FEAR OF THE DARK

I'll be honest-- I love Iron Maiden; their axe-work energizes, Dickinson's vocals remedy any gloom, and their over the top style is brilliant. This, and more, makes me want to shrivel up and cry when I listen to Fear of the Dark-- a fantastically bland failure on so many levels.

To start, is the simple fact that this album is dominated by Bruce's lyrics-- which deserve credit for at least being slightly different thematically than his previous ones (no songs about WWII?!) but which really come down to words for the sake of filling the page. This, combined with his overbearing, and now banal, vocals simply make this one a chore to get through. But he's not the only culprit. The instrumentalists here distincly phone this one in at all levels. Their instensity-- blah; their creativity-- ehh?; their solos-- good enough; their song writing-- formulaic.

Bottom line, ignore this one like the plague and keep your worthy vision of Maiden intact! They come back with a vengence with their newest releases!

Songwriting: 1 Instrumental Performances: 2 Lyrics/Vocals: 1 Style/Emotion/Replay: 2