This one seems to be held in relatively high regard by younger fans. When it was released back in 2004, I did not expect too much and STILL was massively disappointed. At that time, it was the worst Maiden album so far for me, until they released The Final Frontier, which to this day is the far and lonely tail-end of their catalogue. So DOD remains #16 in my personal ranking, second last.
The overall production is good. A bit too clean for my tastes, but not in a problematic way. The drums get more focus than on pre-reunion albums, which is acutally a good thing to my ears. I love punch, and you can not have punch without upfront drums. Nicko's snare tuning is also excellent. All performances by all members are up to scratch and there is nothing to criticize here. Another plus is that it ranks among Maiden's faster albums. Surprisingly, it does not click, even though I always loved Maiden's faster side.
First gripe is the artwork, which is beyond cringe. Pathetic is too nice for that.... thing! Considering the fact, that Maiden had the most iconic artwork of all Metal in the 80s, there is absolutely no excuse for such a ridiculous artwork. However, that's not the reason for my overall ranking. The songs are simply not interesting at all and never get higher than "okay". Most of the time, not even that.
Wildest Dreams - Maiden have a history of releasing the weaker songs of an album as first single. They stick to that tradition here. It is one of their rather rare uptempo songs. But this happy-go-lucky fun rock turd starts unimpressive, then goes nowhere. The chorus is borderline annoying, (despite the nice riff), the rest is simply forgotten 3 minutes after you heard it. Solo is nice, but I do not listen to songs for the solo. The awful video did not help. 3.5/10
Rainmaker - Another fast one (by Maiden standards). The intro riff is AWESOME, immediately reminds of their classic bangers. Best Maiden tradition. As soon as the verses start, it is just standard chords with a nice but unimpressive melody. Sounds like the little brother of The Wicker Man without reaching its level. At least it is not annoying. People hate Holy Smoke, but love this one? Yeah, right. 5/10
No More Lies - Again, the intro sounds very promising. Like as if borrowed from X-Factor with better production. The verses are very nice. The chorus is overly repetitive, just repeating the title over and over with no variation at all. It gets old quickly. By the third time it appears, it starts getting on your nerves. The entire arrangement works okay, but is little more than painting by numbers. Solo section drags on. No More Lies would have also fitted on X-Factor, but would have ranked among the weaker tracks there. 6.5/10
Montsegur -The intro is fucking heavy and kicks ass. Verse and pre-chorus is awesome. This could have been a true Maiden classic, but the main chorus sounds totally out of place. We start with a dark heavy brooding atmosphere, telling us of despair and destruction... and then comes Ronald McDonald and brings you your happy meal. What the hell...? Why??! Not a total mood killer, but definitely a downgrade. The instrumental section is classic Maiden. In conclusion, this is the best song on the album and the only one that I would consider a candidate for a best of playlist. 7/10 when ignoring the main chorus.
Dance of Death - typical post re-union prog Maiden, with some folk influences. Nice, smooth, easy, as thrilling as an ice cream cone. Those are not attributes I want to think of when I listen to METAL! Drawn out waaaay too long. Would have worked as a 4 minute song, definitely not enough interesting ideas or atmosphere for the whopping 8+ minutes. On the positive side, it has some speed and typical Maiden gallopping, but the song leaves my head as soon as it is over. 4/10.
Gates of Tomorrow - Intro reminds me of a poor man's Lord of the Flies. Again, very happy, verses sound like boy scouts playing minstrels in the woods, singing shalalala, on their way to sell grandma some cookies. I want Eddie, not boy scouts playing minstrels. The bridge is pretty cool. Chorus is okay, but does not stick in your head. Quickly forgotten. They should have made the bridge the main chorus for another song and deleted the rest. 3/10.
New Frontier - another fast one. Riffing is classic Maiden, almost reminding a little of Powerslave era. But once again, the vocal melody is painting by numbers, nice to listen to but does not stick. I know my review reads very repetitive, but that's what the songs are. You could easily swap parts of this one with the previous 2 songs, and they would not sound very different. Arrangement is exactly the same as the previous songs too. Twin solo section is good, but lasts only 15 seconds. At least we have no boy scouts here. 4.5/10
Paschendale - Yeah, I know, all the kids love it. I can see why, yet still it does not totally click with me. At least, it does not fall into the same traps as the previous 3 songs. I think it is too much start-stop-start for me. The heavy parts make me want to bang my head, but there are too many interruptions. The parts are all good, but the arrangement sounds unfinished, like patchwork. It is heavy, so I give it a bonus point, and we end up with 6.5/10
Face in the Sand - I love long intros. If there is some build-up, that is. Here is none. Way too long. Verses are interesting at first, but then too repetitive. Again the song fails to deliver a worthy chorus with some catchy idea. Repetition and standard ideas. Seems they plodded around at rehearsal and kept the first ideas they had without fleshing them out properly. Vocals are too theatrical for the song. 4/10
Age of Innocence - Intro sucks, but the verses at least finally differ a bit from all the previous songs. Can't say I like the dull vocal lines, but at least the riffing is something special. And heavy. Unfortunately the chorus is annoying this time around. Again, lots of potential not worked out properly. I think Maiden's method of writing entire albums within 6 weeks is problematic, because some good ideas need time to grow, and this is what happens when you don't allow that time. While I love the main riff, the finished result is just boring. 3/10
Journeyman - another fan favourite. To me, it is just mainly plodding along, you could perfectly sing it with an acoustic guitar on a campfire with the gang of boyscouts chanting along. But there is no epicness, no dark brooding danger, no solemn power. They tried hard to create an epic hymn here, but compared to Sign of the Cross or Dickinsons "Jerusalem", this is just shalala. Montsegur comes close to an epic, this one does not. Even the title is dull. 3/10.
Conclusion: this album had all potential in the world. Mostly faster songs, heavy production, a not so small pile of great riffs. But it had no time to be worked out properly. It seems they just cobbled single parts together, kept in all the filler ideas and initial sketches, shook it all through the mixer and hoped to get some nice songs. At least 4 songs should have been scrapped, keeping some of the better riffs and take some months to work out proper vocal lines. Then we would have a pretty good album. But now we have a bloated, too long record with some brilliant sections hidden under a lot of redundant dullness.
Montsegur is the best song, No More Lies is somewhat descent. I can definitely live without the rest.
