FROM FEAR TO ETERNITY: THE BEST OF 1990 - 2010

Iron Maiden was finished and washed up during the Blaze Bailey era. The two albums long era. The members were openly talking about their finally and aborted Blaze Bailey tour being the final Iron Maiden tour. End of Iron Maiden.

Not quite.

Back comes Adrian Smith and the newly qualified airline pilot Bruce Dickinson. In comes one of the most amazing stories ever in the history of rock. Their Brave New World was an amazing comeback album. The follow up albums was huge commercial and not at least; artistic triumphs. Iron Maiden toured the world non stop and played for sold out venues. I think they are somewhere in Europe these days, working hard for their beer money and still getting new fans. Not to mention; they are amazing old fans like myself who still pinches ourselves in disbelief.

I have often criticised the too many Iron Maiden compilation albums. And rightly so. This compilation album though is justified because it tells the story about the rebirth of Iron Maiden. Hence, there is a good storyline here.

The songs here, with only two exceptions (Holy Smoke and Blood Brothers), are also stunning great songs too. They feature Iron Maiden's return to their original inspirations like Wishbone Ash, Yes and the great 1970s bands. A song like Paschendale could easily been done by Yes or Genesis with a bit more pastoral sound.... and we would had hailed the song as a classic. Still, Paschendale is a stunning great piece of symphonic prog. The same goes for the majority of the songs here.

This compilation album is in short an artistic triumph and the middle finger to those who brands Iron Maiden as "only" a heavy metal band. Yes, their roots are in heavy metal, but these two CDs proves that Iron Maiden is a symphonic progressive heavy metal band.

These two CDs is recommended to all symphonic prog fans out there.

4 stars