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
My thoughts on The Final Frontier.. Ehh where do I began?!

My first thoughts were, "this is boring", "the artwork is really cool", "I don't love any songs from it".

My thoughts now are, "this is pretty damn amazing!", "Coming Home is an awesome song!", "TFF ranks quite low in my Maiden albums", but how does anyone rank TFF high when they have soooo many great album?! It's still an 8/10 in my book. "When The Wild Wind Blows is a great epic, one of my favorites".

I like how others here have pointed out in this thread that it's like 2 sides, side A has 5 rockers and side B has 5 epics. I listened to 'side B' last night and loved it! I'm listening to 'side A' now and it's a great album. I don't understand what others mean by subpar production quality, I think the production sounds fantastic! But AMOLAD is better IMHO.

To wrap up. TFF is a great album, but requires multiple listens. The 1st time I listened to it I listened to it all the way through and I think that was a bad idea because I kind of nodded off during songs like Coming Home and Starblind and came away with a poor impression until I went back and gave each song the attention each song deserves. Coming Home and WTWWB are 2 of my top 10 in my reunion Maiden albums list.
I choose it's a strong album and stands up well to the test of time.
 
Yes, Gk1, that's a rhythm that was used more often. I think it started with The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. But the feel during that part in this song is different from other songs. In Loneliness it feels more smooth and melodic while in eg. SSOASS it feels more aggressive. So it also depends on what the guitars are doing.

edit:
No time to point it out now, but I think it already started with a certain part in Rime. Not sure if the playing is exactly the same, but the accents certainly are.
 
@Forostar: Not sure which part you mean,however I got very sensitive to this drum / guitar patern.Everyone has his own crazy reasons to prefer an album to another....so wheh TFF had no parts of this type I was really happy.The main reason for not liking AMOLAD as much was the choruses. Not only they are repeated endlessly,they are quite unimagivative.
 
My official critique of AMOLAD's repetitive choruses

1. Brighter than a 1000 Suns - fabulous song all round, absolutely no qualms about the chorus
2. The Longest Day - fabulous song all round, absolutely no qualms about the chorus
3. For the Greater Good of God - same as 1. and 2.
 
Wow yes btats just plain kicks your arse up and down the street for a few minutes every time. I love that begging, crying guitar riff !!!! Maybe my favorite guitar work of the reunion.
Bruce is pleading with the listener with might and emotion. Lyrics are outstanding too. Telling this unfortunate history lesson in a very sinister clever way. Superior to any of the ff songs in my opinion...
 
These Colours Dont Run and Brighter Than A Thousand Suns is my favourite ever one-two punch on a Maiden album. Two fantastic songs back to back, I never get bored of these 15 mins 36 secs of music. My ultimate highlight is the solo from Adrian in the first of these two behemoth songs.
 
The Wicker Man - Ghost of the Navigator - Brave New World - Blood Brothers (pretty much anything in there)
 
LooseCannon said:
The Wicker Man - Ghost of the Navigator - Brave New World - Blood Brothers (pretty much anything in there)
Click to expand...


That is a tough one to beat

But Powerslave/Rime of the Ancient Mariner might do it ... as would about any combo of 2 songs on AMOLAD and SSOASS ... an embarrassment of riches almost
 
LooseCannon said:
The Wicker Man - Ghost of the Navigator - Brave New World - Blood Brothers (pretty much anything in there)
Click to expand...

BNW was one of the biggest disappointments for me. The 3 first songs was one of the main reasons. On the other hand Bruce is at his best in BMW, I just found that the music was not as good.

The Moonchild - Infinite dreams duo is unbeatable IMO
 
The Powerslave closers v AMOLAD tracks nbr 2&3. Now that's a close tussle. Powerslave's instrumental section is Maiden's crowning achievement but the two reunion era songs still pack a more powerful punch to me. BTATS has Steve's best basswork since Sea of Madness.
 
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