Band:	Iron Maiden
Album:	No Prayer For The Dying
Style:	Heavy metal, New wave of British heavy metal
Release date:	October 01, 1990
Guest review by:	omne metallum

Disc I
01. Tail Gunner
02. Holy Smoke
03. No Prayer For The Dying
04. Public Enema Number One
05. Fates Warning
06. The Assassin
07. Run Silent Run Deep
08. Hooks In You
09. Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter [Bruce Dickinson cover]
10. Mother Russia

Disc II [1995 reissue bonus]
01. All in Your Mind [Stray cover]
02. Kill Me Ce Soir [Golden Earring cover]
03. I'm A Mover [Free cover]
04. Communication Breakdown [Led Zeppelin cover]

Iron Maiden came crashing into the 90s on the wave that was Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, finding themselves washed up on the shores of a new decade with Adrian Smith being taken to new lands by the sea. No Prayer For The Dying is the sound of the band wanting to move forward with a new sound that only served to take two steps back as they took one forward.

No Prayer For The Dying saw the new look Maiden try to merge the sounds of themselves a decade prior on their debut with the sound that they had developed as a band of musicians who, owing to years of touring, recording and challenging themselves, were far more polished and refined as players. This ends up in a misguided mess of a band trying to consciously strip away years of cohesion and progression while also trying to sound revitalized and not backward looking.

The desire to strip away and have a more basic sound is one that is pursued in an awkward manner; in trying to alter their sonic identity, they throw the baby named quality out with the bathwater as well. Ditching the sprawling epics and capping the song length is not a detriment in and of itself, but taken together with the ditching of the synths and Dickinson's new vocal style, make for a big change in a small amount of time. Yes, the band ditches the sprawling epics and cap the songs length while also ditching the synths but along with this are the subtle production changes. The most evident and biggest drawback is in the production's style, stripping the songs of the rise and fall motifs that allow key points of songs to be more pronounced, which are largely lacking here. Rather than make the band sound more raw, it ends up being the audio equivalent of being contrarian to what you know works, doing the opposite and expecting the same high quality result.

The title track, "Hooks In You" and "Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter" may be damn cheesy but hell, sometimes you need a fix of strong cheese and these three songs certainly deliver that. Sure, they seem very off kilter next to the topics that are the band's usual fare, but that doesn't diminish the enjoyment when listening to them. Beyond these three tracks though, the band can only serve up some ok songs and clunkers; it doesn't verge into unlistenable territory, but you can certainly see the line in the sand in terms of song quality.

How can I not be a fan of this album yet rate Fear Of The Dark? Beyond the latter having peaks well beyond what this album has, it is also the fact that this change in direction doesn't feel natural here; you feel much of the songs are pushed through moulds in order to fit the arbitrary sound the band wanted to take, rather than building the songs up and fitting the sound naturally. "The Assassin" and "Mother Russia" are the prime examples of this.

I can't fault Iron Maiden for wanting to alter their sound; it would be pretty hypocritical given their last two albums were highly praised for doing that very same thing. The difference would be that rather than sounding like a natural progression, No Prayer For The Dying was a conscious effort to enforce change regardless of the result. This leads to an album being served up not because of its quality but to signal this change up; as a result, Iron Maiden made one of the few missteps in their career and this album was the result.