Five years later: The Final Frontier revisited

Five years later, what do you think of the Final Frontier

  • I absolutely love it. It's among their best.

    Votes: 29 23.8%

  • It's a strong album that stands up well to the test of time.

    Votes: 61 50.0%

  • It's OK. I like it, or at least parts of it, but I don't listen to it much.

    Votes: 26 21.3%

  • For a Maiden album, it's pretty weak.

    Votes: 9 7.4%
  • Total voters
    122
I always felt that fallen angel would have been a better single than silent planet, but I have noticed quite a few people, at least around here, don't seem to appreciate it...
 
No 'yes' moments on TFF? You mean you don't wait with anticipation for the riff in the title track to start only to get your head banging? You don't want to pump your fists in the air during the chorus in El Dorado? No goosebumps during the high points of Starblind or heartache in When the Wild Wind Blows?
TFF is far from my favourite Maiden album, but it has stellar moments. It's funny how my two least favourite songs from it (Mother of Mercy and The Alchemist) get the most praise here.
 
Perun said:
No 'yes' moments on TFF? You mean you don't wait with anticipation for the riff in the title track to start only to get your head banging? You don't want to pump your fists in the air during the chorus in El Dorado? No goosebumps during the high points of Starblind or heartache in When the Wild Wind Blows?
TFF is far from my favourite Maiden album, but it has stellar moments. It's funny how my two least favourite songs from it (Mother of Mercy and The Alchemist) get the most praise here.
Click to expand...

In my case I said intro Mother of Mercy was the "first one" in my first ever listen. Satellite 15 gets me going right from the start now.

Biggest YES moment on the album is the first solo to Starblind.
 
I'm not sure what mine would be, probably something in Avalon. That 7/4 groove is awesome.

stannar_kvar said:
I always felt that fallen angel would have been a better single than silent planet, but I have noticed quite a few people, at least around here, don't seem to appreciate it...
Click to expand...
I love Fallen Angel. Way better than Silent Planet and one of their best short rockers.
 
Yeah Mother of Mercy is very below-average. The Alchemist is cool tho. The absolute highlight is Coming Home though. Absolutely stunning from start to finish.
 
Starblind is outstanding . It is a haunting intelligent piece that I listen to regularly. Idk , maybe our view of "yes" moments differ...I do recall almost coming to tears ( of joy) when first listening to coming home as well.
Final frontier is a great album for sure. No argument at all.
 
I listened to this album start to finish for the first time in a while, it does really hold up and flow well from song to song. A really strong effort, I think it suffers a bit from having to follow AMOLOD, but being close to that in quality is high praise.
 
I don't think it suffers at all from following the previous one. It offers a continuation, that's easy to grasp in light of what it means as such for the band - even more prog influences and a more playful and open view on what can be done on the same album.
 
Interesting point. It isn't as good as amolad, so in that seance it may suffer when compared. In my opinion, amolad wasn't as good as DOD, but I never compared the two: It seemed to me the band purposely took a wide turn when making amolad. Therefore no comparing. I think ff is more comparable to it's predecessor , but not quite as solid.
 
Just spun final frontier all through again. Great album. The flow from song to song is indeed masterfully constructed.
Obviously the ff into el dorado is a perfect jigsaw puzzle connection. But even the way the others end and the anticipation of the following intro is satisfied beautifully. Isle of Avalon is a true thing of beauty and should be more appreciated as such. Definitely some yes moments' in there !!! Still a close 4th among the reunions, but an amazing disc.
 
So I've been going through the Maiden discog these past few weeks because of the new album hype, The Final Frontier tonight. It was extra special because this thread was fresh in my mind while listening. Some quick thoughts:

  • AMOLAD is still way better. TFF has a couple songs that beat everything on it, but as a whole AMOLAD has the flow and really feels like a completely experience unlike any other Maiden album. TFF is still a very close second.
  • Production isn't as good as I remember, I struggle to hear Bruce's vocals at times
  • While Bruce is showing his age, he sounds really great on a lot of this. Starblind and The Talisman are particular standouts. The latter for really showing off his range and the former for his intense delivery.
  • I love the guitar sound on this and I still stand by what I said about all three guitarists bringing it. They're also all trying new things, with the panning on Janick's solo in Talisman or Dave's backmasked solo on TMWWBK.
  • Coming Home aged well. I like it more now than I did when it came out.
 
I honestly have trouble with sharing all this positivity. It's not that I am not trying. I just don't hear it, or I don't agree.

The Final Frontier isn't a snoozefest of course, but there are not many really exciting or beautiful moments going on. They can be counted on one hand. Most other Maiden albums had more strong melodies, or were less predictable, and less recycling.

I clearly hear how 'Arry literally took the ATSS rhythm pattern (drum and bass), playing ATSS-ish guitars over it. Not just a little bit, it goes on and on and even comes back. Maybe it's because I hold ATSS (a very original and strong song in every aspect) very dear, but I do not appreciate this. It makes the song less special.

While AMOLAD might have more repetitive/dragging choruses, it is an album for which Maiden did not have to recycle/re-use iconic parts from its past.

Apart from the Rush influences in Isle of Avalon, and the album's intro, The Final Frontier did not delve much new territory. Is that bad?
No, but it makes the album duller, when it lacks something and when it repeats something. The roads that were taken had some interesting twists and turns, but there were also thin parts with holes in it, and others that crossed older and better roads.
 
I agree that there isn't a lot of "new" things on TFF, but I kinda give them a pass on this because of the context of the album. Since X Factor they've been trying a lot of new things and moving in an increasingly progressive direction. It's a new sound for Maiden and every album has been a logical continuation of the last. TFF feels like a culmination of all that. Like they're saying "here is a 70 minute overview of what we've been doing over the past 15 years". Most of the callbacks are from X Factor or later. The one exception I'd say is the solid gallop in El Dorado. Personally I like this because while it revisits old ideas, I do feel like it improves on all of them, or at least tries to do so. I guess if the music doesn't resonate with you, then it doesn't really matter, but I do appreciate what they were doing.

On top of that, I thought Isle of Avalon and TMWWBK had new sounds for Maiden at least.
 
@Ferostar: I see where you're coming from. However AMOLAD was not short of reused parts if you ask me. e.g. the rhythm parts in FTGGOG are exactly the same to the ones used in SSOSS + TTLBTAH + The pilgrim + NML and so on. I believe we all know which parts I mean. AMOLAD is full of good parts but this album really took chorus repetition to a new level.
And all of the sudden there is almost none of that in TFF. That alone made jump out of my seat after the first full listen of the album.

I am really sold on instrumental parts. The instrumental parts in AOA and Starblind are so freaking good. I did not manage to find something as good on AMOLAD. The feeling of some of the solos is something I haven't heard fo quite some time in a Maiden album either. e.g Coming home, TFF, Starblind and even
the blinding Dave solo in WTWWB.

IMO the short songs in TFF are much better than the ones found in AMOLAD as well.
Of course there is the theoretical music analysis and the the way an album makes you feel and have you pushed to hear it again. TFF still does that after all these years. Everytime I put on AMOLAD I am just bored to death.
 
Not sure which rhythm parts you mean, but these are probably more common, normal rhythms, not attached to one song, playing a significant, rather unique role.
 
Wait a minute, you can't dismiss some as common that easily. By which I mean, the bit of Wild Wind you linked to has parallels to other Maiden songs besides ATSS. Having recently played Sign of the Cross, I hear a similarity to the melody which leads into the final chorus there. I'd call your sample just as common as Mosh's.
 
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