The Final Frontier Reviews Thread

There are many reasons why I say this. I will even go as far as to say TFF is the best album since (insert 80's album here). Comparing anything they do now with the 80's is useless anyway.

The first reason - I can't find a bad song here. I tried, too. Its just not there. The worst the album throws at me is El Dorado and even that song is memorable. I want to say the Alchemist is filler and I can't. If there is a bad song and/or a song you can call filler, I'm all ears.

I think its better than AMOLAD. Honestly, as good as that album is, its guilty of songs being longer for the sake of being longer. On TFF, the longer the song, the better. No repeating choruses. The intros are more interesting and they don't drag. Listen to Breeg, then pick a song of this comparable in length, and tell me which has more water in the glass. Of course, if TFF was never made, then AMOLAD would still be king. But a little thing happened, AMOLAD now has a younger and brighter brother. OK, maybe the beginning of Talisman can go, but that's it.

It is un-fucking-real how the melodies in this album grow and grow in my head. I have listened to this thing non-stop and as I mentioned in a previous post, my mind can't decide what tune it wants to play. It jumps from Starblind to Isle of Avalon. Then it remembers The Talisman. Seconds later, I go to my mp3 player and decide to listen to Coming Home because I can't get that out of my head either. AMOLAD did this to me too, but by this time I was skipping Different World, Out Of The Shadows and Breeg. I'm not doing that here. I don't need to skip anything.

I think TFF fills the spaces perfectly. There is a ton going on and there are awesome little touches everywhere but it gels. It does more with the three guitars than any other album they've recorded, period. The solos aren't showing off because they meld with the album instead, which incidentally, enhances it.

I would have more to say right now but I'm exhausted. This is all just my opinion, of course. Anyone is free to tell me I'm nuts. I can take it.  :)
 
Re: TFF is hands down the best modern Maiden album

i've listened to the album on my zune at least 15 times since yesterday. i just go through alll the songs on shuffle and re shuffle when i get to the last song. i fucking love this album... it might be the best post reunion album. i agree with the first post, the only filler i see is satellite 15.... other then that the whole thing is so memorable. the beginning of the tailsmen is so good. i get chills hearing bruce sing the beggining versus and then that 3 second pause and the song just gets so heavy
 
Re: TFF is hands down the best modern Maiden album

It's too early for me to say anything about this record. Mother of Mercy is very good. Coming Home is brilliant, and some of the epics sound good. But there is so much going on in this album musically, that I will need 10 more listens to each of the long songs before I can say anything for sure.

AMOLAD is by the way my favourite album, and this has to be really good to be better than that one. If it is, Maiden have done something I wasn't expecting.
 
Re: TFF is hands down the best modern Maiden album

It's certainly up there with AMOLAD. I agree that the songs are too long on AMOLAD but four years later those songs still blind me with brilliance. So far, TFF has exceded my expectations but let's see how much I love it once this honeymoon has ended.
 
Re: TFF is hands down the best modern Maiden album

That's the thing...this is a honeymoon period. I wouldn't want to try and judge for six months or a year.
 
Re: TFF is hands down the best modern Maiden album

LooseCannon said:
That's the thing...this is a honeymoon period.
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Meh, the length of honeymoon periods is subjective like everything else. The way I see it, my opinions of the other albums haven't changed since the fifth day after the first listen. So this one has about three days to change my mind and I don't see it happening.
 
Re: TFF is hands down the best modern Maiden album

Which is fine for you! For me...they have risen and fallen over time. 5 years ago, I'd have sworn SSOASS and Killers were the worst of the lot. That has changed, especially Killers, recently.
 
Re: TFF is hands down the best modern Maiden album

LooseCannon said:
Which is fine for you! For me...they have risen and fallen over time. 5 years ago, I'd have sworn SSOASS and Killers were the worst of the lot. That has changed, especially Killers, recently.
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Its cool.  :edmetal:

I expect to get some resistance from making a decision this early. But I just needed to say it. I really think this one is it.
 
Re: TFF is hands down the best modern Maiden album

Yeah, my honeymoon period can be weeks or months and sometimes years. It took me six years to appreciate No Prayer and FotD and three to appreciate The X Factor.
 
Re: TFF is hands down the best modern Maiden album

I got into Maiden in 86 with SiT. I then bought SSOASS. Then I went backwards, all the way down. Right before I bought NPFTD, I was listening to SiT again.

I can't tell you how much NPFTD pissed me off when I first heard it. Today, it still does. I don't like Maiden when they go thin.  :mad: I think that's why I have such a hard-on for this one.  :wub:

I don't wish to piss people off with my thoughts on NPFTD or anything. Its just the way I feel about it. But it is still Maiden so it comfortably sits next to the rest on my shelf.
 
Re: TFF is hands down the best modern Maiden album

Nah. Your opinion's pretty popular. I wasn't actually alive until Bruce Dickinson put out Balls to Picasso. ;) But even then, when I first gave that record a spin I was about as disappointed as everyone else seemed to have been. Recently I've taken an appreciation for that period. It's certainly different, but it's grown on me a lot. Like Skunkworks grew on me, but to a lesser degree because Skunkworks took one month to grow on me.
 
Re: TFF is hands down the best modern Maiden album

I've never had a most favorite Maiden album. It's too hard for me to decide. I think Bruce's last 3 solo albums, TXF and every album with Bruce except for NPFTD and FOTD are equally amazing in their own way. It sure is great to add TFF to those as well!
 
Re: TFF is hands down the best modern Maiden album

When I heard AMOLAD I listened to it 3 or 4 times and stopped because I felt so disappointed.

3 months after the fact, I picked it up again and absolutely loved it.  It was my favourite of the newer stuff.  This album took one listen for me to love it.  That doesn't mean I like it more the AMOLAD, I'll judge that in a year or so when I naturally find a place for it, but I do think AMOLAD helped me appreciate this album more because DoD didn't really prepare me in anyway for what was on AMOLAD (I find both very different in flavour).  Going from AMOLAD to TFF isn't all that crazy.  Both are very ambitious albums.  The subject matter is a bit different (this album seems more personal at times, more fun, and isn't crazy on the heavy drama like AMOLAD).  With that said, it sounds like they took what worked in AMOLAD and expanded it, built on it, destroyed what didn't work on previous records, and tried to strike a balance between growth, old Maiden, and new Maiden.  I think it has worked.
 
Re: TFF is hands down the best modern Maiden album

I've never lost love for a Maiden album after first listen and I've never gained love for an album I didn't like on first listen. It's interesting how it's different for everyone.
 
Re: TFF is hands down the best modern Maiden album

Iron Maiden is like the Pittsburgh Steelers.  One can say all the things they want about how great they are (and they are), but there will always be that dude in the corner who has to say "yeah, they're kicking ass but the defense is nothing like it was back in '76".

I for one believe Iron Maiden keeps getting better and better; as a group of talented musicians constantly testing new waters but staying true to the fundamental core characteristics.

On that note, I'd like to say yes, I find it much too early to make an honest assumption about how great the album is.  Over my years as a Maiden fan, my tastes for different albums would rise and fall as I began to discover new ones, or others got overplayed.  For the last two years or so, however, my opinion has remained stable, and I think it's very likely that Final Frontier worms it's way up to the top of my list!!
 
Re: TFF is hands down the best modern Maiden album

then there are people like me who say the Pittsburgh Squealers suck.
 
Re: TFF is hands down the best modern Maiden album

Hello to everyone !! :ok:

I agree with the OP, "The final frontier" is phenomenal ,by far their best since the eighties and an album that i feel sits proudly next to SIT and SSOASS. I love all the post-reunion albums (with AMOLAD being my favourite of the bunch) and i feel that TFF surpasses them with ease. It is simply brilliant . It sounds better than any Shirley-produced album . What makes TFF so amazing, apart from the technical aspects , is how emotional it is. Another apect of TFF that has surprised me is how fresh the album sounds.
As far as the honeymoon effect, this has never occured to me. If nothing else, as time passes , i somewhat enjoy Maiden albums that i initialy hated (NPFTD, FOTD) .
 
Re: TFF is hands down the best modern Maiden album

LordMaiden said:
Meh, the length of honeymoon periods is subjective like everything else. The way I see it, my opinions of the other albums haven't changed since the fifth day after the first listen. So this one has about three days to change my mind and I don't see it happening.
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Thats the problem for me,in my honeymoon y just realized that my wife is fucking orc!.Im listening right now AGAIN the album,it has good passages for exmp in "isle of avalon",but i cant save many songs in their full lenght.Fucking sad!

Coming home it will be a classic to be play alive.The talisman too,but i think if it would be shorter would be a masterpiece.The alchemist is very good too. Liking 4 or 5 songs of an iron maiden album for me are very bad news.
 
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