01. Satellite 15... The Final Frontier 02. El Dorado 03. Mother Of Mercy 04. Coming Home 05. The Alchemist 06. Isle Of Avalon 07. Starblind 08. The Talisman 09. The Man Who Would Be King 10. When The Wild Wind Blows
Additional info Produced by Kevin Shirley.
Co-produced by Steve Harris.
Mixed by Kevin 'Caveman' Shirley.
Recorded at Compass Point Studios, Nassau, Bahamas.
Engineer: Jared Kvitka.
Studio Technician: Terry Manning.
Additional recording and mix at The Cave, Malibu, CA.
Studio Technician: Brent Spear.
Assistant: James McCullagh.
SSL Duality Technician: Philip Scholes.
Mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering, Portland, ME.
Art Direction & Design by Peacock (Stuart Crouch, Andrew Yap, Anthony Dry, Rob Wallis).
Cover Illustration, working drawings and sketches by Melvyn Grant.
Photograph by John McMurtrie.
Background images pages 4/5 and 8/9 by Darkside Animations, background image pages 10/11 by Hangman.
Iron Maiden have had ups and downs, but they consistently stuck to their unique style. 2006's A Matter of Life and Death saw a serious departure from that style towards a darker, more progressive sound - it was only a partial success. Unfortunately, Steve Harris and Co. felt encouraged, and decided to go further in their departures. The first 4 songs on The Final Frontier rank among the worst this band has ever committed and most of the time sound nothing like the Iron Maiden everyone knows. Departure from style my ass. If they wanted to depart again, the previous album was the way to do it.
It seems like it's become trendy to dislike any music that becomes even somewhat mainstream. I am by no means bitter; I'm guilty of this prejudice quite often. So, when I saw the album votes go the way they did for The Final Frontier I wasn't shocked. But, in all honesty, I thought this album was pretty hard! This is one of Maiden's most successful albums to date and for a damn good reason. While it does sound different from anything they've done before, that doesn't make it worse. Do you really want three albums that sound exactly like Brave New World?
Actually I don't find any of the songs on this album to be epic ala Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner or Mother Russia or Paschendale or even Brighter Than A Thousand Suns.
They're mainly just long songs.
Mother Russia is far from being epic IMO. Paschendale is overrated a bit. 'Rhyme...' and 'Brighter...' are both great and epic, just like 'Isle Of Avalon'.
The worst thing about The Final Frontier is IMO the single, 'El Dorado' is nothing special. And one more thing -> Production of this album is great and better than production of last two albums. I have completely no idea why some people complain about it.
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The worst thing about The Final Frontier is IMO the single, 'El Dorado' is nothing special.
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The intro Satellite 15 is the worst thing. El Dorado was the first song i listened, and i said yes, i will buy this album. I don't have the previous two discs from them, are soulless, precisely what has this last record: soul and feeling.
One of the biggest disappointments in music for my part. I bought it on the release day and now 6 years later it's still probably Maidens worst album. The production is dry and boring and Bruce often strain his voice to the point that it becomes annoying. The first 6 tracks are just plain boring (Isle of Avalon is the best of the bunch), at many times in these songs it gives a feeling of lazy songwriting, there's just too much stuff here that doesn't hold up on a Maiden album. Luckily the second half of the album is far better, in fact both Starblind and When The Wind Blows are excellent Maiden tunes (both with incredible lyrics). The Talisman is also a pretty nice tune.
Shortly put: a boring album. I don't quite see why the band (or Harris) wanted to go for these longer type of albums, in this case 75+ minutes, which is clearly too much. The album is saved pretty much only by "WtWWB".
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The guitar is my sword, I'll fight 'til I die /../
An album that is a bit like Killers (I know that won't be a popular opinion) for me. Half the songs on the album don't connect with me. And the other half are really good songs imo.
I really like: Mother Of Mercy, Starblind, Isle Of Avalon, The Talisman, The Man Who Would Be King and When The Wild Wind Blows.
However there are also some of their weakest 2000s tracks on this album. The opener is probably my least favourite 2000s IM song, The Alchemist is just "meh", El Dorado has some cool riffs but overall it's just an okay song imo and Coming Home... well I don't feel anything while listening to that song so I would say it's a disappointing song.
Am I the only one who absolutely loves this album?
Nah, I like this album as well. The only songs I'm not really a fan of are the opening track and The Alchemist. El Dorado and Coming Home are okay songs. The rest I love. I really love songs like: Mother Of Mercy, Starblind, The Talisman and When The Wild Wind Blows,... In fact I find Starblind to be one of their best songs of the 2000s era (only Paschendale, Empire Of the Clouds and Ghost Of The Navigator would be ranked higher).
I mean 5:03 - 5:40 That's just some fantastic guitar work right there.
Am I the only one who absolutely loves this album?
Nah, I like this album as well. The only songs I'm not really a fan of are the opening track and The Alchemist. El Dorado and Coming Home are okay songs. The rest I love. I really love songs like: Mother Of Mercy, Starblind, The Talisman and When The Wild Wind Blows,... In fact I find Starblind to be one of their best songs of the 2000s era (only Paschendale, Empire Of the Clouds and Ghost Of The Navigator would be ranked higher).
I mean 5:03 - 5:40 That's just some fantastic guitar work right there.
Actually I really like the whole Satellite 15 thing altough I do understand why people hate it... Besides that El Dorado isn't really a masterpiece but it's still enjoyable. The rest to me is gold, in fact the sequence os Isle Of Avalon, Starblind and The Talisman makes the album worth listening on its own and yes indeed Starblind is just amazing (that guitar work jeeeeez)
Very strong album from Iron Maiden in my opinion. Their songs are starting to get over long, but the boring segments are few and far between. Their lead single "El Dorado" is pretty mediocre though, and should not have been there. The Alchemist is solid, but lack some creativity for me. Satellite 15 is a weird opening, but it doesn't bother me too much, the track it leads into is great. Other than that I pretty much love every track other track on the album. Very solid and interesting album from Maiden with a unique atmosphere. Miles better than it's overblown and overrated sequel.
I remember hating this album when i first listened to it. I recently went back to it and found to my own surprised that there are some real gems on here. While I still think that it has some of my least favorite Maiden tracks period, it also some of my favorite 2000s tracks. I especially love The Talisman(was really surprised that Dickinson could still pull of those vocals), Isle of Avalon, Mother of Mercy and the brilliant closer, When the Wild Wind Blows.