No Prayer For The Dying (Iron Maiden, 1990)

New 1990's Eddie busts out of the grave into a nightmare decade!

This is our third visit to the world of Iron Maiden, but the first studio album. No Prayer for the Dying marked a period of time where the band sounded aimless and the musical culture of the times was overtly hostile to the classic metal of Iron Maiden.

The 1990's were a harsh decade for Iron Maiden. The band made a number of decisions following the departure of guitarist Adrian Smith that would send them into a tailspin. First was the hiring of new guitarist Janick Gers. Now, I don't think Gers is a crappy guitarist like some Maiden-diehards like to say. In fact, he's done far more good than bad in his career and his work with Gillan in the early 1980's was excellent. However, the Murray/Smith dual guitar approach was transformed into a double-down on the wild side. Where Smith was the old steady hand, Gers came in as the wild man, putting Dave Murray into the unusual role of being the less flashy guitar player. Second problem was the decision to get "back to basics". This is a totally different kind of "back to basics" than previously mentioned (see Black Sabbath's 13). Instead the approach is more to strip out the "wimpy" keyboards and adopt a gruffer posturing. Finally, in the "gruff" department, Bruce Dickinson, the air raid siren himself, scaled back the trademark soaring vocals for a more growled delivery. All of these elements added up to a less-than-satisfying album.

This was the last Iron Maiden album I bought of the first ten. I had heard enough bad things about it to just stay away. When the 1995 reissues hit, with the bonus disc of b-side content, I finally took the plunge. In hindsight, sure it's no Seventh Son or Powerslave. It actually has some very good tracks on its first side, but then sort of sputters at the end. Also, as the power of nostalgia for bands from the heyday of Iron Maiden continues to grow, I've actually have grown a little affection for the album, especially the angry-yet-happy sounding "Holy Smoke" and the title track. Also, three of the bonus tracks are very well done (sorry, "Communication Breakdown" falls a little short).

This album remains the most "unloved" of the Iron Maiden back catalog, except maybe for the two Blaze Bayley albums. 1992's Fear of the Dark has enough fan favorites buried in the filler to prop up its reputation higher than its predecessor. With 2000's Brave New World, another "back to basics" approach, but with smart progressive sensibilities and production, the previous four albums could finally be written off as a "bad patch" in the band's history. In fact, no song from this album has appeared on a tour setlist since 1993. Maybe someday they'll surprise everyone and bust out the awkwardly-titled "Public Enema Number One" - I'd love to see the faces of the kiddies on that one!

Updated cover below - notice the poor gravedigger man is gone.