No Prayer for the Dying

Wyrdskein

Invader
Hi.

Why do people have such a problem with the No Prayer for the Dying album? I thnk it's one of their best. I don't care if the tracks are shorter than normal or if it lacks an 'epic' quality. It's fantastic! Much better than Dance of Death, which seems to be so rated these days. :shred:
 
Because musically and lyrically the album doesn't measure up to maidens standard. I think the only real good song on it is the title track and thats pretty much it. At least fear of the dark has affraid to shoot strangers, be quick or be dead and fear of the dark.

Dance of death isn't rated highly anyway, most people usually rate in the bottom half of their favourite albums. Although it has some spectacular songs like rainmaker, dance of death, paschendale, no more lies and journeyman, the other half of the album just feels like filler to most people. Gates of tomorow sucks really bad and its one of the few maiden songs that i actually hate, i cant wait to give it a 1/10.
 
I think if we are judging it as a standalone album from any old band, it is actually decent. But when compared to the albums Maiden have released, it doesn't stack up well. Even so, it's quite grown on me, I rate it higher than FOTD and the Blaze albums. Mother Russia, Hooks In You, Title Track and Bring Your Daughter are all very listenable... I actually think Mother Russia is one of their best songs.

On it's own- 7.5/10
As an album in comparison with the best of Maiden- 6/10
 
Like most said already, it is a good album, but coming off of Seventh Son, it was a let down.
 
I must be strange then, as I think lyrically it is better than a lot of their albums. The whole thing seems to hang together very well and has no loose ends  - but the world would be boring if we all liked the same things. I would rank their first 14 albums as follows:

1. No Prayer for the Dying (1990)
2. Somewhere in Time (1986)
3. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)
4. Fear of the Dark (1992)
5. Virtual XI (1998)
6. Brave New World (2000)
7. The X Factor (1995)
8. A Matter of Life and Death (2006)
9. Powerslave (1984)
10. Killers (1981)
11. Iron Maiden (1980)
12. The Number of the Beast (1982)
13. Piece of Mind (1983)
14. Dance of Death (2003)
 
Wyrdskein said:
I must be strange then, as I think lyrically it is better than a lot of their albums. The whole thing seems to hang together very well and has no loose ends  - but the world would be boring if we all liked the same things. I would rank their first 14 albums as follows:

1. No Prayer for the Dying (1990)
2. Somewhere in Time (1986)
3. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)
4. Fear of the Dark (1992)
5. Virtual XI (1998)
6. Brave New World (2000)
7. The X Factor (1995)
8. A Matter of Life and Death (2006)
9. Powerslave (1984)
10. Killers (1981)
11. Iron Maiden (1980)
12. The Number of the Beast (1982)
13. Piece of Mind (1983)
14. Dance of Death (2003)

Interesting list. I understand it's all a matter of preference, but why don't you like Powerslave or POM? Maybe "don't like them" isn't the right phrasing, but what in your mind puts albums like Fear of the Dark or TXF above them?
 
Thats a VERY interesting list, very very mixed, never seen a list like that. i can't connect the dots
 
Babo 91 said:
Thats a VERY interesting list, very very mixed, never seen a list like that. i can't connect the dots

Lyrically perhaps? Not saying I agree but I'm guessing based on the poster mentioning that he rates NPFTD high based on lyrics. To each his own though, like he says, we'd all be boring if we all liked the same thing. I actually really like Dance of Death for example but quite a few here rate it as one of the weakest Bruce albums.
 
No Prayer is right up there for me. Above Somewhere in Time and Fear of the Dark. Hmm, OK, that makes it 13th on my list but for consistency throughout the album it fairs better, in my opinion, than some "classic" albums. For example, I would probably have it more consistent than Powerslave, but the best of Powerslave is so much more superior than the best of No Prayer.
 
Its hard to say why I like FOTD over POM etc, other than the former is more creative and more substantial all round. The margins between most of them are very small though. Regarding TXF, I think musically this album was really good, even though sometimes the lyrics let it down. In fact, that's what I feel about POM and DOD as well; but DOD is the only album which contains songs I don't like 'at all.' Particularly the title track, which is just dire.

By the way, Powerslave is great, I just like the others slightly better.
 
  Well, I gotta hand it to you, that is THE weirdest list of Maiden albums I have ever seen!!  POM, NoB, and Powerslave all in the bottom six?  Not to mention No Prayer on top with VX11 and FOD in the top 7.  Wow.  Weird. Again a matter of taste.  I hate chocolate.  Everyone seems to love it.  So there you go.  If you have a Maiden list, you have great taste in music, that we can all agree on!!
 
I don't really hate NPFTD , i find it entertaining crap while FOTD is boring crap. NPFTD signalled the biggest fall from grace any band has ever experienced , it was worse than Load from Metallica in that regard. How Maiden went from "7th son" to NPFTD is a mystery to me.

I still remember the days of NPFTD , the days without internet when the hype was being created from  magazines.  I have to admit that at those days i was tired of the synth-heavy Maiden albums (oh how little did i know, i was much younger though) and Maiden were making NPFTD sound like it would be a return to the days of "Killers" , in their interviews . I can't forget how shocked i was when i first listened "Holy Smoke" on the radio before the album's launch , i couldn't stop thinking how silly and awful it sounded.  Then i saw that "bring your daughter" (an already well-known track that was an o.k silly rocker that had nothing to do with the Maiden that i loved ) was included in the track list and i knew something was horribly wrong with the new Iron Maiden album ......

Oh and Dance of Death is 1000 times better than any of these horrible albums. Come to think of it i even prefer virtual XI to these albums and find the "great" FOTD songs (like "afraid to shoot stranger" ) very bad with the exception of the titile track , of course.
 
For the record, No Prayer still gets played at my house but not all that often. The first thing I noticed which I didn't like was Bruce's voice, and don't know why he sang like that on that album. Mother Russia was the only song where Bruce sounded like Bruce. Then songs like Hooks in You and Bring your daughter...to the slaughter, made me feel like they're stepping down from metal gods to everyday rockers. Even the artwork on this album was not up to Maiden standard. To be fair to NPFTD, I did purchase it the exact same day as Megadeth's Rust in Peace. The whole scenario to me was one band has moved forward, one backwards. Maiden have more than made up for this since.
 
Vortex said:
For the record, No Prayer still gets played at my house but not all that often. The first thing I noticed which I didn't like was Bruce's voice, and don't know why he sang like that on that album. Mother Russia was the only song where Bruce sounded like Bruce. Then songs like Hooks in You and Bring your daughter...to the slaughter, made me feel like they're stepping down from metal gods to everyday rockers. Even the artwork on this album was not up to Maiden standard. To be fair to NPFTD, I did purchase it the exact same day as Megadeth's Rust in Peace. The whole scenario to me was one band has moved forward, one backwards. Maiden have more than made up for this since.
Nice observations and to add something, somewhat , similar NPFTD was released close to Judas Priest 's "Painkiller" and boy did i feel awful for Iron Maiden...
 
I grew up with Iron Maiden and Bruce, but have never really been concerned with their 'rock god status' or the epic quality of their music. I just listen to the songs and take them for what they are. I wonder what Maiden think of NPFTD? Certainly it does not have the mythical grandeur of other Maiden albums, but personally I like both styles.
 
Wyrdskein said:
Hi.

Why do people have such a problem with the No Prayer for the Dying album? I thnk it's one of their best. I don't care if the tracks are shorter than normal or if it lacks an 'epic' quality. It's fantastic! Much better than Dance of Death, which seems to be so rated these days. :shred:


That seems to be the "scapegoat" cd of Iron Maiden--- it gets hell from alot of people online!  I think the title track is one of their best, but that's just me.  There are probably 5 or 6 good songs from NPFTD, but the other 4 or 5 are pretty bad. 
 
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