Band : Iron Maiden
Album title : The Final Frontier
Label : EMI Records
Distributor : EMI Records
Release date : 16/08/2010
Release : CD

I've been a Maiden fan for all my life, except the Blaze Bailey period. As a matter of fact Iron Maiden was one of the first Heavy Metal bands I discovered and, together with Van Halen, those were the two groups that made me change my musical mind and become a Hard Rock and Heavy Metal fan. So you can guess it was with great eagerness that I went out to the record store to buy their new album.  All kinds of rumours were of course circulating, one of them that this was going to be their last album. So I just had to have it, also because in some magazines I'd read great critics about this album.

On my way home I put the CD in the car stereo. What a disappointment. I purposely had not visited the Maiden website before, where I could have seen and listened to the video clip. Otherwise I might have been warned. The first song starts with an over two minutes-long intro. Why this intro was necessary? I wouldn't know. Then you go over to the main part of the song. Bruce’s vocals sound as impressive as they've ever done, but this doesn't sound like the Maiden you've grown accustomed to over the last 30 years or so. ”El Dorado” starts with the traditional Maiden sound, but there's something lacking. I guess it's because they've tried too hard to tell some kind of story in this song, which means that there's rather quite a lot of text before you get to the chorus. “Mother Of Mercy” also starts like a classical Maiden song, and is more pleasing to me then the two previous tracks. Song number 4, “Coming Home”, is a slower paced song, to Maiden's standards you could call it a ballad. “The Alchemist” ups the tempo again, and is a good song, but up to know I'm not satisfied what is on offer. So over to the other halve of this record. “Isle Of Avalon” is a 9 minute-long epic journey, but takes too long to kick off. As a matter of fact I find the last three tracks on the album are the finest, but when judging the complete album, I find they have made better albums then this one. 

My conclusion : as a Maiden fan you will also buy this album of course, but I doubt if in let's say twenty years time this album will still be remembered. 

85/100

Erik Morren.