No Prayer for the Dying could have been Amazing

I agree, Mother Russia kind of loses me because the rest of the album is really fast paced and aggressive. Sort of a disappointing ending.
 
I find it really difficult to listen to outside the context of it coming after Seventh Son, which is a very difficult album to beat, in my opinion, although I think I wore it out over the last few years.
 
TBH, i prefer the No Prayer than FotD. It's below TXF, of course, but slightly better than Virtual XI

The Assassin is probably my Maiden guilty pleasure
 
Brigantium said:
I find it really difficult to listen to outside the context of it coming after Seventh Son, which is a very difficult album to beat, in my opinion, although I think I wore it out over the last few years.
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Which is why, imo, they decided to go with a simpler more basic/raw approach.

And thats why I like it so much.
 
I've always had mixed feelings on this one when this came out in '90...I loved the prog metal escapist progression of Powerslave --> SIT --> SSOASS, so it felt weird to "regress" in terms of production, stage setup, and song arrangements. Having that said, the album has grown on me somewhat, and some of those songs did translate pretty well live.
 
soundwave said:
I've always had mixed feelings on this one when this came out in '90...I loved the prog metal escapist progression of Powerslave --> SIT --> SSOASS, so it felt weird to "regress" in terms of production, stage setup, and song arrangements. Having that said, the album has grown on me somewhat, and some of those songs did translate pretty well live.
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I agree with this. I did not like it when it came out, I think it is a good album by any band's standards, but still a weak album by Maiden standards now. There is some good stuff on it, but it lacks the great stuff that is on most of Maiden's albums. That is the real problem with it
 
I imagine if I had been a fan in the 80s, I'd be disappointed by this album too. Just like I don't really want Maiden to strip down their sound now. Since I heard all these albums out of context, it didn't really have that effect on me. It was a step down from SSOASS musically but I didn't listen to it as a followup to SSOASS, just as its own thing.
 
Mosh said:
I imagine if I had been a fan in the 80s, I'd be disappointed by this album too. Just like I don't really want Maiden to strip down their sound now. Since I heard all these albums out of context, it didn't really have that effect on me. It was a step down from SSOASS musically but I didn't listen to it as a followup to SSOASS, just as its own thing.
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I think that is a great point and probably why I like it more now than then. I had expectations of a continuation from the trajectory they were on and this was a total left turn. With some time and knowing they got back to that trajectory later, it takes the sting out of it and makes it easier to listen to as a one off kind of deal
 
Mosh said:
I imagine if I had been a fan in the 80s, I'd be disappointed by this album too. Just like I don't really want Maiden to strip down their sound now. Since I heard all these albums out of context, it didn't really have that effect on me. It was a step down from SSOASS musically but I didn't listen to it as a followup to SSOASS, just as its own thing.
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Great point. I fully admit that nostalgia clouds some of my judgment on those records. I was really into D&D, comics, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars at the time, and 80s Maiden was the perfect soundtrack to all of this (hey, I was a full on metal geek kid back in that decade). 90s "social commentary Maiden" threw me for a loop. I had to get some broader musical/life experiences under my belt before I could fully appreciate the 90s stuff. I mean, now as an adult in his late 30s with a wife, kids, and a mortgage, I "get" songs like 2am (whereas I didn't when it was released).
 
Yep. They probably had to change something as the 90s arrived, they'd reached a pinnacle with the likes of SIT and Seventh Son and needed to follow a different track. The 90s and the very end of the 80s had a lot that of stripped down/back to basics and 'serious' thing going on in popular culture. After the high point of 80s excesses, it was always going to be difficult album with mixed reception. I don't remember much about No Prayer... at all at the time, unlike Fear of the Dark, where I remember thinking Maiden had successfully made that transition into the 90s and were here to stay.

Context of the time also colours opinions of Brave New World too, I think. First reunion album, a nod to the past but confidently taking a direction for the future.
 
For me, No Prayer for the Dying was a huge let-down when it was released. Seventh Son was such a strong album and there was such a long wait for this album. Bruce's solo album Tattooed Millionaire had a big impact on the style of this album. With his solo album, I felt Bruce went a completely different direction from Maiden and I just couldn't comprehend him singing such bizarre pop trash. However, Bruce seemed to hit a cord among an audience and I believe Steve Harris was getting worried that Bruce might leave. Further, many members of Maiden had a lot of young children at the time and I think they wanted something a little more family friendly than their previous offerings, so they could share the music with their children.

In 1990, No Prayer for the Dying was a watered down Maiden more in line with a hard rock album and not the metal the fans wanted. After Metallica's One single, metal was gaining acceptance in the mainstream media, and while Maiden was having children a significant portion their fans were much younger and craving harder metal stuff. No Prayer completely missed the mark for that time music. Metallica would soon release the Black Album and essentially destroy the metal scene (at least here in the USA). Post-Black Album, metal music fractured into Grunge (as embodied by Nirvana) and Death Metal. Death Metal swept up all the disenfranchised metal fans who could take the horrendous monotone "evil sounding" lyrics. Plus many metal heads at the time already were upset with Iron Maiden for releasing what they considered a sell-out album with Somewhere in Time, and Metallica was considered the cooler kid on the block.

I find the title song of the album to be up around Maiden's best ever songs. It always seemed to come up on my Walkman during long bus rides to/from school, especially at night in the rain with the street lights reflecting off the water droplets on the windows. So whenever I think of that song those images pop up in my head. Tailgunner is a really good song, except for the chorus. The chorus just doesn't fit the verses very well and just adds a silliness to the song that shouldn't be there. Holy Smoke is a bit of a silly song and I can handle that in isolation, but there's a bit too much on the whole album for me. I really liked Run Silent, Run Deep and felt it fits in well with the older material, yet it is relegated to obscurity. The studio version of The Assassin is really corny sounding but it translates so much better in a live setting. Of the four (4) No Prayer songs with official live recordings released it is definitely the best sounding song. Maiden's live recording at the time sounded like they were recorded on a handheld Walkman somewhat far back in a crowd.

I like Fates Warning and Mother Russia, but once again the lyrics for both of those songs could've used a tad more lyrical polishing. Bring your Daughter is a little too slow and repetitive for me...most of the time. I can't stand Hooks in You and I won't listen to it anymore. I couldn't stand Public Enema No. 1 in the 90's but I can tolerate better it nowadays. I think the song could be stronger if it wasn't titled and had the line Public Enema No. 1 in it. I could never understand why it was played live during the tour and Run Silent or Fates Warning wasn't.

I like the album more today than I did back in the 90's...I can't believe its over 25 years old. I never had a problem with Bruce's vocals on the album...but they lyrical content wasn't cool as I wanted it sound.
 
Moribund said:
Further, many members of Maiden had a lot of young children at the time and I think they wanted something a little more family friendly than their previous offerings, so they could share the music with their children.
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I don't think having children had influenced the music itself, but more probably their capacity to hole up for weeks and really work together on the songs. Moreover, the album was also recorded "at home" for the first time, at Steve Harris's Barnyard Studios plugged into the Rolling Stone mobile recording studio.

Concert wise, this album was followed by the Innercity Express Tour, in which the band just toured some 20 towns (not necessarily big ones) around the UK - before doing a proper world tour called No Prayer on the Road. Maybe this could have to do with their recent respective fatherhood? But I don't buy the idea that they would specifically adapt the music to their children as potential future listeners.

 
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