The better 1990s album with Bruce: FOTD vs NPFTD

NPFTD vs FOTD

  • NPFTD

    Votes: 17 39.5%

  • FOTD

    Votes: 26 60.5%
  • Total voters
    43
What are some folk on about the "weak production"? Up till that point, BQOBD was their heaviest song and the album as a whole has significantly more bottom end than anything on NPFTD.

I've personally never found it "thin" sounding (although it doesn't quite have the meat and potatoes of their late 80s albums). That term, thin, I would apply to the two albums that followed.
 
Ruflux said:
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.
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Yeah the title track is the most obvious thing I had in mind when I posted that. If Maiden had never released the 93 live version of this, the song would never have been a hit recurring in every tour based just off the studio version.
 
Fear Of The Dark has a much better production. As mentioned earlier, even though being the lesser inconsistent of both the records, the highlights really steal the show - Fear Of The Dark, Judas My Guide, Be Quick Or Be Dead, Afraid To Shoot Strangers, From Here To Eternity (something also noticed in The Number Of The Beast and Dance Of Death).

The opening song (Be Quick Or Be Dead) is also better in FOTD as compared to Tailgunner (NPFTD). Wasting Love, being the band's first proper ballad, having nice lead harmonies and meaningful lyrics is also a plus point. The stripped down rock n roll-esque sound is best captured in From Here To Eternity and to an extent even Chains Of Misery.

The lesser known songs also have something or the other for fans to enjoy (that intro in Fear Is The Key though!). I've seen some praises here even for songs like Childhood's End and The Apparition, which I don't get to read for songs like, say Public Enema Number One or The Assassin.
 
Soundmaster said:
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.
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A hybrid of both albums would be better than some 80's albums as a whole imo. And maybe at least 1 Reunion album. Something like this:

1.Be Quick Or Be Dead
2.From Here To Eternity
3.No Prayer For The Dying
4.Fates Warning/Run Silent Run Deep
5.Afraid To Shoot Strangers
6.Childhood's End
7.Tailgunner
8.Wasting Love
9.Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter
10.Judas Be My Guide
11.Fear Of The Dark

The ''subpar'' songs for Maiden are: Key, Apparition, Weekend (that instrumental section though is pure gold!), Hooks, Holy Smoke - and still are not that bad. Maybe FOTD's lows are lower (but they have stronger parts, for sure) and it's too long/not consistent, but the only gem in NPFTD imo is the title track. FOTD has 5. Some of FOTD's ideas and songs have something more in them than almost half of the songs on NPFTD. The ideas are stronger.

Both albums are underrated and the band should have played more 90's songs live to help them.
srfc said:
Am I the odd man out in that I think the production on No Prayer is way better? Or maybe to phrase it better, the raw or almost non-existent production works better than trying to get a polished sound out of Steve's studio?
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I think FOTD has one of Maiden's best productions.
srfc said:
The words are a bit dumb, but great main riff and best solo on the album
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FOTD has some of the best collection of solos. Best? Maybe Wasting Love. It's tough.
Black Bart said:
Unpopular opinion: I can't see what's wrong with "Chains of Misery''
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Only the gang vocals in Chains could be improved imo.
 
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Siddharth said:
The stripped down rock n roll-esque sound is best captured in From Here To Eternity and to an extent even Chains Of Misery.
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Holy Smoke and From Here To Eternity.
Siddharth said:
something also noticed in The Number Of The Beast and Dance Of Death).
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I get what you mean. I think the ''fillers'' aren't any weaker on those albums (except 1 song). The early 90's are with the worst weak songs overall imo.
 
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Kalata said:
I think the fillers aren't any weaker on those albums (except 1 song). The early 90's are with the worst weak songs imo.
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I meant the best songs being the highlights in those, compared to the lesser known ones. Not calling them fillers at all.
 
I am with all those people in here saying the songwriting quality in terms of FOTD is low.
I remember, when FOTD came out, in some MTV interview Bruce mentioned how great the sound of the album was. "Just the sound alone!!!" ...Now THAT says a lot I think. When THE SOUND but barely nothing else of the new album is praised over and and over again by the frontman, there's not too much to expect...
 
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Tough one for me. I agree with many here about Fear of the Dark possibly having higher highs and I could argue that its highlights and, weak as they might be, some songs with more experimental have a lot more character than most of the No Prayer for Dying material.

However, No Prayer for the Dying is just a lot more fun record to listen. Fear of the Dark might have a handful of more refined songs, but...

Looking at it like this: which album is more successful at what it is essentially (or assumably) trying to be? No Prayer might be one of the weaker Maiden albums in terms of general quality and musical ambition, but it's rather good-spirited, energetic and a very rock out kind of a Maiden album that you can acknowledge being remarkably behind the quality of its predecessors and (arguably) most successors, but enjoy the ride with a smile nonetheless. While it probably didn't turn out quite as coherent and intense ride as they originally intended, partly due to lackluster production values, it has certain inspired air to it nonetheless.

Fear of the Dark, however, doesn't feel nearly as sincere. It might be more ambitious for sure, but also a lot more calculated and somewhat heartless at times...

I'm being very egoistic now and quoting myself from the Fear of the Dark album judgement thread:
"The younger brother of No Prayer for the Dying is much more ambitious and has some special talents the big brother lacks, but is nowhere near as honest and good-spirited."
 
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Randalf said:
Tough one for me. I agree with many here about Fear of the Dark possibly having higher highs and I could argue that its highlights and, weak as they might be, some songs with more experimental have a lot more character than most of the No Prayer for Dying material.

However, No Prayer for the Dying is just a lot more fun record to listen. Fear of the Dark might have a handful of more refined songs, but...

Looking at it like this: which album is more successful at what it is essentially (or assumably) trying to be? No Prayer might be one of the weaker Maiden albums in terms of general quality and musical ambition, but it's rather good-spirited, energetic and a very rock out kind of a Maiden album that you can acknowledge being remarkably behind the quality of its predecessors and (arguably) most successors, but enjoy the ride with a smiling smile nonetheless. While it probably didn't turn out quite as coherent and intense ride as they originally intended, partly due to lackluster production values, it has certain inspired air to it nonetheless.

Fear of the Dark, however, doesn't feel nearly as sincere. It might be more ambitious for sure, but also a lot more calculated and somewhat heartless at times...

I'm being very egoistic now and quoting myself from the Fear of the Dark album judgement thread:
"The younger brother of No Prayer for the Dying is much more ambitious and has some special talents the big brother lacks, but is nowhere near as honest and good-spirited."
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Nicely put, Ran, my thoughts exactly.
 
Blood On The World´s Hand said:
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.
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Was it to make a single album from both, I would pick the following tracks: Tailgunner, NPFTD, PENO, Fates Warning, Run Silent Run Deep, Bring Your Daughter, Be Quick Or Be Dead, ATSS and FOTD. It would make a really cool album but wouldn't even crack the top 10 in my rank.
 
Randalf said:
Fear of the Dark, however, doesn't feel nearly as sincere. It might be more ambitious for sure, but also a lot more calculated and somewhat heartless at times...
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I just listened to Fear today, and I get what you mean. I love the album, but it does feel a lot like outside influences in the musical landscape of the time crept into their songwriting. As mentioned before, gang vocals were big at the time, the more fantastical element was largely gone from the lyrics (since No Prayer), and loads of bands were overpacking their albums to fit the new(ish) runtime of a CD.

Speaking of outside influences, it's always made me wonder if the tour with Guns 'N Roses helped beget the more straight-forward style of No Prayer. It was widely reported that Slash in particular made a big stink about not wanting to play on a stage with big-ass icebergs all over the place, like it was this over the top embarrassing thing, and I forget the details, but apparently Bruce and Axl butted heads a bit too (go figure).

I just wonder if that whole thing made them decide to strip things down stage-wise and go for a harder, more direct album with more contemporary themes because of it.
 
I don't think it's a big secret NPFTD and its ensuing tour was largely fueled by the band's desire to remain relevant and intentional disassociation from the over-the-top 80s rock image they'd been saddled with. GNR supporting Maiden and having a few choice words about the way they did things certainly affected them.

That is, unless you genuinely believe they just suddenly decided by themselves that having a stage show was uncool and you should just show up dressed casual and play in front of a wall of Marshalls, after nearly a decade of increasingly elaborate setpieces and multicolor spandex. I sincerely hope nobody here is that deeply rooted in the official propaganda, though. And yeah, I doubt a more thrashy opener, a singalong AC/DC-ish rock track for a single and a power ballad were accidental choices when it comes to FotD's track listing.
 
For me it's No Prayer easily. Fear Is The Key, and The Apparition to me are terrible songs, Weekend Warrior sounds like a reject from Balls to Picasso, and I was never a huge fan of the song Fear Of The Dark. I love BQOBD and Wasting Love though. I like every song on No Prayer except Assassin and Mother Russia. Especially Public Enema, No Prayer, and the awesome Fates Warning.
 
FOTD is in my top 5, with The Apparition being the only song that drags the overall score down a bit.

NPFTD is still a great album that I like much more than many others, but it doesn't have the highs that FOTD does.
 
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