3 0 years on from the release of their first album, former NWOBHM poster boys turned bona fide global metal gods Iron Maiden release their fifteenth album, the teasingly entitled The Final Frontier, and it’s by far their weightiest, most ambitious opus in their much storied history. Clocking in at a whopping 76 minutes, the ten track slab of wax features epic after epic, all tied together by Bruce Dickinson’s unmistakable air-raid siren, founder Steve Harris’ athletic bass-playing and Mssrs Murray, Smith and Gers’ insanely accomplished guitar-work.
Not a record for the fair-weather fan (there’s no ‘Run To The Hills’ or ‘Wrathchild’ on here) the band continue to push themselves in a prog metal direction, producing some of the best material in their career in the process. Album opener ‘Satellite 15’ is by far the most bizarre song they’ve ever put their name to and sounds like they’ve mixed Muse’s electro-rock with drum ‘n bass (yes, really) before we get back to familiar territory with the title track and ‘El Dorado’s unmistakable gallop. There are highlights galore, but the soaring ‘Starblind,’ and ‘The Talisman’ in particular are vintage Maiden.
Finishing the album with the complex and moving ‘Where The Wild Wind Blows’ (a song based on Raymond Briggs’ none too jolly graphic novel about an elderly couple who end up dying in a radiation fallout shelter), Dickinson delivers one of his best vocal performances of the album and it’s destined to become a much cherished live track in the vein of ‘Fear Of The Dark.’ On the evidence of The Final Frontier Iron Maiden are still at the height of their powers.