I'll jump in here. Dance of Death is their transition album, probably more so than any other album. They were trying new things and some of them worked, and some of them didn't. There is some great material on there, Paschendale, the title track, Rainmaker, But there is also some bad material, Gates of Tomorrow springs to mind. Experimentation is found throughout the album, Journeyman is probably the prime example. Up until that point their album closers were pretty standard. Journeyman was completely left field, not only was it a different closer, but it was also their only all acoustic track.
Wildest Dreams is one of the weaker songs, however it set the stone for how Maiden would write their openers. It's been that way ever since, and I doubt it will change. You could make the argument with S15 but since The Final Frontier is part of that, it still counts.
Rainmaker is the last short Murray track, and it is one of the better songs. Nothing new here, it further proves my point of this album being a transition though. Maiden was trying new things with other songs, while maintaining a formula they had been using before on this track.
No More Lies is a bit weak to me, it wouldn't be too out of place with Brave New World.
Montsegur is another track that is true to Maiden's old formula.
Dance of Death is part of this transition. It is the first song by Janick where the acoustic guitar plays a major role. Dream of Mirrors isn't that song to me, because that acoustic is only for the verses. The standard set by this song, would go on to be used in The Legacy and Talisman on following albums.
Gates of Tomorrow is pretty much filler. That's it.
New Frontier is something new since it features lyrics from Nicko.
Paschendale is the song that pretty much made Adrian Smith the guy to write the music. He had done it before, but as he said himself, he never really did an epic before. And of course now we have songs like The Longest Day, Isle of Avalon, Lord of Light, and Starblind on subsequent albums.
I really need sleep I can't finish this post right now. I'll finish in the morning.