No Prayer for the Dying

Yax said:
Nope, "No Prayer..." was recorded in Steve's barn.

Studio album by Iron Maiden
Released 1 October 1990
Recorded Barnyard Studios, Essex, England, June - September 1990
Genre Heavy metal
Length 44:25
Label EMI, Epic
Producer Martin Birch
 
I don't have any problem with it.. I think it's a great album however as others have mentioned, it was a let down coming off of 7th son which, by many, is considered their best at the time.

I like it. I loved it at first because of the novelty of a new Maiden album. Some people I'm sure see it as weak and I understand it. I'm a musician and yes, the songs aren't complex as say 7th son or infinite dreams...the tunes are more straight forward.....but I think it works. Had it followed number of the Beast, people would love it I believe.

Some poepl are probably also against it because you don't hear Adrian's solos anymore...and it may have been tough to have a totally different style accompany Dave. Then on later albums, you can see through his style of writing why he IS in maiden.

I think it also marks a turning point in their style where the 'gallop' is still there but not as prominent in every song like the previous albums and it started to get less and less with future albums.


Anyhow....I think it's a great album....it was just tough to see certain things change...primarily no more Adrian sound and a small change in style......but that;'s just my opinion.
 
Alex Anghel said:
Agree, NPFTD blows out of the water Virtual XI on every level.
Only on the level of stupidity with insulting songs like bring your daughter, hooks in you, holy smoke e.t.c....
 
We've had a quite intelligent and mostly mature thread until now. Now it's taken a nose-dive.
 
bearfan said:
Like most said already, it is a good album, but coming off of Seventh Son, it was a let down.

I've always preferred 'No Prayer For The Dying' to 'Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son', even though both 'The Assassin' and 'Hooks In You' are utter crap.
 
Black_Thunder said:
Whaaaaa??? You can't be serious!

The Clansman rapes everything NPFTD has anytime.

Clansman is a very good song, I love it but the fact remains No Prayer offers much more than VXI. I refuse to get into why because I'll sound like a Blaze hater......which I am  :p
 
Wyrdskein said:
Virtual XI would definitely be up there if Bruce was on vocals, but on the whole I am a fan of Blaze too.

I dunno man. There's just some bad songs on VXI. Bruce would certainly improve it but you can't polish a turd...
 
snake plissken said:
I dunno man. There's just some bad songs on VXI. Bruce would certainly improve it but you can't polish a turd...

I don't think Bruce's voice would fix it. The songs are just weak, and there's nothing that could be done to make them sound better...
 
Wyrdskein said:
Interesting. Which songs do you consider weak? Virtual XI gets played quite a lot in my house.

I'll put it to you like this. I really like Futureal and The Clansman. Two Worlds Collide has some lovely guitar solos. The rest makes me sad. I still remember the first time I listened to it and feeling ill  :(

No Prayer just gets me going though. It's no Seventh Son but it does have some great songs.
 
Good: The Clansman, Como Estias Amigos
Fair: Futureal, WTWC
Bad: All others.

Pretty much repetitive, and melody doesn't sound any better either. NPFTD is better that VXI. But The Clansman is better than everything on NPFTD.

BTW, here are my songs from best to worst combining both albums:

1. The Clansman
2. No Prayer For The Dying
3. Como Estais Amigos
4. Mother Russia
5. Holy Smoke
6. Run Silent Run Deep
7. Futureal
8. Fates Warning
9. When Two Worlds Collide
10. The Educated Fool
11. The Assassin
12. Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter
13. Public Enema Number One
14. Lightning Strikes Twice
15. The Angel And The Gambler
16. Tailgunner
17. Don't Look To The Eyes Of A Stranger
18. Hooks In You
 
Although rushed, underdeveloped and in general a serious let down after the magnificent SSOASS, NPFTD is a good and cohesive collection of songs. I particularly dig the title track and the superb Public Enema No.1, with its stunning harmonized melodic intro.

In comparison, VXI is nothing short of a musical mess. Ridiculous production and repetitive song writing. Apart from Futureal, which is great from start to finish, there's only a few bits and pieces here and there (The Clansman, When Two Worlds Collide, etc).
 
It looks like an integral part of this forum has slowly but surely changed into a "battle" of the nineties material. :)

I wish Maiden would realize how interested some fans are in this stuff, and wipe the dust of some track(s) again, to bring it live.

Just a general observation (regardless of my own opinion):
Fear of the Dark and Virtual XI are often seen as the worst albums and The X-Factor is often seen as the best (thus relativeley seen, there's not that much discussion about it).

As of late, the most dynamic discussions are constanty about No Prayer For The Dying, often criticized for its vocals and often compared with other albums.

I am not going to put all these songs in order now. I rather like to play them, let them sink in, play them again and rate them in the song rating topics.

However, I can already say that Lightning Strikes Twice is my favourite song from VXI and Mother Russia from No Prayer For The Dying. I like Mother Russia more than anything on VXI and maybe a few other songs (Public Enema Number One, Fates Warning and Run Silent Run Deep) as well.
 
I can't compare the two albums very well. Here's one of the reasons why.

1. Virtual XI was the first Maiden album, after BNW, that I really got "into". Some of the stuff I now recognize is simple just blew me away when I was a new Maiden fan. The Clansman, obviously, holds first place there, but other tracks - When Two Worlds Collide, Lightning Strikes Twice, The Educated Fool - really still get me rocking each time. NPFTD, by comparison, was the last Maiden album I heard in its entirety, due to the fragmented nature by which I obtained the content.

2. I don't like comparing Blaze/Bruce songs so much, because I really do think the two men have distinct styles and are very good singers. I prefer Bruce. However, NPFTD always felt like it would have sounded better with Blaze. I think he would have blown tracks like Run Silent, Run Deep, No Prayer For the Dying, and Tailgunner out of the park, just like he did with ATSS.

3. The guitar sound is complete polar opposite. On NPFTD it's raw, so raw. On VXI it's too surreal, too polished. I find the comparisons there to be difficult to make, because I find both of those to be equally distasteful to my current tastes, just on polar opposite ends. It's one of the reasons the late 80s albums don't appeal to me as much as the earlier 80s stuff.

The one place I will say that NPFTD blows away VXI is drumming.
 
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