Final Frontier: one year later

Great album really, third favorite reunion album but it does lack something. As what that something is I don't know.
Isle of Avalon
Starblind
The Alchemist
The Talisman
Coming Home
Mother of Mercy
Satellite 15... The Final Frontier
Wild Wind
El Dorado
Man Who would be King
 
1. Isle of Avalon
2. Starblind
3. The Talisman
4. Mother of Mercy
5. When the Wild Wind Blows
6. The Man Who Would Be King
7. El Dorado
8. Coming Home
9. The Alchemist
10. Satellite 15... The Final Frontier
 
I think I'm in the general direction of Robbiedbee — as an album it's not quite as good as the sum of its parts.
In a way, it's strength is also its weakness — there is a little something for everyone here:

El Dorado and TFF are fresh-sounding takes on straight-ahead, mainstream early '80s metal.
Coming Home and Mother of Mercy are well-structured bits of grown-up melodic metal
The Alchemist is a rocking two-flying-fingers-bass-driven nugget straight out of Powerslave and the Talisman sort of a more epic version of same.
Starblind and Avalon are progressive rock masterpieces quite unlike anything the band has produced before.
The Man Who Would be King has some structures that fit in with the post-'80s stuff, but guitar tones and melodies that would fit on SIT.
And Wild Wind matches or surpasses all of Steve's soft/hard multi-section epics of the past two decades.

Every Maiden fan should find something in that mix that really resonates with them, but there is enough variation most of us also have a few that miss as well.
And I can see why there is so little consensus among us as to the best songs.

A year later two of its tracks sit in my top 10 and its lowest ended up at 79. It scores the highest of any Maiden album for me and deserves the spot at the top of my list it currently holds.
Still, I have come to recognize a flaw — lack of a particular singular identity that binds the tracks together as one and elevates them the way Somewhere in Time, The X Factor, and A Matter of Life and Death mesh into one piece of art.
I see The Final Frontier as an outstanding collection of songs, perhaps the best one the band has ever recorded.
But as a cohesive unit, it's missing something.
 
It's still a great album but not as a good AMOLAD. But it holds up. There are some great tracks on there (especially Starblind and The Talisman), definitely a classic Maiden album!  :rocker:
 
Shadow said:
Wait, what? There's been a year?
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My thoughts exactly. 

My rankings would go like this nowadays:
Starblind
Isle of Avalon
---
Coming Home
The Man Who Would Be King
Mother of Mercy

El Dorado, The Final Frontier, The Talisman, The Alchemist, and When the Wild Wind Blows I find very hard to rank against each other.  I'll just say they all hold shared third place.

Forostar said:
The album could have been represented so much better in the setlist.
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I agree, though The Talisman was a nice surprise (in how well it worked live).
 
This was a very good album! They seemed to have real nailed the progressive theme in songs like The Talisman and When the Wild Wind Blows. I liked the opening track TFF but the for me the intro was a little boring a few times through.

The stand out tracks for me are The Talisman, When the Wild Wind Blows and Isle of Avalon.
Mother of Mercy is a kick ass song in my opinion and i thinks it's very under rated.

I'd give this album 7.5/10
 
Fantastic album. Currently 4th in my book, has an incredible masterpiece (Starblind which is 3rd in my book). I love the progressiveness on the reunion albums and TFF is the most progressive of all. My favorite 80's Maiden album is Somewhere in Time, so I'm very much of a Progressive Maiden fan. The album just flows, you feel like the songs are connected to each other, it has more "album feeling" than any other Maiden record.

Plus another thing : Starblind has been in all of my playlists, but it still is not overplayed. You can discover another thing with every single time you listen to that song. It's fabulous.

Song rankings (Constantly changes except for the first place)

1. Starblind
2. Isle of Avalon
3. The Talisman
4. The Man Who Would Be King
5. Mother of Mercy
6. When the Wild Wind Blows
7. Coming Home
8. El Dorado
9. Satellite 15... The Final Frontier
10. The Alchemist
 
It really feels like prog metal 101, to be honest. This is how the best metal band in the world does something pretty damn progressive. Sit back and enjoy as you are fed the pieces of art.

I agree with mckindog - there's no unifying theme on this album, well. Except death, which is mentioned in every single song.

The Final Frontier - the astronaut is dying.
El Dorado - the victims die when the ship sinks
Mother of Mercy - the song is from the vantage point of a soldier dying
Coming Home - "over mariner's stormy graves"
The Alchemist - promising death to his rival
Isle of Avalon - basically about what happens when you die in Celtic myth
Starblind - there is no afterlife, so when you die, that's game
The Talisman - the narrator dies
The Man Who Would Be King - killed a guy
When the Wild Wind Blows - they commit suicide
 
1. Brave New World
2. A Matter Of Life And Death
3. The Number Of The Beast
4. The Final Frontier

1. Satellite 15...The Final Frontier 10/10 (top ten song)
2. The Talisman 10/10
3. When The Wild Wind Blows 10/10
4. Mother Of Mercy 9/10
5. The Alchemist 8/10
6. The Man Who Would Be King 7.5/10

I skip 'El Dorado' and  'Coming Home' as a rule.

I ceased listening to 'Isle Of Avalon' and 'Starblind' long ago.
 
It depends on my mood but I reckon this album is definitely in my Top 5, occasionally I consider it to be in my Top 3. It's my joint favourite of the reunion albums along with AMOLAD although I wish Isle of Avalon had been played live on the tour, my favourite songs on the album are as follows:
The Talisman
When the Wild Wind Blows
Isle of Avalon

On the whole I prefer the epic tracks however I do really like The Alchemist and El Dorado, in fact I think all of the songs on the album are very good however only a few are truly up there with Maiden's best. The real question is whether they can pull of another incredible album next time!
 
Being a reletivaly new Maiden fan, this was the first album to come out while i was a fan. Needless to say i was extremly excited about it, i played it through and i was quite dissapointed by it.
The next day i put it on twice and for some reason my opions on it had changed and i started to really like it, i still play it constantly and is the only Maiden album (except BNW & SIT) that i don't skip tracks on now, although i'm not much of a fan of Mother of Mercy.
As somebody else said i think the album could of be reprensted better live, especially if Isle of Avalon had been played.

My ranking would be:
1. The Talisman
2. When The Wild Wind Blows
3. Isle Of Avalon
4. Coming Home
5. The Final Frontier
6. Starblind
7. The Man Who Would Be King
8. El Dorado
9. The Alchemist
10. Mother Of Mercy
 
LooseCannon said:
I agree with mckindog - there's no unifying theme on this album, well. Except death, which is mentioned in every single song.
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Which is strange, because this is not really a "dark" album like AMOLAD or The X Factor.
 
I had a weird first reaction to The Final Frontier- aside from a few parts here and there I really didn't care for it.  For a good 3-4 listens I was incredibly disappointed with it, especially after how grandiose an album that A Matter of Life and Death was.  But little by little The Final Frontier really opened up for me and has since become one of my favorites.  It still feels really new to me (which according to itunes, after 323 listens is a big accomplishment), and it will feel like that to me until there is another album.

I do slightly prefer the epic half to the rocker half.  I dig Satellite 15, but I still wish it was about half as long.  The title track is probably Maiden's simplest song but it's still a fun sing along.  El Dorado still rules, I've always liked that song.  Mother of Mercy still has a chorus I can't really get into but is otherwise OK.  Coming Home is a good song.  The Alchemist seems still criminally underrated and features some of the coolest Maiden harmonies on the album.  I'll never forget the curveball that Isle of Avalon threw me on my first listen, that mid section was and still is to die for.  Amazing song.  Starblind still rules.  The Talisman has grown to easily be my favorite song off this album.  I still can't get into Man Who Would Be King much, although the mid section is pretty cool.  When the Wild Wind Blows is a fitting epic to my ears, good song.

In terms of ranking it, I think AMOLAD is stronger overall.  But I do enjoy TFF a bit more than DoD and lots more than BNW.  I still don't think any of those albums are quite as good as their 80-88 material though.

I just really hope we don't have to wait another 3 more years for some new songs.
 
I'm still loving this album just as much as when I first heard it. The Talisman is my favorite from it and I think The Alchemist is Maiden's best short rocker ever with 5 separate vocal parts. Because of Bruce's weaker vocals in MOM and TMWWBK, those are my 2 least favorites even though I still do enjoy them quite a bit.
 
1. Starblind 5/5
2. Coming Home 5/5
3. When the Wild Wind Blows 5/5
4. The Man Who Would Be King 5/5
5. Mother of Mercy 4,5/5
6. The Talisman 4,5/5
7. The Alchemist 4/5
8. El Dorado 4/5
9. Isle of Avalon 3,5/5
10. Satellite 15... The Final Fronter 3,5/5
 
When it first came out I was in total awe of the first track - but now, I deem it as only OK. I never really rated Man Who Would be King but I still love El Dorado. Isle of Avalon is another I think was better on the first few listens but the chorus still gets me. As with the rest of the tracks, my opinion has changed little since I first heard them - but I am growing to appreciate When the Wild Wind Blows even more now that I already did.

Overall, I think it still stands as a fairly decent album but perhaps I liked it a bit more 7 or 8 months ago than I do now. As of Jan 7th this year, Foro's stats had me down as having this as my third favourite album with a score of 8.5 - 7.9 may be what I feel about it now.
 
I'm still a big fan of The Final Frontier and look forward to the regular surges of excitement and the need to hear it forevermore, just as I do with my fave Maiden albums (all reunion era efforts plus SIT).

I probably got more intensely obsessed with AMOLAD during its first year of release and it contains some of the finest quality Maiden in TROBB, The Longest Day, Brighter Than 1000 Suns, These Colours, FTGFOG...but TFF stands up to those monster songs admirably with the five epics that fill its second half and I much prefer the opener and closer to TTF...When the Wild Wind Blows being my favourite Maiden track now.  Never got into The Legacy on AMOLAD. 

While I rate TFF and AMOLAD alongside each other when compared pound for pound and am glad to have enjoyed both several hundred times each so far...the guitar solos throughout TFF make it a more satisfying listen...mind you Davey's solo in Benjamin, Adrian's in TCDR, both solos in The Longest Day are all incredible....I just cannot split these two albums!!
 
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