October 1, 1990 - No Prayer For The Dying

Ten days after my last release and two and a half years since "Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son", Iron Maiden released their eighth album "No Prayer For The Dying" on October 1, 1990. Maiden have their first line-up change since 1983 as guitarist Adrian Smith quit the band, unhappy with the musical direction that they were taking. Smith has been around since their second album and is definitely a great guitarist and will surely be missed. The rest of the band stays intact and joining Dave Murray on guitar as Smith's replacement is Janick Gers. Iron Maiden decided to go for a more stripped down sound on this album with less synthesizers, less progressive music (it's actually the only album in their history with no songs over six minutes long) and Bruce Dickinson singing in a raspier and much less operatic voice. Let's see what the new Iron Maiden is all about!

The album begins with "Tailgunner" and it has some slow build-up guitar with Steve Harris playing a cool bass riff overtop. The guitars get louder in the verse and we hear Dickinson sing in his non-operatic voice. He sounds solid still, but it's definitely less epic-sounding than usual. This slightly toned down Maiden is still very heavy metal and still way better metal than most people could do, but it does seem like a bit of a step down after the epic awesomeness of their last several albums. As you'd expect the guitar solo is pretty sweet but it sounds like one guitarist the whole time so I have no idea if it's Murray or newcomer Gers. Either way, it's a cool little solo and despite Dickinson's vocals being less epic, I think Bruce still has a charismatic and solid voice. Up next is the first single, "Holy Smoke", and they kick right into a catchy and upbeat main riff and it's already no surprise why this easy-going but cool song was chosen for the big hit single. Dickinson sings pretty fast in this one and even though it sounds like he's losing his breath at times, I like this raspier style of singing and it's impressive that Bruce has two solid singing voices. He briefly goes high in the chorus and reminds us what he can do, but most of the song is sung lower and it sounds pretty good. The solo in this song is really something as we hear some really fast and awesome guitar, but once again it sounds like all one guitarist. Perhaps Murray is doing enough for both parts, and if so he's stepped up his game on this song with a phenomenal solo before they jam out a final verse and chorus. Track 3 is the title track "No Prayer For The Dying" and it opens with a slow guitar riff and another cool bass riff from Harris that sets up this slow and fairly sappy-sounding verse. When the guitar is electric and loud it sounds decent but nothing amazing, but most of the time it's doing almost nothing as Harris carries things on bass. Steve sounds great but everyone else sounds pretty underwhelming on this atypically slow song for Maiden. They suddenly speed up for a very long solo and for the first time they do the typical Maiden thing and have both guitarists take turn soloing. This part goes on for over a minute and both Murray and Gers play some pretty sweet guitar as they both get a chance to really let fly. It's another awesome Maiden solo but then they slow things down again to finish it and the rest of the song was sub-par for them. The next song is "Public Enema Number One" and like most Iron Maiden songs it has some cool guitar leading the way with Harris and Nicko McBrain providing an always fast and steady rhythm section. Dickinson leads another verse and while I keep wanting to say a "toned-down" verse it's really only toned down for Bruce; this rapier voice is still a solid metal voice but it's just so different from what we've come to expect. They nicely slow things down in the chorus before speeding up for another verse and after another chorus it's solo time again. It's a shorter solo that again sounds like just one guitarist, but as usual it's a pretty epic and awesome solo with flashes of shredding brilliance. It rolls perfectly back into the main riff for a predictable finish, but this was still a solid song. Side one ends with "Fates Warning" and it's another slow song that opens with slow guitars and even some synths. One guitarist plays a cool lead riff and then they snap into a more typical Maiden sound and seamlessly flow into a cool verse with Dickinson nicely leading the way and Harris playing some great bass in the background. They play a nice verse and chorus and then we are treated to a typically awesome solo, followed by a cool melodic part with both guitars synced up, followed by another short solo! It's another wonderful instrumental section from Maiden and they wrap things up with a final chorus to close out what was mostly a good first side.

Side two kicks off with "The Assassin" and Harris plays some nice fast bass in the background while the guitar epic-ly leads the way. Dickinson sings a solid verse and the chorus is pretty catchy as some members sing "better watch out" in the background while Dickinson nicely yells "'cause I'm the assassin!" We get another back-to-back solo from the guitarists and while the first one isn't that special, the second one steps things up a bit. They then play a final verse and chorus to finish things off. Track 7 is "Run Silent Run Deep" and it opens very quiet with just a light guitar part, but after 30 seconds or so they nicely kick into a more typical metal Maiden main riff. Dickinson does a nice job switching between his raspy voice for the verse and his higher voice in the chorus. Murray and Gers have another back-to-back solo and both of them do a pretty great job in this song as both solos are pretty cool. They end things with a final verse and chorus before Dickinson nicely closes out the song as he sings a final chorus overtop a return to the slow opening riff. The next song is "Hooks In You" and McBrain plays a catchy drum beat to start and the rest of the band joins in to form another typical(ly cool) Maiden riff. I'm surprised this wasn't chosen as a single, as it has a very catchy lead guitar riff and Dickinson sings a nice fast verse and chorus. This song (and most of the album) has been some more cool metal riffs and solos by Maiden, but none of it really stands out in your mind and the songs just don't seem to have that extra "it" factor; perhaps due to the departure of Smith. Track 9 is surprisingly the most succesful single in Iron Maiden's career, despite not being one of their iconic songs, and it's called "Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter". Harris plays some once heavy bass but this slow main riff makes it a very odd choice for the single for me. The verse is decent but definitely not their best stuff and the chorus is very repetitive, and perhaps most surprising of all is the lack of awesome guitars. I'm completely dumbfounded that this is Maiden's most successful single on the charts; I think it might be the worst song on the album! The guitar finally shows up in the solo and one guitarist plays a pretty awesomely fast solo, but it's immediately followed by way too many choruses and I think it's easily the worst song on the album, and possibly of their career so far! It's not even a bad song (showing Iron Maiden's floor is still decent metal), but it's a far cry from their 80s work. The final song on the album is "Mother Russia" and it opens with a pretty epic riff with both guitars and the bass all synced up followed by some really epic sounding "ohhing" by some female back-up singers. This all nicely and progressively leads into a catchy mian guitar riff and this is more like it! Dickinson sings a fittingly epic verse and this seems like a great choice to close out the album as everything sounds great! This is the longest song on the album and there's a long build-up to the solo that does a great job of building the anticipation of the epic solo that you know is coming. And they deliver, as we are treated to a nice and long back-to-back solo with tons of great guitar. They then return to the epic opening riff to finish things off and I think the worst song was followed by the best one on the album! A fine finish!

That is the end of "No Prayer For The Dying" and I thought it was a decent, but certainly not amazing album. The departure of Adrian Smith hurts and although Janick Gers is a fine guitarist, I don't think he's as good as Smith was and Smith's songwriting is missed as well as there were a couple songs that while decent, are not up to Iron Maiden's lofty standards. I previously had their debut album "Iron Maiden" with their old singer as my least favourite album by Iron Maiden, but even that debut was better than this latest offering and so "No Prayer For The Dying" comes in 8th out of 8. I still enjoyed most of this album, but it's easily a lesser work for these metal revolutionaries.