Iron Maiden - Fear of the Dark

Prog Maiden Hasn't Topped 'ACCIDENT OF BIRTH' Yet, If they can achieve such feat, I'll worship Steve Harris like a God

I like Fear Of The Dark and it is a frequent Maiden player for me. Was so excited to have found a Castle version with the bonus disc for really cheap last summer. That was until I heard the bonus disc. Most of them are unbelievably annoying even for joke bonus tracks. Even worse on my ipod those tracks got mixed in between the albums regular tracks. I really need to fix that.

mc666 wrote:

meh, it's decent. i prefer No Prayer for the Dying though. i'm in the minority of course.

I don't prefer No Prayer to Fear of the Dark, but I don't think that No Prayer is as bad of an album as everyone makes it out to be. By Iron Maiden standards it's very sub par, but against any other album, it's quite solid.

I join you in the minority - I still know all the lyrics to every song on No Prayer... that's true love!

mc666 wrote:

sh*t... Somewhere in Time is my fave Maiden album. is it really that hated?

Not by a long shot....


ALEXANDER THE GREAT


nuff said....

There are only 3 Maiden albums that never get played by me; No Prayer (because it's embarrassingly bad) and the two albums with Blaze. Fear Of The Dark falls into the passable category for me, I always end up hitting the skip button multiple times during it's length.

I love their current sound, I don't know if I'm comfortable calling it "progressive" because it's all "in the pocket" kind of arrangements, but it's definitely theatrical in presentation.

I find Fear Of The Dark highly under rated. One of my fave Maiden tunes,From Here To Eternity, is on it. I also like No Prayer as well. Of course,I don't think any of the Bruce albums are poor so take that as you will.

This was actually my first Maiden album. Why did I start so late? I have no idea. Maybe because I was only just starting to get into more Metal bands and I didn't really know what Maiden was about or really sounded like. I think it was after I saw the Headbangers Ball Episode where they took over the whole show is when I really got interested in them. I thought the album was great then and still do now. Yea theres a few crap songs but they aren't that bad except for Weekend Warrior What were they thinking with that one? Yea they have better albums but This was a point in time when all bands like this were not sure what to do because of the grunge scene.

I really like Fear of the Dark. Be Quick or Be Dead and the title track are my favorites for sure.

And Somewhere in Time is my very favorite Maiden album, every song is excellent!

snooloui wrote:

Fear of the Dark was in a more hard rock vein than their previous albums.

Yeah, I definitely agree with this. I think that's why I like it so much now, whereas before when I only liked heavy music I didn't like it.

It's not a favorite of mine, but I don't dislike it either. It has some really good tunes on it.

Might as well post this here. I'm not sure where I found the artwork originally, but I use it as the cover-art for the album on my iPod/iTunes library because the official artwork sucks

Fear of the Dark never left my memory in the first place. I still play it occasionally.

One awesome track here that hasn't been mentioned is Childhood's End. It's probably in my top 10-top 20 Maiden tracks. It's something very different from your typical Maiden song. Melodic, cool, but very powerful.

Lari wrote:

One awesome track here that hasn't been mentioned is Childhood's End. It's probably in my top 10-top 20 Maiden tracks. It's something very different from your typical Maiden song. Melodic, cool, but very powerful.

That's my favorite song from FOTD, easily. I wish they had explored similar territory elsewhere on the album.

Fear of the Dark is ok. Nothing spectacular, but there are a few good tracks on there. I also agree it is better than most of their proggy stuff, except Brave New World.

The order I like them in is

1 Killers
2 Somewhere in Time
3 The Number of the Beast
4 Piece of Mind
5 Powerslave
6 Iron Maiden
7 Brave New World
8 Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
9 Fear of the Dark
10 Dance of Death
11 No Prayer for the Dying
12 A Matter of Life and Death
13 Virtual XI
14 X Factor
15 Final Frontier (just when you thought it couldn't get any worse than the Blaze era, they did and this album proves it!)

Yep, Hard Rock mixed with a little bit of Old Maiden (tho it was obvious they wanted their own version of the 'Black Album' too), whereas bands like EXTREME and DOKKEN were so worried they took the nasty plunge and sounded like 1000s of other Grunge acts during that time.

Damn I really hated the early nineties, it makes me cringe whenever I remember those days

Lurideath wrote:

Final Frontier (just when you thought it couldn't get any worse than the Blaze era, they did and this album proves it!)

Lazy, Boring,Pointless and Rushed....it's like putting a Cockroach on a maze
I tried to digest the whole album bit by bit hoping to get something out of it but to no avail, what exactly were they trying to achieve here

Sorry if this has been mentioned before but I have always contended that if Maiden had taken all the best songs from No Prayer and combined those with all the better songs on Fear of the Dark - it would make for a very solid album.

As it stands, I feel No Prayer for the Dying is a tad more consistent and has more quality songs than Fear of the Dark. That is not saying much because even No Prayer is not quite on par with Maiden's mid-80s efforts.

At the same time, Maiden should be cut some considerable slack for both No Prayer and Fear of the Dark. Both albums were released after a string of consistently excellent to now classic albums. I count a total of 7 albums that imo were all great. That is a lot more than what most other bands that are now criticised for changing their style / selling out (whatever) have on their resume.

Creatively too, Maiden weren't as homogenous and as focused as they had been on those earlier 7 albums. Creative difference crept up with Bruce wanting to pursue a different more 'hard rock' driven direction, and line-up changes with Adrian Smith being replaced by Janick Gers, who imo, brought a no frills hard rock flavour into the band.

The changing time, the new line-up and creative differences set Maiden on a stylistically confused path and ultimately (for a number of years) to a creative rock bottom with glimpses and fading memories of a band that was once a dominating force in metal (I'm talking here about the X-Factor / Virtual XI eras).

Of course the last 12 years have redeemed Maiden to its former glories, and with a lot of hindsight even the less than stellar moments of their career are now being turned around into classic moments - I mean look at the way some of those mid-90s Bruce-less songs are now coming to life with Bruce and are being made to fit well along side the rest of the band's catalog.

mc666 wrote:

sh*t... Somewhere in Time is my fave Maiden album. is it really that hated?

This is my favorite also. I've probably listened to it as much all the others combined.

I really don't understant all that hate for the Blaze era albums; i think The X Factor is one of their most interesting albums, an album that has a lot of personality; i would place it easily in my top 5 along with Killers,Powerslave, Somewhere in Time and Piece of Mind.

Somewhere in Time is probably my most favorite Maiden album too. If I were really hard pressed to choose a Maiden album that would be my first choice.

Regarding some the comments made about the 'prog-era' Maiden: I think Brave New World put Maiden on the right course but with each album that followed, it seems to me like the band is becoming more indulgent and at times overindulgent in this whole prog-based style. They are at their best when their songs are to the point - memorable riffs is what has made Maiden a classic band (regardless of whether it's a short or long song).

I understand that they want to maintain the relevance and not become another nostalgia act - or repeat the same song structure that made them famous (ala ACDC or Motorhead). But at the same time, they need to kinda ... balance things out a bit..

Ever since it came out, I have not been able to fully digest The Final Frontier. It has some really great moments but that's the problem, moments as opposed to songs. The songs just don't stick enough - there unfortunately is too much fluff.

I saw them in concert on the Final Frontier tour and whilst I had fun and mostly enjoyed the songs, the Final Frontier stuff seemed just ... out of place ... oh hell it felt just boring at times.

dark avenger wrote:

I really don't understant all that hate for the Blaze era albums; i think The X Factor is one of their most interesting albums, an album that has a lot of personality; i would place it easily in my top 5 along with Killers,Powerslave, Somewhere in Time and Piece of Mind.

I think the X Factor is their strongest from the Blaze-era. I also agree that it has a stronger identity than say Fear of the Dark - ironically, it is much 'darker' sounding than FOTD.

In fact my criticism isn't so much about this album but more about the self-imposed limitations the band experienced with Blaze. Take Maiden with Blaze in concert - a complete atrocity. Whilst Blaze sounded good on some songs like Afraid to Shoot Strangers (ironically better than Bruce imo) he simply could not take charge of songs requiring a higher tonality like the Trooper or Evil That Men Do and so on. Songs that had become staples on Maiden's setlist.

As an album, the X-Factor has some truly great songs and testament to that is the band still plays those lives (unlike Priest that seem to have wiped out all memory of the Ripper-era).

However, my comment about hitting rock bottom in part relates to Maiden's live show which is and has always been an integral part of who the band is - of the band's sound, style, image, identity whatever you want to call it. Maiden is and will always be a live band on top of being a studio band imo. With Blaze that imo disappeared - or at best it was simply off...

Creatively, while the X-Factor was a good album (just under the wrong band name) - Virtual XI seemed to lack both creativity and confidence in the band's ability. A couple of good songs but the rest seemed more confused and removed from Maiden's identity than even Weekend Warrior was ...

That's my take on it.

dark avenger wrote:

I really don't understant all that hate for the Blaze era albums; i think The X Factor is one of their most interesting albums, an album that has a lot of personality; i would place it easily in my top 5 along with Killers,Powerslave, Somewhere in Time and Piece of Mind.

My Reason

He Tried Too hard sound like Bruce

and IF Bruce were to re-record all the Blaze albums, you know what the outcome would be like, so there is your barometer right there.

His voice isn't versatile enough, good but not great and somewhat restricts Steve Harris' songwriting (quite obvious in the X Factor) and at times when I listen to him, he kinda reminds me of Messiah Marcolin

On the X-Factor Blaze didn't try to sound like Bruce AT ALL. And he didn't sound anything like him. He was being himself, removing the band away from the Bruce-era, and on purpose I might add.

I think it is okay that Blaze sounded like himself and not like Bruce.

I don't think that is even an issue. It's not that Blaze is not a good vocalist he was just not a good fit for Maiden in the context of a band with a legacy as long as theirs, and whose popularity was achieved with a singer whose range was nothing like Blaze's vocal range.

It's one thing to release a decent album with a new singer, that is not impossible and I think the X-Factor shows that "Maiden" could benefit from a more creative sound. However, the real test came when Blaze was to front not just Maiden behind the X-Factor album but Maiden's legacy which had been built and cemented by Bruce Dickinson's voice.

That is where Blaze failed or I should say where Steve Harris' experiment of trying to change Maiden (purposely) into something different did not work. Heck, look at the fan reaction on youtube when Blaze tries to sing The Trooper.

Alex Dee Rokket wrote:

Ever since it came out, I have not been able to fully digest The Final Frontier. It has some really great moments but that's the problem, moments as opposed to songs. The songs just don't stick enough - there unfortunately is too much fluff.

I know what you mean. I still haven't been able to 'get' the Final Frontier. I love the last four songs though. What a great way to finish off an album. But the rest leaves me bewildered. Tracks 1-6. Whatever they were going for, I don't think it worked. It's not that great.