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NPFTD is a more consistent album... consistently shit.

Whereas FOTD has higher highs and lower lows, NPFTD never manages to elevate itself out of mediocrity. Tailgunner, arguably its best song, is a poundshop Aces High. You can't make a good album out of it when it only has maybe 3 decent tracks and awful sound quality.

As mentioned many times before, FOTD can be molded into a classic by simply removing the filler. For my money, by keeping the best 8 or 9 tracks you've got an album that equals SIT or POM and easily their best album of the 90's.

Personally, the two shouldn't be compared. Where NPFTD was a misstep, FOTD was somewhat back on form and their last hurrah of that decade before it all went to shit.
 
FOTD is a pile of trash with a few highlights. No Pleasure From This Disc is middling throughout but in a far more pleasant way compared to basically most of Fear of the Dark's tracks. I think it says something when the title track is easily a top three song from the record. Everything about it is so dull and uninteresting. Even the drumming suffers from Maiden's weird 90s slump where it's completely lacking in interesting beats and fills, compared to how basically every track had something interesting happening on the predecessor album.
 
I remember a weird Bruce interview from 1992 when he was constantly praising the sound of the FOTD album. summary of his statement back then: great album because of its great sound.
:ninja:
 
Dick Brucinson said:
I remember a weird Bruce interview from 1992 when he was constantly praising the sound of the FOTD album. summary of his statement back then: great album because of its great sound.
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He's right. The production of FOTD is great (especially drums and guitars/solos, vocals too). But I don't think an album can be called great just because of its great sound, the songs have to be great.
Spaldy said:
and easily their best album of the 90's.

FOTD was somewhat back on form...
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FOTD was indeed back on form for the band and it's my favorite album from the 90's (although I really like TXF and love VXI).
Spaldy said:
NPFTD is a more consistent album... consistently shit.
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I would say that NPFTD is a slightly more consistent album than FOTD. The songs are more or less on the same level, while in FOTD we have classics like the title track, Be Quick Or Be Dead, Afraid To Shoot Strangers and songs like The Apparition, Weekend Warrior and Fear Is The Key...
 
Kalata said:
I would say that NPFTD is a slightly more consistent album than FOTD. The songs are more or less on the same level, while in FOTD we have classics like the title track, Be Quick Or Be Dead, Afraid To Shoot Strangers and songs like The Apparition, Weekend Warrior and Fear Is The Key...
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On NPFTD we have some classics too : "Tailgunner", "Holy Smoke", "Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter". But some other songs are very nice too, as "Fates Warning", "Public Enema Number One", "The Assassin", "Run Silent Run Deep" and the title song, "No Prayer For The Dying", which is a very emotional "ballad" with its calm first part then the explosion on the second part. :)
 
TheMercenary said:
On NPFTD we have some classics too : "Tailgunner", "Holy Smoke", "Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter". But some other songs are very nice too, as "Fates Warning", "Public Enema Number One", "The Assassin", "Run Silent Run Deep" and the title song, "No Prayer For The Dying", which is a very emotional "ballad" with its calm first part then the explosion on the second part. :)
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The title track is an indisputable classic. But yeah, some great songs in this album - Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter (classic!), Tailgunner, The Assassin, Run Silent Run Deep (classic gallop), the closing song. The other songs are also good - Fates Warning (only the chorus is a bit weak), Public Enema Number One (great verses) and Holy Smoke is a lot of fun. I think NPFTD is far from being a mediocre album.

Edit: it's great to have such an album (with only short songs) in their discography.
 
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In retrospective, it's nice to have such an album in their discography: it brings diversity and shows thats, no matter how big they were then, they had not lost all spontaneity. They (Steve at least) felt the urge to release a more direct album after not playing for a year. At the time, I would have loved them to keep on Seventh Son's track, but there are really enjoyable songs on this album, and very few I truly dislike (Bring your Daughter ; Hooks in You, Public Enema...).
 
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Spaldy said:
NPFTD is a more consistent album... consistently shit.

Whereas FOTD has higher highs and lower lows, NPFTD never manages to elevate itself out of mediocrity. Tailgunner, arguably its best song, is a poundshop Aces High. You can't make a good album out of it when it only has maybe 3 decent tracks and awful sound quality.

As mentioned many times before, FOTD can be molded into a classic by simply removing the filler. For my money, by keeping the best 8 or 9 tracks you've got an album that equals SIT or POM and easily their best album of the 90's.

Personally, the two shouldn't be compared. Where NPFTD was a misstep, FOTD was somewhat back on form and their last hurrah of that decade before it all went to shit.
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I was thinking this exact point the other day. I really think if it was just the 7 songs it would be a great album. Id go for this:
Be Quick or Be Dead
From Here to Eternity
Afraid to Shoot Strangers
Fear is the Key
Childhoods End
Wasting Love
Fear of the Dark

That'd a great album. Only 7 songs but there's a few longer ones so it'd still be about 40 mins.
 
All the songs on FOTD have something to offer . Whether we talk about complete songs being regarded as classics or specific music passages.
I mean...even Weekend Warrior has a kick ass mid section!
 
Gk1 said:
All the songs on FOTD have something to offer . Whether we talk about complete songs being regarded as classics or specific music passages.
I mean...even Weekend Warrior has a kick ass mid section!
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Yeah I do love the instrumental section of Weekend Warrior, the rest of it is a bit sub-par.
 
Christopher Baines said:
Must admit i did tinker putting Weekend Warrior on my shortened version as i actually quite like the song but i know a lot of people dont.
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I think it could be a pretty good song if it weren't for Bruce's abortion of a vocal performance and some questionable decisions on the vocal harmonies.
 
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