NO PRAYER FOR THE DYING

Iron maiden's 'No Prayer For The Dying' sounds like an album in which the band totally stopped trying to reinventing itself; in stead offering a middle of the road modernized version of their earlier (street rock) heavy metal albums. Stripped from the sci-fi make-up of 'Somewhere in Time' and the synths of 'Seventh Son' the band sounds quite bare. The song-writing is also lacking the finesse of earlier tunes, with some songs sounding downright unfinished; for instance the messy 'Mother Russia'. Among the list of ok songs are some highlights. I've always loved the melodies of 'Public Enema Number One' and exciting dark moods of 'The Assassin'. On their next album 'Fear of the Dark' the band progressed massively towards a more mature style that I really like. Perhaps the biggest virtue of 'No Prayer' is the fact that it made Iron Maiden realize they just couldn't go back, but had to move on forward.