s most technically impressive solos while lyrically focusing on an ever-present longing for Albion (Great Britain), “Coming home when I see the runway lights/In the misty dawn of the night is fading fast/Coming home, far away as their vapor trails alight/Where I’ve been tonight, you know I will not stay.” “The Alchemist” revs the pace back up as a story is told of John Dee and his trials with the “strange alchemy” of Edward Kelley.
It’s at this point in time where the band begins to take liberties with the attention span of the listener: Each of the following five songs run roughly eight to eleven minutes in length—to date, The Final Frontier is actually the longest studio album in Iron Maiden’s catalog. “Isle of Avalon” features an extended dialog between guitarists which is gorgeously revisited with the tandem guitar pieces in “The Man Who Would Be King.” The gritty guitars of “Starblind” and the slow-boiling intensity of “The Talisman” fall in the middle of the two aforementioned songs, but as much as the band might push things when it comes to the length of the tracks, they never really toy with useless experimentation or include much—if any—aural waste; everything is in order and plays out accordingly. “When The Wild Wind Blows” concludes the album with its characters preparing for some sort of end-times, an Armageddon which is subsequently manipulated by a mass media set on confusing a nation’s citizens with misdirection. “There will be a catastrophe the like we’ve never seen/There will be something that will light the sky/That the world as we know it, it will never be the same/Did you know, did you know? As the band winds down and softly plays Dickinson out, a swirling wind howls in the distance and the album fades to black.
How many bands can you name, just off the top of your head, who have long-since outlived their expiration date? And how many of rock’s greatest names continue to play on, cashing in their legacies for another “farewell” tour, or even worse, ridiculously sub par studio albums that are no sooner released than they are forgotten? Here we are, some 35 years after Iron Maiden began creating a legacy which the band never set out to make for itself, and the group sounds as tight and energetic as it ever has. Not only that, but Iron Maiden is making music that is—shocking for a band of its age—honestly relevant in the grand scheme its genre; if you were to take away Maiden at this point in time, the band would leave a hole in today’s metal scene, not just the metal scene in general. The Final Frontier is a substantial statement backing up that sentiment, though in all honesty, by this point in time they never really needed one.
Puntaje : Muy positivo
Metalstortm.net Review :
Iron Maiden have had ups and downs, but they consistently stuck to their unique style. 2006's A Matter of Life and Death saw a serious departure from that style towards a darker, more progressive sound - it was only a partial success. Unfortunately, Steve Harris and Co. felt encouraged, and decided to go further in their departures. The first 4 songs on The Final Frontier rank among the worst this band has ever committed and most of the time sound nothing like the Iron Maiden everyone knows. Departure from style my ass. If they wanted to depart again, the previous album was the way to do it.
'Sounds like shit' - this was my first thought when I heard the longish introduction to the album. "Satellite 15..." is so unlike anything that Iron Maiden have ever recorded. A crude, repeating drum pattern, distorted, spacy sounds, drunken guitars that go nowhere. Even the vocals, when they enter, sound strange. Not only does that intro suck, but it also sounds really weird. Fortunately, the song changes radically after 4 minutes into a remote semblance of a good song.
'What the hell have they done to Iron Maiden?' - that was my second thought. The opening tracks are decent enough for thousands of obscure bands who would be proud to have recorded them, but for Iron Maiden standards, they are sodding poor, and I mean really poor. "The Apparition" poor. "The Final Frontier" isn't utterly abysmal - resurrecting the spirit of the 70's metal, with a catchy chorus, it is remotely palatable. But to balance it, "Coming Home" is an Iron Maiden fan nightmare, sounding like it was recorded during the Fear of the Dark session, which, in my opinion, is the worst Iron Maiden album, with only 2 good songs.
The next six tracks brought back some of my faith in Iron Maiden. Long songs, catchy choruses, melodic solos, everything is seemingly in place. Seemingly - Maiden fans can at last feel at home, and utter a sigh of relief, because there will be no more experiments until the end of the album, at least not as blatantly obvious ones as the intro. But what follows isn't top-notch Maiden, it's mid-range most of the time. Solos aren't too memorable, vocal lines aren't too melodic, riffs don't stick in my head.
Only the last song, "When the Wild Wind Blows," can be honestly called excellent. The riffs supported by simple, but powerful drumming somewhere in the 7th minute of the song - in that solitary moment Maiden sounds really classy. The song isn't quite as good as Maiden's best classic tracks, but it's on a par with the good songs from the later period. Maybe the leading vocal theme sounds too joyful and optimistic, in spite of telling a grim tale, but the song is deliciously complex and rich, a real treat to end this album.
Having died during the first 4 abysmal songs, I was partially resurrected by some good ones that followed, of which, sadly, only one is brilliant. The Final Frontier clocks in at over 76 minutes, and most of these minutes are well spent, assuming you have a pair of paddles handy to shock you back to life after the cardiac arrest that you will undergo at the onset of this album. Better yet, start listening from "The Alchemist." You should be at least partially satisfied.
How do I rank this? I could try to turn a blind eye on the beginning of The Final Frontier. But 4 terrible songs out of 10 is quite a lot. Sorry guys, not this time around. I can't ignore 40% of the album. 1 point up for the last track.
'Sounds like shit' - this was my first thought when I heard the longish introduction to the album. "Satellite 15..." is so unlike anything that Iron Maiden have ever recorded. A crude, repeating drum pattern, distorted, spacy sounds, drunken guitars that go nowhere. Even the vocals, when they enter, sound strange. Not only does that intro suck, but it also sounds really weird. Fortunately, the song changes radically after 4 minutes into a remote semblance of a good song.
'What the hell have they done to Iron Maiden?' - that was my second thought. The opening tracks are decent enough for thousands of obscure bands who would be proud to have recorded them, but for Iron Maiden standards, they are sodding poor, and I mean really poor. "The Apparition" poor. "The Final Frontier" isn't utterly abysmal - resurrecting the spirit of the 70's metal, with a catchy chorus, it is remotely palatable. But to balance it, "Coming Home" is an Iron Maiden fan nightmare, sounding like it was recorded during the Fear of the Dark session, which, in my opinion, is the worst Iron Maiden album, with only 2 good songs.
The next six tracks brought back some of my faith in Iron Maiden. Long songs, catchy choruses, melodic solos, everything is seemingly in place. Seemingly - Maiden fans can at last feel at home, and utter a sigh of relief, because there will be no more experiments until the end of the album, at least not as blatantly obvious ones as the intro. But what follows isn't top-notch Maiden, it's mid-range most of the time. Solos aren't too memorable, vocal lines aren't too melodic, riffs don't stick in my head.
Only the last song, "When the Wild Wind Blows," can be honestly called excellent. The riffs supported by simple, but powerful drumming somewhere in the 7th minute of the song - in that solitary moment Maiden sounds really classy. The song isn't quite as good as Maiden's best classic tracks, but it's on a par with the good songs from the later period. Maybe the leading vocal theme sounds too joyful and optimistic, in spite of telling a grim tale, but the song is deliciously complex and rich, a real treat to end this album.
Having died during the first 4 abysmal songs, I was partially resurrected by some good ones that followed, of which, sadly, only one is brilliant. The Final Frontier clocks in at over 76 minutes, and most of these minutes are well spent, assuming you have a pair of paddles handy to shock you back to life after the cardiac arrest that you will undergo at the onset of this album. Better yet, start listening from "The Alchemist." You should be at least partially satisfied.
How do I rank this? I could try to turn a blind eye on the beginning of The Final Frontier. But 4 terrible songs out of 10 is quite a lot. Sorry guys, not this time around. I can't ignore 40% of the album. 1 point up for the last track.
Puntuacion: 7.2/10
Ultimate Guitar.com Review :
Sound: We couldn’t just let it end, could we? It’s strange to think that one day, Iron Maiden will release their last record, will play their last show. But it is not this day! I don’t think a full encapsulation of this global phenomenon could ever be committed to disc anyway, but ‘The Final Frontier’ has only the grandeur of your average Maiden release, though that is not to be underestimated. The cartoony artwork could hardly have been further removed from that of the dark, dramatic and aptly named ‘A Matter Of Life And Death’ opus of four years ago, and on the whole there is an air of positivity about the package.
It’s not often that Iron Maiden open an album without letting a riff or three out from the starting blocks, but something tells me this is the first and last time we’ll kick off with anAdrian Smith home demo. ‘Satellite 15’ is atmospheric, intense and absolutely one of the biggest curveballs they’ve ever thrown, and for every problem with the unpolished mix, there’s a reason to love the uncompromising drum machines and desperate melody. Once the intro is over and done with, it’s Maiden being Maiden for an hour-and-a-bit. Lovely! All the expected conventions are ticked off promptly, including those of the last two albums – long excursions through ideas as they come and, for all the developments in progginess, highlights in the form of vocal hooks and lead breaks.
Two top-quality singles are thrown in the bag early, and from there that bag goes relatively unmixed. ‘Coming Home’ is a great ‘Children Of The Damned’ style singalong, and ‘The Alchemist’ is actually the closest to the Di’Anno sound they’ve come in many years, but the lengthier songs predominate. A couple of them ebb without flow at times, ‘Isle Of Avalon’ being a quite brilliant exception, but this album is refreshing indeed.
Hats off, once again, to Mr. Adrian Smith for his contributions to proceedings – not to take away from Dave Murray or Janick Gers, but the man can’t half solo! He tends to dominate the solo sections, but ‘Isle Of Avalon’ boasts the best guitar work (best everything, in fact) overall, with tasteful modal playing. ‘When The Wild Wind Blows’, one of the initial fan favourites following the album’s leak, comes with a mental image of 40,000 fans screaming their lungs out, so if we’re remembering albums for their flagship guitar leads, ‘The Final Frontier’ has a solid place in the history books.
Lyrics and Singing: It is only before you look at the lyrics that you might think that this album is without drama. The topics of religion and war make welcome returns, yet the overbearing themes are of solitude and homesickness. You can feel the decades worth of touring experience, though it’s fed through a theatrical Maiden/space mission funnel. The title track, though, is worryingly self-referential given its ‘dying thoughts’ perspective: “I surely will burn, like Icarus before me”, “There isn’t much time, must say my last rites”...while the ostensible story is of an astronaut, these allusions are cruel, if not indicative of anything.
Other lyrical high points include ‘El Dorado’, a suitably menacing characterisation of bankers, and ‘When The Wild Wind Blows’, which is about nuclear holocaust but somehow ends with something even more tragic. It is, then, chiefly the music that keeps things upbeat. Tell you what though, that Bruce Dickinson is sounding pretty good! While his vocal power has taken a mild battering since the glory days, his timbre is as good as it’s been in years and all ten tracks benefit from it with at least one big juicy wail.
Impression: Would this have been the perfect send-off? Not quite, but it’s a fine way to reach the 15-album landmark and another testimonial to the strength of this band post-reunion. It’s also testimony to their capability to write more than ‘the hits’ that everyone’s favourite song is different. ‘The Final Frontier’ has not shattered the Earth with either innovation or emotion, but any Maiden fan - big or small, young or old – should leave content, well fed by this chapter of what is hopefully a story that shan’t end for many years to come.
Puntuacion: 8.7/10
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