NO PRAYER FOR THE DYING

Apperently sometime during the late '80s the fantastic metal band that it Iron Maiden decided to strip down the proggy-fantasy stories and sounds that had given us such albums as... well, everything from their "Number Of The Beat" album until this point. The result is... interesting. Us Maiden fans will appreciate the album much more than the average prog-goer, and as much as this is an underrated album in the metal realms, as a prog album this disc simply isn't as good as say "Seventh Son...", "Powerslave" or "Somewhere In Time".

There are a number of good songs on here, making this a good song-based record (something Maiden isn't as good with as they are solid-records). Good standouts here include the three singles, the religously rebeling HOLY SMOKE, the number one hit BRING YOUR DAUGHER... and the always bassy TAILGUNNER. But these song, though good, don't show off the band's grandeur side as much as previous albums did, other songs such as "infinite Dreams" or "Wasted Years" can claim to have much more potent music, even in the progressive realm. Other good songs off the disc include the semi-longish-but-not-really MOTHER RUSSIA, who's interesting beat always make it an interesting listen, and HOOKS IN YOU, which is just nice and catchy. All in all the songs here are good, but somehow the disc simply doesn't work together as a whole.

So, for some reason Maiden didn't want to do the fanasy realm, a strange thing, since both Dickenson and the rest of Maiden would both persue a fanasy sound while on their break from wach other and reform the sound when they reunited. Perhaps it was the looming '90s that did this to them, who knows. But, as I said before, this one is actually a good album for fans, it brings a lot of the table, prog fans on the other hand, won't find a lot to like here. As a prog album 2 stars, fans/completionists only, as a Maiden album, 3 stars, average at best, as a strait up metal album, 3.5 stars. But hey, prog is what matters here, eh?

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