Well, I've listened it pretty through. I like it, overall, quite much.
It is perhaps not as good as AMOLAD, and the best songs don't quite match best
of DoD, but it is overall same calibre. If you hated all reunion era Maiden
albums, you will hate this one too so you probably shouldn't bother.
I had really no expectations, I was thinking they'd make something like
AMOLAD except everything bit worse and the previews did nothing to dispel that.
The album is kinda curious in that first half are short-medium length songs and
second half is made of long epics. First I thought that it was weird and strange
way to structure the album, but perhaps it is the best way after all.
First half is quite frankly nothing special. There is no actively bad songs,
mind you, but all the songs sound like they are just a standard filler effort,
or that they'd need some extra work. Mother of Mercy is pretty good, Final Frontier
and El Dorado are OK, Coming Home too but it sounds too much like gazillion
Bruce-style semi-ballads (like Out of the Shadows) so I expect I get very quickly
bored of it. The Alchemist is, shall we say, rather inferior to similarly named
Bruce song. Intro thingie is a good idea, but goes on too long.
But then the epic half, and all five songs are at least good, and some of them are
awesome. The Man Who Would Be King is probably the weakest of the bunch and is still
an easy ***3/4, or perhaps straight four stars. And the rest are better.
When the Wild Wind Blows was hyped like crazy, and it is a great song allright, best
long Harris epic since Sign of the Cross. The Talisman is perhaps the best
song in the album, very reminiscent of Lord of Light or The Legacy, but better
than either.
Overall, the epics are somewhat more varied and less formulaic than those in
two previous albums. There are of course many slow intros, but they have reduced
the slow outros so you won't get as tired of them. They're also somewhat less
repetive. Overall, the tone of the album is more progressive and less heavy
and gloomy than its predecessors. It's closer to BNW in fact.
There are shortcomings. Bruce sounds strained in many parts. Some songs, especially
in the first half, sound like they needed some more work. Nicko's drumming is not
particularly inspired. Really, the whole thing sounds like a sort of a draft cut or
demo, which they then left as it is. Two more weeks in the studio would have made this
album a classic. Now it feels frustratingly incomplete at times. First half also
suffers from being too mid-paced, only faster song (The Alchemist) is also
the weakest.
There are, of course, no new Troopers or Evil That Men Do's on the album. But then,
Maiden hasn't made a new Evil That Men Do since, well, Evil That Men Do. Which was,
to really drive home the point, 22 years ago so get on with the program!
Despite everything, bottom line is that Final Frontier contains many damn good songs.
Which is what matters. It shows that Maiden are not creatively tapped out.
But they probably no longer have the necessary grit and will to really work out
everything to perfection.