On towards the sea we go - once again.
Done with my one of my... or actually, more than just likely THE favourite album of mine,
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, it is time to take a look at the next chapter.
Adrian Smith out, Janick Gers in. Martin Birch is still there, but instead of high-end studios of Compass Point or Musicland, the magic of Maiden is captured at Steve's barn. While that actually sounds kinda cool and very rock'n roll, in a very down to earth and
maideny way and is one of the defining factors of the album, it's also what drags it down.
It's always debatable how much the production really affects the score and overall quality of the songs, but it definitely has a huge role on how the songs present themselves. I think that the problems of the infamous No Prayer for the Producer sound are rather easily outlined when looking at the live performances of these songs. It's tighter, more aggressive and intense. Of course, the album versions have a lot of nuances and it's exaggerated to say that the recording, mixing and producing conditions manages to completely kill them off, but as the band members, especially Bruce, have been pretty vocal about, the intended roughness, edginess and heaviness does not come through as it should. The most recent remaster is, in my opinion, giving it some appropriate polish, but the greasy, thin, arguably too loose and laid back sound is there nonetheless.
What about the songs? If the approach to recording was a bit different, would the album be a classic? Well, not quite, but the songs aren't - in my opinion anyway - that bad at what they're aiming for. Sure, the simpler, back-to-basics approach and attempts at killer(s) riffs, edginess and powerful, catchy choruses comes through well enough and most of the songs succeed at their initial purpose: Tailgunner is a catchy, powerful opener that retains some of the dynamic and rounded sound of their previous, golden decade. Public Enema Number One gets the message through with the dark, outrageous performance; it's not the most beloved song out there, but I admit being rather fond of it. Fates Warning has some exploding transitions, big chorus and overall, it manages to hold up very well. Holy Smoke and Hooks in You manage in their "fun little rockers" category and the title track is your
typical quality mid-tempo masterpiece. The challenge and, in lack of a better word, problem here is that even the strongest songs on the record don't really add up to similar type of tracks on their previous records. In songs like The Assassin, or the previously mentioned rockers, there's some attempts for fresh sound and distinctive style that differs not only from the previous two, very melodic and somewhat proggy records, but also from their older discography, but these songs don't end up being entirely triumphant either.
That is not to say that the songs are bad, but out of ten songs on the album there is not much depth and undying brilliancy to discover. Tailgunner, No Prayer for the Dying and Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter are often mentioned as the standout tracks from this lot, and it's not too hard to see why. Tailgunner is a very solid song and also one of the more successful outcomes of the "laid-back and loose" sound the album more or (probably) less deliberately offers, while retaining some of the power and dynamics of their previous work. The title track has beautiful melodies and overall, there's really nothing to complain about, even if it's not quite another Revelations/Infinite Dreams. The power of the song really shines through when listening to the live performances, where Bruce's powerful performance really adds a lot to if; a bit similar case is how the opening verse of Revelations really kicks when Bruce delivers it live. You all know the story behind Bring Your Daughter.... to the Slaughter and how the original soundtrack version was withdrawn from the market etc. when it suddenly became part of the Maiden album and granted, in all of it's silliness it's probably the one of the more successful songs on the record when it comes to delivering that rough, aggressive in-your-face approach that the album unashamedly attempts, but not entirely succeeds at. There's a small piece of irony in that, considering that it was not written to be a Maiden song in the first place. An effective live track that holds up very well on the album and has become bit of a "second class classic", but hardly one of their best efforts and it's status as number one single (thanks to the "clever" release strategy) has probably glorified the song a bit too much for what it's actually worth.
Other highlights include Fates Warning, that I've always loved and I actually like the chorus quite a lot, but it could have been much more powerful with a better production. White Death by Sabaton shares a riff with this one, almost. It's not quite a
hidden gem that has been wrongly forgotten, but granted, the song would hold up well enough in many other, more appreciated Maiden albums too. Run Silent, Run Deep is another song that I've been rather fond of, but it admittedly falls into strange category, being somewhat dark and sinister, but at the same time it's far from being the strongest lyrics effort by Bruce Dickinson and therefore it doesn't quite grip you the way it should. The lyrics deal with a movie (1958) that shares the title of the song and Dive! Dive! Dive! from Bruce's solo album
Tattooed Millionaire was also inspired by the same source. Run Silent, Run Deep indeed sounds like it would work well enough there as well, but Steve has brought some more Maidenish elements to it and while the lyrics are what they are, I like the sinister sound and dramatic feel of the song quite a lot. It's just another song that doesn't really add up anything to Maiden sound and discography that I'd terribly miss if it was suddenly taken away. As much as I actually like it anyway.
The Assassin is an interesting one, since it's a song that many find as one of the saving graces of the album and others can't really stand at all. I've always found hard time getting into it. It's another song that strangely balances between tongue-in-cheek and heavy, dark and sinister approach and doesn't really end up succeeding at either one, but still manages to be an interesting song. But, once again, it's nothing that'd really draw me listening to the record.
See the pattern here? Yeah.
Another song worth highlighting is the album closer, Mother Russia. It's dramatic, it draws a lot from the title track of their previous album and overall holds up well. But, once again, doesn't really manage to stand out as anything else than a very decent song on a contradictory record. As much as it draws from previous Harris' songs without adding too much new, it has very distinctive parts and certain originality some of Steve's following attempts every now and then lack.
So, No Prayer for the Dying. Verdict...
Unsuccessful record at what it attempted to be, but still providing certain freshness and fair bunch of nice songs. Looking at all of them together, it's probably not their worst record per se, but at the same time it's a record I don't fancy listening to that much. It's easy to give a spin or two every now and then and most of the songs are actually pretty good, some even great, and I do have a huge soft spot for the title track. It has few curiosities and oddities that draw your interest every once in a while, but whatever freshness that provies also wores off quickly and leaves you with a lackluster Maiden record that is still an "ok" album. One of the saving graces here is the length; while there's a bunch of weaker songs that fail at delivering that dirty in-your-face experience, they don't really drag too much either and there's a fair amount of good melodies, parts and enjoyable stuff altogether.
Good-but-not-
good. It's a bit like those "2/5" movies that can have some absolutely amazing parts in them, but they fundamentally fail at delivering either the vision or the attempted appearance to the audience, while being relatively entertaining and enjoyable in their own right.
The average score seems to be somewhere around 6 and 7, depending on how I end up landing the scores for the more contradictory stuff like The Assassin, Holy Smoke and Hooks in You which are a bit hard to decide whether they're somewhere around 5,6 or 7, but I'd say that
6.5 is more than fair score for this album. It does not glorify lackluster nature of some of these songs and the overall product, but neither does it weight down the value of the many
really good songs that you can find on this record. It's a mixed bag. Enjoyable one, but I'd say that that it's failure at properly executing it's own purpose, and the approach they took, drags the score down a little bit.
No Prayer for the Dying - 6.5
Enjoyable album that has just enough saving graces to keep it interesting regardless some of their most lackluster songs and poor production, but overall the whole package doesn't really hold up well enough with most of the discography and even the very best songs have plenty of better equivalents in previous and later records.
Previous scores:
Randalf said:
Iron Maiden: still to come...
Killers: around
7.5
The Number of the Beast: around
8
Piece of Mind: around
9 or even above?
Powerslave: Another
9? I just hate 1-10 and how hard it is to properly score these masterpieces..
Somewhere in Time: 9 (A BLASPHEMY?)
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son: 10
I'd agree with you, Jer and others about it being underrated though; many seem to consider it much more garbage than it actually is. I mean, looking at those songs, most of them are actually good, not always that brilliant, but good, solid rockers that are enjoyable to listen with occasional great hooks here and there.
