The Final Frontier

Product Information

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 totaling over 80 million album sales during this period. Iron Maiden is the greatest heavy metal band to ever live. Thirty years after the release of their self-titled album, they are arguably just as relevant as they ever have been—not resting on their laurels and imitating a hits jukebox, but instead touring the world playing their new material to the joy of fans everywhere. After what was a rousing success with their most recent record, the 2006 release of A Matter of Life and Death, there is actually maybe a bit more pressure on the band to produce something that is quality, memorable and, frankly, classic. Especially with the rumors floating around that this is Maiden's final album, spurred even further on by the fact that Steve Harris helped write every song on the record, the pressure cooker of fan scrutiny is reaching fever pitch. And so it falls to this Angry Metal Guy to try to put all of this into some sort of context; to try to listen to my favorite band with fresh ears—and I've come to some realizations about the band in the process. Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier". Asociación Mexicana de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas. Mexicancharts.com. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013 . Retrieved 26 October 2011. The album was ranked No. 1, [49] No. 3, [50] and No. 7 [51] respectively in Metal Hammer, Kerrang! and Revolver's lists of the best albums of 2010. a b "Iron Maiden Announces The Final Frontier North American Tour With Dream Theater". Blabbermouth.net. 4 March 2010 . Retrieved 24 November 2011.

It's my wife's birthday today, so we take the day off and I spend the entire day at the Atlantis resort with my family. A great day, playing on the beaches, sliding down the water slides, floating on rafts on the articial rapids and rivers, and viewing the absolutely amazing aquarium they've built there! In the evening, we leave the babies with my mother-in-law and go out for an intimate adult evening, but we're so shattered by the day's activities that we end up crashing at about 9.30pm! If you dont think this album is that great just listen to Isle of Avalon and The Talisman loud with headphones then the rest of the album and hopefully it'll change your mind. The Final Frontier started of pretty slow with Satellite 15....The Final Frontier being a good song but a bit too long, El Dorado is a cathcy song but is a bit forgettable like Montségur from "Dance of Death" or The Mercenary from "Brave New World".However, you can tell right from this first song that there’s something... off about this album. The instruments are okay, but the vocals aren’t. Something off about Bruce’s voice. Is it down to bad mixing or is he just not giving his all? I think it’s a mix of both. It sounds distinctly different from the three previous albums and the following one, The Book of Souls. It really doesn’t sound like the passion is as present here, and while he hits the notes excellently, there’s little more than that. An illustrator I know, who already did several event t-shirts for our club, showed me something quite strange. Grant's not-so-surreal Eddies look a lot like an angry monkey or the creatures that Larn was fighting in the legendary animation Fire and Ice. I have not thought about it, but it's definitely something that comes to mind whenever I see the specific artworks. Kerrang! 's Top 20 albums of 2010". Kerrang!. 21 December 2010. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013 . Retrieved 15 December 2013. Rose, Rustyn (17 April 2011). "Was Iron Maiden's Final Frontier Their Final Album?". Metalholic. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013 . Retrieved 26 February 2012. Melvyn Grant, a long-time contributor to the band's artwork, created the cover art. [8] It is the band's final album to be released through EMI Records, marking the end of their 30-year relationship. It is also the last album to use the band's alternate logo. While not a concept album, themes of exploration, expectation, and discovery are frequent throughout. The Final Frontieris the band's first studio album in nearly four years, making it one of the longest gaps between albums.

Same agenda as Feb 1 and 2. We've almost finished the overdubs on the last song, guitar-wise. Just a last guitar solo of Adrian's to do on When The Wild Wind Blows on Monday, then we'll all gather for a final collective listen, and that's all the guitars on this new Iron Maiden album. We'll add keys for the rest of the week, then it's home for me next Saturday, and Steve and Bruce arrive the following week to finish up the vocals and mix...... Before I fall victim to an unfair flame war, let me assure you that I've been a loyal Iron Maiden fan for over 25 years. I have every single album they've ever recorded, I own the videos, the singles, the t-shirts, the posters, the flags, the video game and I've seen them live on numerous occasions. Yes, I know every single song by heart and can sing along to 99% of them. Like any other self respecting Iron Maiden fan. Yes, I've read the official biography more than once and can even quote whole passages from it.Another interesting fan discussion around the cover was the fact that the skeletons in the spaceship are definitely not human beings, and the style of the spacesuits makes a reference to graphic novels of the 50s and 60s. I was absolutely delighted with the singles and promos that came out with this album. Their artworks were in exactly this retro comic style and were something that fans never saw before with Maiden. For me, they were quite interesting and refreshing. Young illustrator named Anthony Dry, who also did some illustrations for BBC’s “Doctor Who”, did all these artworks. Mother of Mercy is a reflection on war from the perspective of a dying soldier confessing to a priest. Lyrically it's nothing new for Maiden and musically it's nothing special, but it has a certain charm that makes it likable. I've got to say that prior to the release of this album I played through the last three albums a few times. Particularly BNW and AMOLAD were my long time favourites, and I really doubted that they could top the last one. The Final Frontier offers a mix of easy and progressive, old and new Iron Maiden. A welcome album after the dark and difficult A Matter Of Life And Death that can please both old and new fans of the band, it might take a place in my top five of Maiden albums!

From there, the album's second side goes into more epic territory with there only being one song that is less than eight minutes long. Of this lot, The Talisman may be the strongest with its sea shanty beginning and more energetic body. Isle Of Avalon and Where The Wild Wind Blows also manage to stand out thanks to the former's building verses and the latter's upbeat melodies and apocalyptic theme. The highlights? The paganic Isle of Avalon, the cosmic Starblind, the adventurous The Talisman and of course, one of the best ballads since Bruce's 'Tears of the Dragon' - Coming Home. Iron Maiden, Disco de Oro en Colombia por sus fanáticos" (in Spanish). Estereofonica. 20 August 2010. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013 . Retrieved 9 November 2010. Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (Iron Maiden; 'The Final Frontier ')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie . Retrieved 26 September 2019. While you’re looking up the definition of ‘talisman’ (we’ll save you the trouble: According to Merriam-Webster, it’s 'an object held to act as a charm to avert evil and bring good fortune' - good enough topic for a song), just know that Maiden have come up with yet another head-turner of monstrous proportions.

Iron Maiden is the greatest heavy metal band to ever live. Thirty years after the release of their self-titled album, they are arguably just as relevant as they ever have been—not resting on their laurels and imitating a hits jukebox, but instead touring the world playing their new material to the joy of fans everywhere. After what was a rousing success with their most recent record, the 2006 release of A Matter of Life and Death, there is actually maybe a bit more pressure on the band to produce something that is quality, memorable and, frankly, classic. Especially with the rumors floating around that this is Maiden‘s final album, spurred even further on by the fact that Steve Harris helped write every song on the record, the pressure cooker of fan scrutiny is reaching fever pitch. And so it falls to this Angry Metal Guy to try to put all of this into some sort of context; to try to listen to my favorite band with fresh ears—and I’ve come to some realizations about the band in the process. For those who haven't been paying attention to the band's recent musical shifts, it can be safely said that very little on this album has any resemblance to the band's "classic" 80's sound. There is no Run To The Hills, The Trooper, or even a Can I Play With Madness within this album's long duration! The artwork for "The Final Frontier" was done by the well-known artist Melvyn Grant, who worked for Maiden on the covers of "Fear Of The Dark", "Virtual XI", "Death on The Road", "From Fear To Eternity" and the single "The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg”. Grant himself admits that Riggs's style of artwork never appealed to him and he wanted to come up with his own version of Eddie as much as the band and management allow it. This, of course leads to brilliant results such as "Fear Of The Dark" and quite controversial ones like "Virtual XI" and "The Final Frontier". Mixed The Man Who Would Be King. Adrian came in and said it all sounded good - and said he was 95% happy with the album mixes and we should look at them and tweak them slightly - I am perfectly happy to reassess any of the mixes, as daunting as the prospect of revisiting everything is, changing sonics etc., but Steve and I are quite happy with it and neither of us can really afford the extra time it would take to remix, so Steve jumped in and basically said we're going to be done this weekend and we are not remixing the entire album. Adrian ultimately understood but wasn't thrilled about it!

Moffitt, Greg (18 August 2010). "Iron Maiden The Final Frontier Review". BBC Online . Retrieved 23 August 2010. REVIEW: On Iron Maiden’s 15th studio album, The Final Frontier, the veteran heavy metal band, 35 years into their career, pull off something extraordinary that could very well be revolutionary (made all the remarkable given their age): they reinvent themselves - whether they know it or not, whether that was the plan or not - and in the process, challenge the notions of what of heavy metal, or at least their contributions to the genre, can be. Iron Maiden Announces Support Acts For UK Tour". Blabbermouth.net. 18 February 2011 . Retrieved 20 November 2011. went straight to No.1 in the album charts in 28 countries worldwide. The album's booklet has several sketches and illustrations by Melvyn, which leave us with a raised eyebrow, and we can be thankful that they didn't end up on the front cover. Flying does curtail the post-gig fun for me at times, but you must rest and adopt a zero-alcohol policy. It’s the industry standard. You can’t report for flying with any alcohol in your bloodstream. Eight hours before that, you don’t consume any alcohol whatsoever,” Bruce told us, with his sensible Captain’s hat on.

The Final Frontier - recording diary by Kevin Shirley

As if just to embody how 'The final fronteir' is an exercise in patience and appreciating a gradual build-up to something wonderful, the best is undoubtedly saved for last. The only song penned entirely by Steve Harris this time round (he of course co-wrote everything else), "When the wild wind blows" is nothing short of a masterpiece, a breathtaking bit of work that can comfortably stand shoulder to shoulder with any other song of his long career. which it did in 28 countries worldwide. [56] It is the first Iron Maiden release to debut at No. 1 in the United Kingdom charts since 1992's Fear of the Dark, [57] having sold 44,385 copies in its first week. [58] In addition, The Final Frontier debuted at No. 4 in the Billboard 200 with 63,000 units sold, the highest position the band had ever reached in the United States. [59] From here on in, the songs get longer, trippier, more zonked-out and full of surprises. In this regard, Isle Of Avalon is opulent.