Iron Maiden's Reviews
Fear Of The Dark (Average Rating: 7.30 out of 10)
Uninspired and disappointing (Rated this album with 6 out of 10)
Reviewed by
alexander_the_great_1982
from UK
Let me cut to the chase with this review and state right off the bat that this is not vintage maiden, this is a maiden lost in transition and coming to an end of an era. All was not well in the Maiden camp, tensions were fray between Steve Harris and Bruce Dickinson due to conflicting views in musical direction and new guitarist Janik Gers was getting flack for his off the wall style which was uncomplimentary with Dave Murray's. Also metal was coming back down to earth following the glory days of the 1980s but all this was nothing as for the complete demise of Maiden in the early 90s could be summed up in two words - Adrian Smith. Smith was a key player in the songwriting department and his superior controlled and highly melodic style along with the telepathic understanding with life time friend Dave Murray was the soul of Maiden's sound.Following the disastrous 'No prayer for the dying' there had to be some improvement and there was, but sadly very little. Things starting well with the flying opener 'be quick or be dead' great sound, heavy and great lyrics, good ol' anti-capitalist stuff. It is here we are introduced to Bruce Dickinson's raspy, deeper vocals which are a clear indication maiden are going for more linear metal to take after their pinnacle metal/prog achievement 'Seventh Son of a Seventh Son' which was a masterpiece. The second song 'From here to Eternity underlines Maidens new direction, flirting with the girls, bikes and leather metal styling, this song me be a semi-spoof but to the untrained eye it's just hair metal, something Maiden thankfully never were. This feel is incorporated over into 'fear is the key', 'wasting love', 'chains of misery', 'Judas be my guide' and 'weekend warrior' which are so utterly dreadful they get the prize for being the lowest of the low on any Maiden album. On these songs The melodies are straight forward and predictable, vocally and lyrically uninspiring and Janik's soloing as masturbatory at times, simply awful. However if it wasn't for 3 outstanding all time Maiden classics which can be found on this album I would be e-mailing Amazon to put in a minus star rating option. The songs 'Be quick or be Dead', 'Afraid to shoot Strangers' and the epic 'Fear of the Dark' make the album worthwhile. Based on the gulf war track 3 'Afraid to shoot stranger's is both musically and lyrically beautiful with a poetic feel in it's melody and energising explosion in the middle, basically war is put to music, and it's fantastically done.
From here on in your sitting through some very average and at times awful music and your wondering what the hell is going on until 'Fear of the Dark' hits. Wow, what a song, a classic all time metal anthem rises from the dust of the album and packs one hell of a punch. From the epic opening lines to the immensely energetic explosion it grabs hold and doesn't let go, even Janik manages to pull of a blinder of a solo, feel, energy, killer riffs and a sing along chorus you cannot go wrong. Overall this album is poor by Maiden standards and for me the made the wrong choice for regressing to a kind of Americanised biker hair metal theme. Also as we all know things went from bad to worse after this album although the story did have a happy ending with the reunion of Bruce and Adrian and the brilliant 'Brave new World' and they found the Maiden of old, forever may it prosper.
Buy this album on Amazon at $17.98
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