Band:	Iron Maiden
Album:	The Final Frontier
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	August 2010

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

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.

'Sounds like shit' - this was my first thought when I heard the longish introduction to the album. "Satellite 15..." is so unlike anything that Iron Maiden have ever recorded. A crude, repeating drum pattern, distorted, spacy sounds, drunken guitars that go nowhere. Even the vocals, when they enter, sound strange. Not only does that intro suck, but it also sounds really weird. Fortunately, the song changes radically after 4 minutes into a remote semblance of a good song.

'What the hell have they done to Iron Maiden?' - that was my second thought. The opening tracks are decent enough for thousands of obscure bands who would be proud to have recorded them, but for Iron Maiden standards, they are sodding poor, and I mean really poor. "The Apparition" poor. "The Final Frontier" isn't utterly abysmal - resurrecting the spirit of the 70's metal, with a catchy chorus, it is remotely palatable. But to balance it, "Coming Home" is an Iron Maiden fan nightmare, sounding like it was recorded during the Fear of the Dark session, which, in my opinion, is the worst Iron Maiden album, with only 2 good songs.

The next six tracks brought back some of my faith in Iron Maiden. Long songs, catchy choruses, melodic solos, everything is seemingly in place. Seemingly - Maiden fans can at last feel at home, and utter a sigh of relief, because there will be no more experiments until the end of the album, at least not as blatantly obvious ones as the intro. But what follows isn't top-notch Maiden, it's mid-range most of the time. Solos aren't too memorable, vocal lines aren't too melodic, riffs don't stick in my head.

Only the last song, "When the Wild Wind Blows," can be honestly called excellent. The riffs supported by simple, but powerful drumming somewhere in the 7th minute of the song - in that solitary moment Maiden sounds really classy. The song isn't quite as good as Maiden's best classic tracks, but it's on a par with the good songs from the later period. Maybe the leading vocal theme sounds too joyful and optimistic, in spite of telling a grim tale, but the song is deliciously complex and rich, a real treat to end this album.

Having died during the first 4 abysmal songs, I was partially resurrected by some good ones that followed, of which, sadly, only one is brilliant. The Final Frontier clocks in at over 76 minutes, and most of these minutes are well spent, assuming you have a pair of paddles handy to shock you back to life after the cardiac arrest that you will undergo at the onset of this album. Better yet, start listening from "The Alchemist." You should be at least partially satisfied.
How do I rank this? I could try to turn a blind eye on the beginning of The Final Frontier. But 4 terrible songs out of 10 is quite a lot. Sorry guys, not this time around. I can't ignore 40% of the album. 1 point up for the last track.