The Final Frontier at 15

[Ascendingthethrone]

I can’t believe this album has just turned 15 years old! It feels like yesterday I got a copy of it from Amazon (the shitty tin edition, which has since been replaced by the CD remaster and vinyl).

I distinctly remember falling asleep listening to the album the first time. I had just come off a long shift. However, the album really clicked when I was on holiday in Cornwall and I had it on rotation in the car for most of the trip!

Looking back, my opinion of the album has never really changed. I think it is a solid album which some absolutely huge songs. The Alchemist onwards is just an outstanding run of songs. Despite the length of many of the songs, I think there is a good amount of variation on the album.

I would rank it 4th in a ranking of the reunion albums (ahead of Senjutsu and Book of Souls) and probably around 9th overall.

What are your opinions of the album all these later?

 

[Yax]

I think it's a rather ambitious and adventurous album that I fondly revisit every now and then. I like production, although I agree with H that it is too dry (and the toms are a bit boomy) and the songs and performances are generally strong, though with some missed opportunities like Mother of Mercy (that chorus...) and The Man Who Would Be King, which should have been condensed a bit. I remember the forum was overflowing with praise when it came out, though I felt even then that it was a bit overappreciated, it's the third best Reunion album for me.

 

[Kalata]

Time flies! I like TFF more when it was released, now it's my ''least'' favorite of the Reunion albums (still pretty strong) - but I think I sometimes forget how quality and interesting it is. A different and ambitious album for the band, very proggy with some new stuff like DOD. There's not a single bad song, just some weak parts (like Mercy's chorus). I like the overall rougher production, it has some power. Adrian's preferred production would probably have been good too. Some of Bruce's vocals needed more takes.

My gripes with the album are:

-the sequence of the songs is odd.
-curious, fitting, but too long intro to the title song.
-some shorter solos, or missing more and melodies (the title track, Talisman, Avalon), also the structures of King and Wild Wind could have been different (shorter, changed parts).

IMO, the run from Coming Home-Wild Wind (minus King, very interesting song) is underrated and very, very solid and great. All ideas! El Dorado is a pretty solid rocker with great heavy riffing, while the title track is great for its purpose and ideas with 2 great solos. I can call Wild Wind, Talisman, Starblind, Avalon and Coming Home special songs and ideas. Mercy's dark and heavy gallop too. The songs are great live.

As with every Maiden album for me, especially from the Reunion era, it has aged quite well. One of their most interesting and always impactful with its sounds and pure ideas - probably the most from the Reunion era, along with SJ. It's close ofc, but that's quite the praise when I think about it. Their classic style is probably the least represented here, from the Reunion era overall.

 

[eddie666]

Love this record, easily my favorite of the reunion.
I could gripe about the overlong intro but shan't.
Bruce's vocal on Mother of Mercy is fantastic to me. "But what is it that you do" sounds like he's starting to cry which always cracks me up.

Wonderful stuff, and it's alittle bit sad that fans hold it in such low esteem, 'cos they really pushed the boat out.
Small 'c' conservatism?
As the name suggests, Maiden tend to stay within their strict boundaries. Here I feel they went 'off grid' much more than ever before or since. Shown in the cover art too, with weird Eddie and translucent red logo!

 

[Vaenyr]

My least favorite reunion album and the first time I was slightly disappointed with a new album.

Some of the tracks clicked instantly (Talisman, Starblind, WTWWB, The Alchemist), others haven't clicked to this day (Isle Of Avalon, TMWWBK), the rest is somewhere in between. Even the tracks I don't like have cool parts to them, but for the most part not enough to properly salvage them for me.

Overall I much prefer what came before and afterwards.

 

[Perun]

Thinking about this made me realise that TFF is my least favourite Maiden album. It's the one I listen to the least and the one I'm struggling the most with trying to find career highlights from. This may be because I was very disappointed by it when it came out, but I'd like to think that 15 years down the line it's also the result of more dispassionate evaluation. Mother of Mercy is probably my least favourite Maiden song overall (it baffles me how two experienced songwriters such as Steve and Adrian managed such a trainwreck) and I also think the album has Bruce's worst performances after Fear of the Dark. The whole album seems so half-baked and uninspired. When it came out I was afraid this meant Maiden had nothing left to say - fortunately two excellent follow-up albums proved me wrong.

It's not that I don't enjoy it at all. Even a bad Maiden album is still a Maiden album. It has some great songs (Starblind, When the Wild Wind Blows), but so much of it seems to fall short of whatever ambitions the band had with it. I even seem to remember the band members talking about it with an astonishing lack of passion during the promotion cycle, and it's quite telling that the tour is best remembered for its first leg with all the reunion-era songs, while nobody even seems to speak much of En Vivo!

 

[chaosapiant]

The Man Who Wanted Burger King

But also: still probably my favorite of the reunion albums and by far their most progressive sounding album to date. Starblind is still my tip top number 1 song from the band across any era.

 

[Edington]

It should've been a big deal for me and should hold a special place, being the first new album Maiden released after I became a fan, but it just left no impression and took me a long time to come around to it. I don't remember my exact thoughts on it at the time, I had really liked El Dorado and was excited for the album, but on my first listen I didn't even finish it, IIRC I stopped before The Talisman. Starblind was the only track outside of El Dorado that left any impression on me, and I didn't revisit the album until En Vivo! was released nearly two years later (slightly contrary to Perun's above post, I'm one of the few who would remember En Vivo! over the first leg of the TFF tour), watching those songs performed live with so much energy made me see them in a different light and take the time the revisit the album in full. I think by that point I was more used to Maiden's epics (though I had always liked them, BTATS was among the first Maiden songs I ever heard and I've always loved it) and had a little more time and patience for TFF.

My view hasn't really changed since then, and I feel like I mention my issues with the album every time it's brought up. The production is dry and lifeless, Bruce sounds bored, there's some incredible music across the album but it's a real slog and needed to be better-paced, especially in the second half, and I think Adrian dominates the album a bit too much and it feels less cohesive - sorry to the followers of the Holy Church of Adrian Smith who might find this sacrilegious. Thankfully, The Book of Souls rectified all of these issues, and gave me a much more positive experience of listening to a new Iron Maiden album.

Here's a list for good measure, my ranking of reunion albums:

1. Brave New World
2. A Matter of Life and Death
3. Senjutsu
4. The Book of Souls
5. Dance of Death
6. The Final Frontier

 

[Abas]

should hold a special place, being the first new album Maiden released after I became a fan,

While it was the first new album release after I became a fan, it did however succeed being an album I hold fondly.

Some of my opinions and takes that remain since:
* Title track is a fun and underrated track.
* Anything Mother of Mercy has going for it is killed by that chorus.
* Coming Home and When the Wild Wind Blows belong up there with their all-timers.
* Isle of Avalon manages to feel longer than many of their songs longer than it.

An opinion that has changed since:
* I used to think The Man Who Would be King was oooo but during a recent listen-through of the album, it had me feeling more huuhh

It's a shame that we won't see this level of prog from Adrian Smith anymore. I think I read an excerpt from an interview where he said he didn't really want to try it again, based on the reception the album got. There's one section

Like Edington above, I could also rank the reunion albums - though I think that this album is a little difficult to rank somewhere. Depending on the day and what I listened to recently, I could put this over The Book of Souls. Other days, I could put The Book of Souls over this. I will cheat and take the easy way out on this one, ranking the post-reunion albums:

1. Senjutsu
2. The Book of Souls/The Final Frontier
3. The Final Frontier/The Book of Souls.
4. A Matter of Life and Death
5. Dance of Death