Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier

Blitzkrieg

Blitzkrieg

Master Exploder
Apr 13, 2001
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The release date for IRON MAIDEN’S new studio album THE FINAL FRONTIER is now confirmed for Monday 16th August.

The new album pictured here features artwork illustrated by Melvyn Grant and, to mark the occasion, the band have made special arrangements for one new album track 'EL DORADO' to be made available Worldwide as a FREE digital download MP3 with immediate effect.
 
The-Final-Frontier-cover.jpg


Singer Bruce Dickinson explains ‘El Dorado is a preview of the forthcoming studio album. As we will be including it in the set of our Final Frontier World Tour (which opens in Dallas On 9th June - full dates below) we thought it would be great to thank all our fans and get them into The Final Frontier mood by giving them this song up front of the tour and album release’

The band reunited with long-time Maiden producer Kevin “Caveman” Shirley in early 2010 at Compass Point Studios, Nassau to record the album and then moved to LA to finish the recording and do the mixing. Compass Point Studio is very familiar to the band, it was where they recorded the Piece Of Mind (’83), Powerslave (’84) and Somewhere In Time (’86) albums.

Bruce comments “The studio had the same vibe and it was EXACTLY as it had been in 1983, NOTHING had changed! Even down to the broken shutter in the corner...same carpet....everything... It was really quite spooky. But we felt very relaxed in such a familiar and well-trodden environment and I think this shows in the playing and the atmosphere of the album”

Thirty years on from their eponymous debut album in April 1980, The Final Frontier will be Maiden’s 15th studio album, making a remarkable average of a new album every two years for 30 years and totalling over 80 million album sales during this period.

The full tracklisting for the album (total running time 76:35) is:





THE FINAL FRONTIER

1. Satellite 15....The Final Frontier 8:40
2. El Dorado 6:49
3. Mother Of Mercy 5:20
4. Coming Home 5:52
5. The Alchemist 4:29
6. Isle Of Avalon 9:06
7. Starblind 7:48
8. The Talisman 9:03
9. The Man Who Would Be King 8:28
10. When The Wild Wind Blows 10:59


The Final Frontier World Tour begins in Dallas on June 9th with 25 shows in major cities across the USA and Canada, playing to an expected 350,000 fans or more. Following this the tour will ship over to Europe starting in Dublin on July 30 and playing a few selected major festivals and stadiums , finishing in Valencia, Spain, on Aug 21 and including a concert in Transylvania.

Says bass player and founder member Steve Harris “We’re hugely excited about this tour. I think the fans will really like the brand new stage production and lights and we will also be debuting one of the new album tracks , El Dorado. Our Texan fans will be the very first people anywhere to hear it live, so it will be interesting to see their reaction and how it goes down with the crowd on the night! Eddie has changed a bit for this tour but is possibly the most outrageous one to date... I can’t say too much about him as don’t want to spoil the surprise but I guarantee he will scare the hell out of you!”
 
Certainly interesting. The riff is more "hard rock" than anything on AMOLAD, and it's also no where near as dark as anything on it. Bruce is also not belting it out as he usually does, but that's a good thing. In fact the vocals bring to mind Skunkworks in certain places.
 
Interesting song. At first I thought someone on YouTube was playing a prank and just putting Hit the Lights on, then suddenly it turned into an Airbourne song... but yeah, pretty good.

Let's play "Who wrote that song?" for the setlist. My picks are:

1. Satellite 15....The Final Frontier 8:40 Smith/Dickinson
2. El Dorado 6:49 Harris
3. Mother Of Mercy 5:20 Gers/Harris
4. Coming Home 5:52 Smith/Dickinson
5. The Alchemist 4:29 Smith/Dickinson
6. Isle Of Avalon 9:06 Harris/Murray
7. Starblind 7:48 Harris/Dickinson
8. The Talisman 9:03 Harris
9. The Man Who Would Be King 8:28 Smith/Dickinson
10. When The Wild Wind Blows 10:59 Harris/Murray
 
I think I like it.. quite different to what I was expecting.
sounds more like something off a Bruce Dickinson album, specifically Tyranny Of Souls.
 
I think it's Eddie. I'm assuming it's Eddie. Sure doesn't look like Eddie.

The first Maiden album without Eddie was the original Live at Donington.
 
... wow. :err:

This is the proper final mix? It sounds like the pre-production ideas, where not everyone has worked out exactly what they want to do yet - some playing is really out of time and a lot of the drum parts are like "OK, let's do this hat groove here, OK snare now... oh yeah, I was doing that hat thing wasn't I? Better keep doing that - oops!".

It's definitely an interesting change from standard Maiden fare, and Davey and H's solos are absolutely fantastic, but other than that... eesh. I can't say I dig it! :erk:
 
Sounds very Bruce solo inspired and very rock inspired, perhaps stearing away from the prog of the last couple of albums. I think the bass and triplets sound very Piece Of Mind / Powerslave era. Maybe they took inspiration from recording in the same studio as those albums as mentioned in the press release. I like the big rock intro and outro, unexpectedly wanky for Maiden which is cool.

Judging by this sound and the fact that most songs are fairly lengthy I am expecting a bit of a mix of proggy modern Maiden, classic era Maiden and some surprises. Very interesting indeed! I'm also glad that the first single wasn't the standard Wildest Dreams, Different World or even Wicker Man short rocker style track. The album opener looks to be an epic as well which strays a bit from the usual formula. Can't wait!

As soon as the title and teaser art was leaked I sort of imagined Eddie had made the journey into space being the final frontier, and that is him wrecking havoc on the cover. I like the concept, not sure about the pic. I like the El Dorado artwork downloaded with the mp3 though!
 
Reactions on blabbermouth seem pretty positive which is surprising, and most of the negative stuff is from people who didn't like the last few albums anyway, so their opinions are void. I will check out the official forum for a look at what people are saying later on.
 
I quite like it. I think Bruce's vocals are a bit weak and strained, and the sound could be much better (honestly, what is it with the muddyness of their sound on some songs lately? Or is it just me?). Hoping for a better final mix, but I doubt they'd put this out without it being the final thing.
 
The mp3 compression might have made it a tad muddier, and one comment I read on blab from a dude said that he listened on studio monitors and it sounded fine, but the mix on normal speakers was comparitively worse, so maybe the cd will sound much better. I think Dance Of Death sounds muddy, but AMOLAD sounds great. Didn't bother me too much anyway. The guitars sound great.

I think Bruce sounds a bit flat but not so much strained, he just seems to be holding back a bit.

Not the most catchy of songs so will need many more listens to digest.
 
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