Dick Brucinson
Bruce Dolci
Which one of both is better?
The better 1990s album with Bruce: FOTD vs NPFTD
- Thread starter Dick Brucinson
- Start date
Jer
A window to the west, a blazing star above
No Prayer For The Dying, pretty easily. An underrated, middle-of-the-road Maiden album that features some of Janick’s best guitar performances, because he still had something to prove at the time.
FOTD is way too uneven, with some real stinkers on it, and the title track and ATSS are wildly overrated songs.
FOTD is way too uneven, with some real stinkers on it, and the title track and ATSS are wildly overrated songs.
Yax
Ancient Mariner
NPFTD is the only Maiden album I dislike. It is rushed, uninspired and is mostly a collection of stinkers. FoTD on the other hand is slightly bloated, but has a lot of quality material and Maiden had something to say and showed they had a bunch of tricks up their sleeve. Remove three songs and the album turns solid. Not fantastic, but solid.
Kalata
Out of the Silent Planet
I like FOTD more, plus it has the better songs/material. As a whole piece, NPFTD is probably more solid, but I still don't think it's better. Playing wise, both are equal. For me, they improved No Prayer's formula with Fear. A return to form. Except for a few songs. No Prayer needed more time.
No Prayer has 1 or 2 at most weak songs (within the other songs quality, which is solid), while Fear has 3 or 4 songs (at least 2 or 3 are fillers) that could have been cutted, but some of them are better than the weak songs on No Prayer imo. Remove them and the album is more than great.
No Prayer has 1 or 2 at most weak songs (within the other songs quality, which is solid), while Fear has 3 or 4 songs (at least 2 or 3 are fillers) that could have been cutted, but some of them are better than the weak songs on No Prayer imo. Remove them and the album is more than great.
Edington
Last Son of The Miracle
Fear of the Dark has much higher highs and lower lows. No Prayer is more consistent but there's a little too much uninspired Seventh Son-rehashing on there, while Fear, for all its faults, at least sounds a bit more unique. The production and guitar tones of Fear are way better, and there's some real fire across both albums in the guitar solos. There's not much difference between them, but I think Fear's solos are overall better..
Also, it's not really relevant, but Maiden's version of Bring Your Daughter is absolutely (holy) smoked by Bruce's version, so No Prayer loses a point for that
Also, it's not really relevant, but Maiden's version of Bring Your Daughter is absolutely (holy) smoked by Bruce's version, so No Prayer loses a point for that
Diesel 11
As you scream into the web of silence...
No Prayer just does not have any stand outs. It's consistently fine. Fear of the Dark has those standouts ("Fear of the Dark", "Judas Be My Guide"), and I happen to really like some of the more hated tracks on the record ("The Apparition", "Weekend Warrior"), so this is an easy vote for FOTD.
Spaldy
Ancient Mariner
FOTD easily. Even though it has a bunch of filler, including some of their worst songs like The Apparition and Weekend Warrior, it also has the title track, Judas, BQOBD, ATSS etc. And it has a far better production.
NPFTD has some decent tunes but nothing that comes close to what's on its successor. And it sounds like crap.
NPFTD has some decent tunes but nothing that comes close to what's on its successor. And it sounds like crap.
It has always been No Prayer for me and not even close. FOTD has the better songs overall, but once you get past those two or three songs where they knock it out of the park, you get into easily Maiden's worst material. The long running time doesn't help. I never felt like anything on No Prayer was offensive bad as much as the whole album was a misstep coming off of Seventh Son. The raw production is nice though and I like the energy on a few songs. The consistency of No Prayer puts it over the edge easily for me.
Flaming Blimp Crash
Ancient Mariner
Fear of the Dark. The production's better and the better songs on the album feel more fleshed out. No song on No Prayer has that 'extra gear' in it to me - not that all the songs are bad, but none that I'd really show off to anyone.
No I think the production on Fear is really weak. Totally agreed that they tried too hard to make it polished and ended up with a really hollow sounding low end and weak guitars. The whole thing just sounds so thin.
CA Bryers
Ancient Mariner
Every so often, I get a weird urge to listen to FotD. I rarely get that with other albums. I know it's got filler, but I don't care. It's a great album, better sound than NPFTD, better songs overall as well. Despite following the trend a little with the gang vocals on From Here to Eternity and Chains of Misery, it's also got some underrated gems. Judas, of course, Childhood's End, The Fugitive are excellent. I don't even mind The Apparition, even if it feels a bit thrown together. Used to really not like Fear is the Key with its weird "lies and lies and lies" interlude, but now I kinda dig it. Something different from the band, even though Bruce slagged the album off at the time as basically more of the same.
Ruflux
Ancient Mariner
I haven't listened to either album in years, but I do keep coming back to the Sledgehammer bootleg and I don't think those songs are particularly bad, just mostly rather by-the-numbers music with a few highlights. Meanwhile I have literally no desire to listen to any of FotD's songs apart from the title track occasionally, ATSS very rarely and the opener. I think I've given Judas a few spins over the years as well, but it's not exactly a favorite either. I couldn't name all the tracks on that album and I don't want to be able to. It's just bland and bloated.
Nah I agree with this too, FotD the song plays on the radio semi-regularly and it's such a limp-sounding recording with really nothing positive going on for it. I'd rather listen to something that's intentionally rough around the edges than something that's trying to be polished but fails at it.
Black Bart
Ancient Mariner
Unpopular opinion: I can't see what's wrong with "Chains of Misery" (apart from Nicko slowing down then speeding up after the solos). 
Soundmaster
Prowler
Both have their high and low points. But No Prayer is slightly stronger, imo.
As has been said millions of times the past 30 years, a hybrid of both albums’ best songs would make for a great album….but one that still falls short of its predecessors. And, frankly, of everything since the reunion.
As has been said millions of times the past 30 years, a hybrid of both albums’ best songs would make for a great album….but one that still falls short of its predecessors. And, frankly, of everything since the reunion.
CA Bryers
Ancient Mariner
Unpopular opinion: I can't see what's wrong with "Chains of Misery" (apart from Nicko slowing down then speeding up after the solos).
I agree. Always loved Chains of Misery, even if it isn't breaking any new ground whatsoever. Fun song.
Definitely agree with that. "Limp" is a great way to put how it sounds compared to live versions, which, if I have to listen to the song, live is 100% the way to go every time. Then again, I've felt that way about a lot of Maiden's songs. I've never been a fan of the sound of Hallowed on NotB--live is always 100% better.
karljant
Ancient Mariner
Highlights? FOTD. It features three songs that could be included in any Maiden setlist and would light a fire on the crowd (one of them has been doing that since the album's release... perhaps it should be given a pass on two or three more tours than 2005 but hey, fair enough).
As a whole? NPFTD easily. Apart from Hooks In You everything here ranges from good to great IMO. Ok, I think the vast majority of tracks here are merely "good", two of them are reaaally good (PENO and Fates Warning) and three are amazing tunes (Bring Your Daughter, Tailguner and Run Silent). Is this top trio as good as the one on FOTD? IMO it falls short (not by much but it does). But then there's the rest of the album and there's where NPFTD runs away with it in my book.
What else is there in FOTD that captures my attention? Childhood's End and Judas Be My Guide are quite good. Apart from that I have serious issues with the album. In my opinion songs like The Fugitive, Chains Of Misery or The Apparition, despite having some really cool passages, are mostly made out of uninspired moments, some WTF passages or even sound like a first sketch of a song (i.e. the latter). Overall, I think these three tracks are filler material at best. Other than that, I'm sorry... it doesn't even sound like Maiden to me (which by itself isn't a problem) and to this day I regard them as below mediocre at best with one of them being the most horrendous song I've listened to in an Iron Maiden album by far (Fear Is The Key). It gets to a point that what I consider to be NPFTD's second "least good" songs (The Assassin and Mother Russia) would sound great when compared with every track from this album apart from Be Quick Or Be Dead, Afraid To Shoot Strangers or the title track. So, In my opinion, FOTD is a huge rollercoaster when it comes to quality. And that rollercoaster feeling extends to another aspect: the record's consistency as a whole. On NPFTD I see what the band wants to achieve: a straight forward approach of their sound. Have they exaggerated and the album seems to lack something? Absolutely. But IMO every song has a sense of homogeneity when compared with its neighbors - apart from the aforementioned Hooks In You and perhaps Holy Smoke (although I really love the latter). That's where FOTD is also a major letdown for me. It seems utterly dyslexic, and more than half of the record always gives me a vibe that this is Maiden playing covers from really different bands.
And it's not like Maiden isn't capable of combining different flavors on the same album. Post reunion records in particular are a testament to that ability. DOD has the acoustic Journeyman and the quasi-symphonic tracks that are Paschendale and Face In The Sand. AMOLAD has the weird time signatures and brute heaviness of Brighter Than A Thousand Suns, the soothing Out Of The Shadows or once again the semi orchestral sabbath like The Legacy. And what to say about the band going full on rock opera with piano on Empire Of The Clouds? Or even their latest full length with the overall tribal vibe of the title track, the folk/ southern vibe on The Writing On The Wall or those major scale verses popping out of nowhere on The Time Machine? And not even for a second do any of these tunes sound "lost" like most of the stuff on FOTD (not to mention that, IMO, any of the aforementioned is way better than a quarter of FOTD).
As a whole? NPFTD easily. Apart from Hooks In You everything here ranges from good to great IMO. Ok, I think the vast majority of tracks here are merely "good", two of them are reaaally good (PENO and Fates Warning) and three are amazing tunes (Bring Your Daughter, Tailguner and Run Silent). Is this top trio as good as the one on FOTD? IMO it falls short (not by much but it does). But then there's the rest of the album and there's where NPFTD runs away with it in my book.
What else is there in FOTD that captures my attention? Childhood's End and Judas Be My Guide are quite good. Apart from that I have serious issues with the album. In my opinion songs like The Fugitive, Chains Of Misery or The Apparition, despite having some really cool passages, are mostly made out of uninspired moments, some WTF passages or even sound like a first sketch of a song (i.e. the latter). Overall, I think these three tracks are filler material at best. Other than that, I'm sorry... it doesn't even sound like Maiden to me (which by itself isn't a problem) and to this day I regard them as below mediocre at best with one of them being the most horrendous song I've listened to in an Iron Maiden album by far (Fear Is The Key). It gets to a point that what I consider to be NPFTD's second "least good" songs (The Assassin and Mother Russia) would sound great when compared with every track from this album apart from Be Quick Or Be Dead, Afraid To Shoot Strangers or the title track. So, In my opinion, FOTD is a huge rollercoaster when it comes to quality. And that rollercoaster feeling extends to another aspect: the record's consistency as a whole. On NPFTD I see what the band wants to achieve: a straight forward approach of their sound. Have they exaggerated and the album seems to lack something? Absolutely. But IMO every song has a sense of homogeneity when compared with its neighbors - apart from the aforementioned Hooks In You and perhaps Holy Smoke (although I really love the latter). That's where FOTD is also a major letdown for me. It seems utterly dyslexic, and more than half of the record always gives me a vibe that this is Maiden playing covers from really different bands.
And it's not like Maiden isn't capable of combining different flavors on the same album. Post reunion records in particular are a testament to that ability. DOD has the acoustic Journeyman and the quasi-symphonic tracks that are Paschendale and Face In The Sand. AMOLAD has the weird time signatures and brute heaviness of Brighter Than A Thousand Suns, the soothing Out Of The Shadows or once again the semi orchestral sabbath like The Legacy. And what to say about the band going full on rock opera with piano on Empire Of The Clouds? Or even their latest full length with the overall tribal vibe of the title track, the folk/ southern vibe on The Writing On The Wall or those major scale verses popping out of nowhere on The Time Machine? And not even for a second do any of these tunes sound "lost" like most of the stuff on FOTD (not to mention that, IMO, any of the aforementioned is way better than a quarter of FOTD).
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Blood On The World´s Hand
Trooper
Top-5 from both and that would make a solid top-5 Maiden album. Make it top-5 overall from both and throw in top-5 from Blaze albums (in other words top-10 from the 90s) and you get top-3 Maiden album. Hopefully there are not too many tops to confuse. Wish they wouldn´t have omitted that decade so badly, with the obvious exception of course. Or at least should have given FOTD an occassional rest and put one different 90s song to the set every tour.
Spaldy
Ancient Mariner
It sounds like a Mötley Crüe song.