The Final Frontier

It's a fun experiment to try to compare Maiden's output as a sextet to their classic 80s days. Brave New World is pretty obviously analagous to The Number of the Beast, in that they both get to showcase the improved range of a newly returned/joined Bruce "greatest singer alive" Dickinson. Dance of Death is pretty much the Piece of Mind of the 2000 albums, in that it's uneven, having some awful filler (though none of it comes close to "Quest for Fire"). Like the 1983 album, it gets better on repeated listenings, and despite all the crap it gets for being a victim of the loudness war, you actually can hear the 3 distinct guitars in a way you can't on Brave New World. A Matter of Life and Death is, well, it depends on whether you like Somewhere in Time or No Prayer for the Dying more, because it's the other one.

I'm tempted to say that The Final Frontier is the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son of the re-Bruce era. It's better than its immediate predecessor, but that's like saying that Revenge of the Sith is better than Attack of the Clones. It's more progressive than its immediate predecessor, too, and since AMoLaD was plodding and by-the-numbers, that's not a bad thing.

Okay, here's how the songs break down.

"Satellite 15... The Final Frontier" (Smith/Harris). What are you guys, Megadeth? (Actually, given the thrashy rhythms coming soon...) This song is a mashup of at least three separate and frankly unlinkable riffs, kind of like the Medley at the end of Abbey Road, and that comparison becomes truly apt when you remember Steve Harris' threats that this might just be the last Maiden album. The first riff, that bass thing with all the effects, is really cool and doesn't sound like Maiden at all (no, that's not an oxymoron), but the vocals in "Satellite 15" aren't really inspiring. "The Final Frontier" is a little bit better, but it sounds like Bruce double-tracked his vocals and didn't quite nail the second take. As a result, he sounds a bit hoarse (this is going to be a recurring problem on a few songs throughout the album, by the way).

"El Dorado" begins the way a song should end, essentially with what should have been a crashing final chord to "The Final Frontier." The song shows off the fact that, my previous comment notwithstanding, Bruce still does have the chops. The vocals go from the low growls in the verses to the middle (for Bruce) pre-choruses, and the high screams of the chorus. Strangely, he seems weakest in that middle range - otherwise, you might almost mistake this track for an outtake made somewhere between Seventh Son and No Prayer. Having Bruce (and Adrian Smith) on board to help write the song certainly helped ensure that even the high parts were in his range. That said, it is hard not to listen to the gallop here and not hear "Barracuda." More palm-muting would have made it better. And check out the rhythm guitar part in the pre-chorus!

"Mother of Mercy." It's by Smith and Harris (Steve Harris co-wrote every track on the album, so I'm just going to take his co-authorship as read from here on in). At just over 5 minutes, it doesn't overstay its welcome. Bruce actually holds notes for a while at a few points here. That's about all the positive things I can say about this song. It's not a bad song, it has its moments, but it's not anything special either. It's bland but sung well, and it doesn't overstay its welcome.

"Coming Home" is next. We're back to the "Children of the Damned" model for a quasi-ballad here. If there's a song that reminds me of AMoLaD, though, this is it during the loud parts. It's a Smith/Harris/Dickinson composition with a fairly decent riff, but the chorus leaves something to be desired.

"The Alchemist" sounds like a throwback to "Twilight Zone" even though Harris' co-writers here, Bruce and Janick, weren't in the band when that song was written. It's a distinct improvement over both the previous song and a sign that things are looking up, but we can also hear Bruce nearly stumbling over some of the faster lines. The pre-chours has not one but rising key changes - did Harris learn nothing from "Aces High?"

"Isle of Avalon" doesn't seem to last nine minutes. The first time I listened to it, I could tell that this was one of the standout tracks on the album. It's by Smith/Harris and at one point, perhaps in keeping with the space theme, sounds like the BGM in the original StarCraft. So... yeah.

"Starblind." Ho boy. I mentioned before that the timing on the intro is just... strange. Someone missed a beat somewhere. It's on that just-out-of-the-vocalist's-comfortable-range mark that works with some bands (see in particular, Pink Floyd's "Time" and, I'll throw them a bone here, the not-horrible Nirvana songs). The problem is, when Bruce does it, he just sounds hoarse. Now, at some point after his first three albums with the band, he learned to stay in tune (no, seriously, listen to "22 Acacia Avenue" or "2 Minutes to Midnight" closely enough and you can hear him lose it) much more consistently. But when the song's written that high, he starts to waver again. His name is on the credits for this one, so unlike, say, "Aces High," it's not a case of Steve Harris giving him something that's simply way to high. Adrian Smith's name is in the credits too, which might explain why various riffs here sound like 80s throwbacks. That's not a bad thing - God knows I'll take an 80s throwback over a 90s one any day.

Next up is a Gers/Harris composition called "The Talisman." For arguably the first time since "Ancient Mariner," Maiden's habit of bringing a kind of Medieval - see especially "Hallowed be Thy Name," the best song ever - feel to their songs really helps sell the story. The problem here is that this song has two separate intros - it has to stop at about 49 seconds in and change time signatures. The song finally starts almost two and a half minutes in, and it's got that second-most-famous Maiden fallback, the 3-3-2 beat. Ironically (since neither Dickinson nor Smith had a hand in writing this), this is the song that most reminds me of Bruce's horribly underrated solo album, Accident of Birth. Even still, it's a catchier, more-rock-than-metal take. Eventually the verse falls into a i-iii-vii-vi pattern - so another callback, but with a decent enough twist. The sign-out at the very end of the album reminds me explicitly of the sign-out from "Only the Good Die Young." Despite the fact that there are some interesting chord choices here and a nice deviation from the usual straight-up minor scale in the solo, this isn't exactly one of my favorite tracks on the album.

"The Man Who Would Be King" is Dave Murray's only songwriting contribution to the album, and it starts out reminding me of "Ghost of the Navigator," which isn't a bad way to start. The synths are actually noticeable here, but of course that's not a bad thing. The drums at around the 2 minute mark remind me of Metallica's "And Justice For All," oddly. This song is very comfortably in Bruce's range, but as always since rejoining the band, he's reluctant to hold notes for very long - at least until we get to the chorus, where he does briefly channel his 28-years-younger self ("running loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow").

"When the Wild Wind Blows" is an exercise in building on a theme. It starts out peaceful enough and turns into a full-on march just before the 3-minute mark. The theme itself never changes in all this time - and because they keep adding new elements, or arranging it just a little differently, that's fine. It does change just when it starts to get dull - anyone who says this song is too long has no patience. It's a fantastic close to a much better album than anyone should expect from a band this old.

It's going to be a toss-up based on your personal preference whether this is better than Brave New World or not. I think I'll leave it at that, though I'll pause on my way out to mention that the title is the weakest thing about the album - I mean, honestly, who wants to be reminded of the worst Star Trek film ever while listening to this?