CD Odyssey Disc 964: Iron Maiden

Bands you grew up with are like old friends; even when you haven’t seen them in a while it feels like you can just pick up where you left off as soon as you connect again. Evem though this next album only came into my collection in the last five years, the band is an old friend making everything feel comfy and familiar.

Disc 964 is…No Prayer for the Dying

Artist: Iron Maiden

Year of Release: 1990

What’s up with the Cover? This is actually the alternate cover for the remastered edition. The original is set a bit farther back and Iron Maiden mascot Eddie is using that free hand to choke some guy. Here he is reaching for you, which is equally disconcerting.

This cover also reminds me that over the weekend I bought a couple of new undershirts. There is nothing quite as pleasant as a fresh undershirt. Maybe if someone had replaced Eddie’s undershirt before he was entombed he might not have been so grumpy and grabby when he burst out later.

How I Came To Know It: As a teenager Iron Maiden was my favourite band but by the time this record came out in 1990 I had moved on to folk music and so I missed it. A few years back I was down at one of my local record stores (Ditch) talking metal with one of the staff, and he noted how much he loved the song “Tail Gunner” This led me to check this album out online and I liked what I heard. I also checked out 1992’s “Fear of the Dark” but it didn’t grab me the same. I think my Maiden collection is now complete going to want it. Of course, I thought that once before, so you never know.

How It Stacks Up:  I have eight Iron Maiden albums. Of those eight “No Prayer for the Dying” can’t crack the top half, but it comes close. I’ll say it is just shy of “Killers” at #6.

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

It isn’t often that a heavy metal band can trade in either a lead singer or lead guitarist and not miss a step, but Iron Maiden has managed to do both through their career. On “No Prayer for the Dying” vocalist Bruce Dickinson is already well established, so the newcomer is guitarist Janick Gers, replacing Adrian Smith.

It feels like sacrilege to even say that anyone can replace Adrian Smith, who gave me ten years of inspired music with Iron Maiden and who alongside Buck Dharma was my principal air guitar muse over the eighties. Fortunately when you have the brilliant songwriting and compositional inspiration of bassist Steve Harris, you can get away with things that would lay a lesser talent low, and such is the case with this record.

All of the core elements (save Smith) are there: Bruce Dickinson’s powerhouse vocals, great bass lines, a furious and rising energy and songs about humanity’s storied past and an imagined dystopian future.

Harris has long held a fascination with the Second World War and this continues on this record. He sings about a submarine crew on “Run Silent, Run Deep” and the opening track, “Tail Gunner” which celebrates the most dangerous job on a bomber. The song captures the recoil of the gun as Dickinson barks out “Tail gunner! You’re the tail gunner!” in time with the beat. You can almost feel the reverberation of each shot, and the visceral mix of excitement and fear of the gunner.

In terms of production and arrangement, the record is more stripped down than earlier Maiden, particularly the previous two records (1986’s “Somewhere in Time” and 1988’s “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”). It creates space for introspective ballads such as the title track, which explores faith amid a world that feels increasingly detached. It is a lack of meaning that fits well in a time when the Soviet Union was collapsing around itself and we were all wondering “what’s next?”

“Public Enema Number One” is terribly titled, but its disturbed vision of the world’s ills is brilliant, as is the way the verses have furious guitar licks, only to descend into a thick and plodding doom of the chorus as Dickinson goes deep into his range to warn:

“Fall on your knees today

And pray that the world will mend its ways.”

The album loses a little steam near the end, with the sexually deviant “Hooks In You” and the dirty old man-inspired “Bring Your Daughter…to the Slaughter.” Both songs are on the wrong side of creepy, which on a metal album could be forgiven, but they aren’t that musically interesting either. The boys would’ve been better off adding a couple more history and science fiction tracks.

The record ends with “Mother Russia” a song that musically evokes both a military march and a ghost story in one place, which is fitting given it tells the story of how Russia is emerging in its new freedom, unsure of what comes next.

As Maiden albums go “No Prayer for the Dying” is not a classic great like “Powerslave” or “Piece of Mind” but few records are. It is however a solid entry into their discography and a demonstration that you can get back to basics and still sound fresh and vibrant.

Best tracks: Tail Gunner, No Prayer for the Dying, Public Enema Number One, Run Silent, Run Deep, Mother Russia