Iron Maiden's Reviews

No Prayer For The Dying

(Average Rating: 6.20 out of 10)

A good album despite some shortcomings

(Rated this album with 8 out of 10)
Reviewed by Der Kommissar from america

True, this album disappointed a lot of fans, returning to a raw sound after two extremely progressive albums. They were also angered to see Adrian Smith leave the band, and be replaced by White Spirit guitarist Janick Gers. Many people consider this album to be the low point of the band's career because of this line-up change, but I fail to see anything wrong with Janick's abilities. However, the new issue of this album DOES NOT feature the original cover. On the original, Eddie was reaching out of the grave, strangling a grave robber. On new versions it looks like he's just grabbing air. Now on to the album.

Tail Gunner - Mid-tempo rocker with interesting vocals and a good guitar solo. A

Holy Smoke - An interesting lighter hard rocker, this one seems to use a bit of grunge influence. A

No Prayer For The Dying - Experimental melodic hard rocker. A

Public Enema Number One - Good hard rocker with excellent vocal delivery in the chorus. A

Fates Warning - Hard rocker featuring an excellent semi-melodic chorus. A

The Assassin: - The chorus of this track bites, but the verses feature some excellent riffs. A-

Run Silent Run Deep: Heavy verses and melodic guitar stylings make this the best track here. A+

Hooks In You: Part Three in the Charlotte series. This one uses some classic NWOBHM-inspired riffs, but Bruce's voice just doesn't sound good. A-

Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter: A good raw hard rocker, but it loses points for stealing a guitar part from Can I Play With Madness. A-

Mother Russia: Many guitar stylings are experimented with here, as well as some brief melodic sessions. Bruce's vocals also are good here. A+

If you give it a chance, this is a good album. But if you got into Somewhere In Time and Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son so much you wanted another album of that type, prepare to be
disappointed. This is Maiden's attempted return to normalcy in order to keep their original "street vibe" alive. The next album would be Bruce's last. How would it measure up?

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