How can a great band miss the mark so bad. There are good tracks here, Be Quick or be Dead, Afraid to Shoot Strangers and the title track stand out. I also appreciate Childhood's End and Judas be my Guide to some degree. The rest pretty much sucks. Weekend Warrior, The Apparition and Chains of Misery are fighting for the title of worst Maiden song ever in my opinion. And Dickinson? He sound horrible on this one, good thing he quit! The rest of the band disappoint as well

I can listen to exactly half of the album's songs: 'Be Quick Or Be Dead', 'Afraid To Shoot Strangers', 'Childhood's 'End', 'Wasting Love', 'Judas Be My Guide' and 'Fear Of The Dark'. What to do with rest of them, then? 1-way-ticket to Skiptown

Totally impossible to describe what I fell when I hear to this album.in my opinion, the true Iron maiden masterpiece.fear of the dark forever

Written by tominator on 26.10.2016 at 18:08

One of my least favourite albums by them. That said, there are a couple of really good songs on this album. Fear Of The Dark is a classic and songs like: Afraid To Shoot Strangers, Fear Is The Key, Wasting Love, Be Quick Or Be Dead, Judas Be My Guide and Childhood's End are very good songs imo.

Songs like: Weekend Warrior, The Apparition, Chains Of Misery are really weak songs (some of my least favourite Maiden songs in fact).

Overall a decent album and slightly better than Virtual XI and No Prayer For The Dying.

Haha , what a bad joke , you just counted 7 songs as being very good but it's one of your least favourite album . What other IM album has 7 very good songs ?! NO IM ALBUM HAS SO MANY GREAT SONGS FFS . This is obvious one of their best work , same level with Number of the Beast , the other albums are lower .

I remember Fear of the Dark being massive disappointment when I first heard it back in the day. Be Quick Or Be Dead is great song, but after that it falls flat as quickly as it started, and after more or less mediocre and plain lame songs Judas Be My Guide wins the day once again. Other than those two songs the almighty title track is the reason to get this album, so you can't really call it a complete failure after all. In my opinion No prayer for the dying is much worse than this or any other Maiden album for that matter.

Mediocre filler tracks used to buoy a standout closer with some moments of interest throughout. Could have been a really strong EP but those don't sell as well...

Written by mambono5 on 06.08.2020 at 16:50

Haha , what a bad joke , you just counted 7 songs as being very good but it's one of your least favourite album . What other IM album has 7 very good songs ?! NO IM ALBUM HAS SO MANY GREAT SONGS FFS . This is obvious one of their best work , same level with Number of the Beast , the other albums are lower .

This part is the important one...

Written by tominator on 26.10.2016 at 18:08

Songs like: Weekend Warrior, The Apparition, Chains Of Misery are really weak songs (some of my least favourite Maiden songs in fact).

Overall a decent album and slightly better than Virtual XI and No Prayer For The Dying.

7 songs indeed. Glad you can count. No Iron Maiden album has so many great songs? I disagree with that. Even most of the 80s albums with only 8 or 9 songs on them have equal or more great songs.

And if we count some more, we'll see that this album has in total 12 songs. The most an Iron Maiden album has ever had (and it shows) so even if this album has 7 very good to great songs... that still leaves 5 other songswhich are quite frankly just filler. Piece Of Mind has one track that I would call weak out of the 9 tracks... this one has 3 very weak tracks out of the 12. Which is 25% of the album. Coupled with 2 more tracks that are just average, it's easy for me to say that this record, while overall decent (thanks to the 7 very good - great songs), is far from a perfect album. It's spotty and inconsistent.

I like Maiden a lot. In fact they're my favourite band. Most of their songs range from average/ok to absolutely great for me. The fact that there are 3 tracks on here that I really dislike (Weekend Warrior and Chains Of Misery are easily in my top 10 worst songs IM has ever made and The Apparition falls just out of it) should already be an indication as to why it's one of my least favourites.

Tastes differ, I guess. If you consider the comment you've quoted as a bad joke that's fine. I would expect it to be a bad one, since there wasn't even an attempt at making a joke about this album. Just an honest OPINION, which seems to have ruffled some feathers...

Just enjoy the record, if you like it that much. Don't let me ruin that for you with a simple comment, I posted 4 years ago...

Just wanted to say that this album is so underrated because of absurd opinions and reviews . I quoted your comment knowing it's posted 4 years ago because it's the best example of an absurd opinion . Please don't take it personal bro' . Best wishes .

Written by mambono5 on 07.08.2020 at 10:58

Just wanted to say that this album is so underrated because of absurd opinions and reviews . I quoted your comment knowing it's posted 4 years ago because it's the best example of an absurd opinion . Please don't take it personal bro' . Best wishes .

There's nothing absurd about the opinions and reviews of this album. More than 1700 ratings usually gives a good impression on how much an album is liked. In fact you'll find a lot of agree with the consistency of this record. That being said... how is an album that gets 8/10 underrated? That's a very good score. A score that I personally find too high but that's my opinion. I fully acknowledge the fact that overall people seem to like this album slighty more than I do. And that's totally fine.

If rating it 1 point lower (based on my opinion) than the average of 1700 ratings is so absurd to you, then I think it has more to do with your opinion on this album rather than my so-called "absurd" opinion. There are almost exactly the same amount of 7/10 votes as there are 9/10 votes for this record. That's a big indicator on how divided the opinions are on this album but that it's overall liked across the board. Because a 7/10 is considered as "good" on this site. And that's what this record is to me. Good, not very good, not excellent and certainly not perfect.

The fact that ten IM albums are scored better than this , is very absurd . When someone new to IM will check the album list , will skip this one because of it's score . This is not the case , it's their best work , so many great songs , you can't change my mind , your opinion is absurd .

The fact that 10 albums are scored higher simply means that the general consensus is that those are better IM albums. And for someone who is new to the IM albums, it is probably best to listen to the ones that on average get the best ratings. Because they will most likely enjoy those as well. Just because you think this is their best album, doesn't mean new listeners will think the same.

1100+ ratings give this album a lower rating than you... I guess they are absurd as well... basically what you're saying is that the majority has an absurd opinion on this album... At that point, I don't think my opinion is that absurd... but hey, if that's what you like to think, to make you feel better then... Just strange you have to write an entire comment about "a bad joke" when someone simply expresses his opinion. Not very open minded to dismiss someone's opinion like that. But you do you...

And remember I don't want to change your opinion on this record. I just explained why it's far from my favourite IM record. Now if you can't stand that... too bad for you, I guess.

Just people that says this album is their least favourite because it has 3 of IM worst songs but the rest are great songs are absurd , you are so many for f*& sake .

Going through all of Iron Maiden’s albums, updating my thoughts and I think this album is alright, though I did downgrade it from a 7 to a 6 after my last listen. The production is better, Bruce’s performance is better even with the raspy snarl he’s continued using here, and there are some fantastic, underrated gems like Afraid to Shoot Strangers (which I’m blessed to have seen live in 2012), Wasting Love and Judas Be My Guide, which is more than what I can say about NPftD. And of course there’s the anything-but-underrated title track which is a live staple to this day, so clearly this album is doing something right.

There are some pretty crappy songs on here too like From Here to Eternity, The Apparition and Weekend Warrior, the last one is especially bad because it has this nice acoustic intro that gives me a false sense of security before it all crashes and burns with the rest of the song. I also don’t like the crowd chanting effects around the choruses for a few of these songs since it reminds me too much of the glam rock sound from bands like Warrant and Poison, even after Nirvana’s Nevermind killed it a year earlier and Maiden did a good job avoiding up till now.

The rest of the songs are not bad, pretty decent with good melodies and riffs, but they don’t exactly beg for instant replays or anything. It’s an upgrade from the last album for sure (which isn’t saying much) but still a disjointed experience that overstays its welcome.

So underrated its not even funny

Well if you think an album is great, but many others don't, doesn't matter does it? I think perhaps the problem with this album is that it does not sound as much like Maiden as the albums of the 80ies, same for the preceeding.... Fear...is not my favorite album, considering it as a Maiden album, I even migth say that it is a bit weak - but anyway not a bad album, there are songs I like and other I don't. There are albums which I like more from them. But I can understand you saying how can this album be so underrated. It is the same with me (you probably will disagree with me, because many Maiden fans hate the Bayley area) with X Factor and Virtual XI. I am sure, if Bruce had sang the songs, excactely the same songs, the ratings would be much better. Songs like Sign of ...Blood on the world's...the edge of darkness, futurreal, lightning strikes twice, the educated fool are really good Maiden songs - and most of the other songs are not bad, I think. I know, that most Maiden fans disagree, but anyway, this is what I think of them and no one can change my taste. In my opinion Fear and No prayer...are rather weaker albums of Maiden, but this is my taste of their music -and furthermore, weaker does not mean bad.

It's a typical Iron Maiden album, an excellent title track, and the very decent "Afraid To Shoot Strangers", the rest I would call average, but nothing here that I would say is bad.

What do you mean by typical? To my mind it doesn't sound like the albums from the 80's or what they do nowadays. It sounds rather like a different Metal Band appart from some songs/parts of songs. I would also add childhood's end as rather good tracks before coming to the average.

Written by MicMet on 04.01.2022 at 23:37

What do you mean by typical? To my mind it doesn't sound like the albums from the 80's or what they do nowadays. It sounds rather like a different Metal Band appart from some songs/parts of songs. I would also add childhood's end as rather good tracks before coming to the average.

For me it sounds typical for what they produced after Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, with the exception of the impressive Brave New World, and the disastrous Virtual XI, they all seemed to have one great track, a few good tracks, and alot of average one's that I find myself skipping, that is up until Book Of Souls where the songs became incredibly long. Just like the othets It's still a good album overall, but nothing compared to their 80's work.

Oh, I see, You don't mean that the music is always the same, but rather refer to the quality. The 80ies somehow sounded different. However, it is rather normal that the music changes over the years, maybe not always, but often. Bands and musicans develop further, not always the way the fans or some fans like.

I was maybe a little too harsh on this in the past. It is better than a handful of Maiden albums. Be Quick or be Dead and the title track are among my favorite Iron Maiden songs. Afraid to Shoot Strangers is very good as well. I enjoy From Here to Eternity. Judas be My Guide, The Fugitive and Childhood's End are certainly passable. Yet The Apparition, Chains of Misery and Weekend Warrior are awful.
Very inconsistent, but when it is good it is more interesting than most post 2000 Iron Maiden.

The title track gotta be one of my favorite live songs ever. I always get pumped when they play that at shows.

Written by Vinther1991 on 23.04.2022 at 10:33

I was maybe a little too harsh on this in the past. It is better than a handful of Maiden albums. Be Quick or be Dead and the title track are among my favorite Iron Maiden songs. Afraid to Shoot Strangers is very good as well. I enjoy From Here to Eternity. Judas be My Guide, The Fugitive and Childhood's End are certainly passable. Yet The Apparition, Chains of Misery and Weekend Warrior are awful.
Very inconsistent, but when it is good it is more interesting than most post 2000 Iron Maiden.

The title track gotta be one of my favorite live songs ever. I always get pumped when they play that at shows.

My assessment of the songs' quality here is similar to yours, though overall I have a better outcome for the album, one of the better Maiden albums, yet far away from their best.
I have a soft spot for this album since it was my first Maiden album back at the time.

Afraid to shoot strangers has always been the highlight here for me, next to the title track of course. The other better songs you have already mentioned. I would add Wasting Love. On the other side several fillers clearly drag the album down.

Written by Redel on 23.04.2022 at 15:40

My assessment of the songs' quality here is similar to yours, though overall I have a better outcome for the album, one of the better Maiden albums, yet far away from their best.
I have a soft spot for this album since it was my first Maiden album back at the time.

Afraid to shoot strangers has always been the highlight here for me, next to the title track of course. The other better songs you have already mentioned. I would add Wasting Love. On the other side several fillers clearly drag the album down.

I don't like Afraid to Shoot Strangers as much as I used to, but I still think the second half is absolutely amazing, it is just that the long slow intro isn't all that interesting. Wasting Love is competent, but I don't care much for it. I am not the biggest fan of ballads, and even then I can think of much better ones.

Written by AndyMetalFreak on 04.01.2022 at 23:17

It's a typical Iron Maiden album, an excellent title track, and the very decent "Afraid To Shoot Strangers", the rest I would call average, but nothing here that I would say is bad.

Exact same thoughts. Should be max 7.5.

There are some very good songs on this album, but the tracks From Here To Eternity, The Fugitive, The Apparition, Weekend Warrior are very bad, Fear Is The Key, Chains Of Misery, Judas Be My, are not bad, but I don't think they're great either

Written by JOPE OF STEELE on 06.09.2018 at 14:18

I can listen to exactly half of the album's songs: 'Be Quick Or Be Dead', 'Afraid To Shoot Strangers', 'Childhood's 'End', 'Wasting Love', 'Judas Be My Guide' and 'Fear Of The Dark'. What to do with rest of them, then? 1-way-ticket to Skiptown

For me it's 'The Fugitive' or 'From Here to Eternity' instead of 'Wasting Love', depending on the mood - but you nailed it. The rest are just average or below. I do find it sad that besides the title track none of these songs are not more frequented on their live setlists though, 'Judas Be My Guide' would be hell of a crowd raiser and 'Afraid To Shoot Strangers' would be a good rest song for Bruce.