Fear of the Dark

This one starts off kicking. A bit of a false signal, as the album's probably the band's most mellow globally. 'Be Quick Or Be Dead' here is nonetheless a convincing first track with a solid main melody and hectic chorus, both original enough to give the listener a reason to go on. What follows is a bit of the typical hard rock virtually every Maiden record contains: 'From Here To Eternity', similar to the old school 'Weekend Warrior' later on the record. 'Afraid To Shoot Strangers' fits the album's relatively soporific personality. It's like a lullaby. But it's got a pleasant (somewhat pirate-y) main melody that comes on when the song decides to wake up, which is a seemingly arbitrary cue.

And that's one of the strong points on this album: the songs may linger a tad and lack "full-length-album quality" from beginning to end, but on the front of pure (non-harmonized) melodies, they'll deliver a few well articulated instances - 'Childhood's End', among others. And those melodies have a flavor unique to this album: round and soft, and a nocturnal quietness to them. The exotic sounding 'Fear Is The Key' is like Maiden's very own 'Wherever I May Roam' (with a bit of rock n' roll), and hardly among the more interesting tracks here.

'Wasting Love' has that "sad ballad" folk guitar, with Dickinson doing his pensive country singer's impression at the start. The chorus does bring sheer size and drive, and the song really comes alive. Quick note: a bit of a novel thing happens; that part in the middle (right before the solo) with the palm-muted riff concluding with that abrupt ending is among the more unique components here. 'The Fugitive''s chorus and its odd rhythm isn't among the best on here, but the song does bring something of a thriller atmosphere with a distinctly big sound to it as the guitars are backed by the widening effect of the synth-pad; consistent with the album's general subtly darker tone. An effect found again on 'The Apparition' for a brief part right before the solo. Every now and again, the album breaks out a 'Chains Of Misery' with its rock choir style refrain to instill some vigor back into it. It might bring up a bit of "early 90's popular music syndrome", to call it that: songs that rely on big production and a sense of movement to get all of its oomph.

But fear not (except the dark), for here comes 'Judas Be My Guide', and it's got that bit of a retro 80's inspirational flavor to it, with a particularly tasty chorus as Dickinson's wistful melody line fits perfectly into the chord progression frame, with a clever and sticky reprise of the line "Judas my guide" right at the last bar. Philosophically, it could be described as the 80's superior aesthetics (minor scales, delay) coming to the rescue of the early 90's near-moribund lack of form. That chorus could've gone on for a few more repeats it's such a feel-good dopamine high, and we're nearly left hungry as it decides to close shop. This review wouldn't be complete without a word on the title-track and finale: 'Fear of the Dark' starts off feeling a bit "camp", as for the voice tone and for the words, is impossible to take seriously. But boy, when those riff and drums come in, it's the most energizing feeling. It does drag on, though, and you'll hear that phrase "fear of the dark" enough (and not just on the chorus) that you might want to give this track a rest for a while.

Fear of the Dark has a bizarre place in Iron Maiden’s trajectory. If not for that enduring title track, it would likely be seen as nothing more than an extension of No Prayer for the Dying’s street metal aspirations. It features similarly rough production, sleazy songs, and fatigued musicianship with Bruce Dickinson’s raspy screams signifying how he is just so clearly done with this shit. But rather than this resulting in another bored release, the band has channeled their collective apathy into what might be their most experimental album.

That distinction can immediately be seen with the opening crashes of “Be Quick or Be Dead” and “From Here to Eternity.” The former is the band’s punchiest opener since “Aces High” with its pounding drums and crackling siren wails bordering on thrash metal. The latter echoes the sleaze of “Holy Smoke” and “Bring Your Daughter” but seems to readily embrace the style, putting in a sinister yet cheeky riff alongside motorbike guitar squeals and gang vocals in full AC/DC ripoff splendor. Neither of these tracks are among the band’s absolute best but they do make for fun listens.

Once things get settled, the album reveals a thick atmosphere that’s downright spoopy by Iron Maiden standards. True to its title, it has a dark tone that gives it an almost autumn vibe with the gritty production rounded by sharp guitars, subtle synths, and more time devoted to brooding passages. Even the more straightforward rockers like “Chains of Misery” and “Judas Be My Guide” have a menacing edge that makes their rousing hooks more ominous. “Afraid to Shoot Strangers” even predicts the depression to come as its somber buildup, hushed vocals, conflicted lyrics, and climactic speeds make it a rare Dickinson-era track that was also perfectly suited for Blaze Bayley.

The lyrics also do a lot to give the album a stronger sense of purpose compared to its predecessor. Much like how Somewhere in Time used an overarching theme of time to cover a variety of topics, Fear of the Dark does the same in crafting a culture of fear expressed with even broader manifestations. Fears of war, disease, religion, and societal decay have more weight than No Prayer’s commentaries while fears of isolation, the afterlife, and the shadowy unknown lay down the groundwork for The X Factor’s full-on nihilism.

This disparate mix of elements across twelve songs yields fascinating results. There’s a reason why the title track is so iconic as its “Heaven Can Wait” through a funhouse mirror filter is exhilarating and existential, but there’s also a number of interesting deep cuts sprinkled throughout. “Childhood’s End” and “Wasting Love” are a particularly interesting pair, the former features rolling drums, yearning melodies, and desperate vocals while the latter commits to an earnest power ballad template with a bitter overcast.

On the flip side, such quantity means that not every experiment works. “Fear is the Key” certainly stands out for calling out the cultural enablement of the AIDS crisis but the hiccuping speeds and flatly spiraling vocal lines come off like the band just sort of gave up halfway through. “The Fugitive” is a good rocker whose promising atmospherics are somewhat beset by a chorus that’s a little too blunt while “Weekend Warrior” is just awkward and clunky all around. I’m the most conflicted on “The Apparition;” the life and death pondering lyrics have always resonated with me but the stomping delivery makes it feel more like something that Steve Harris just had to get out of his system as opposed to a proper song.

At the end of the day, Fear of the Dark is the sort of mixed bag that I can’t help but find deeply compelling. While Seventh Son is often regarded as the end of Iron Maiden’s classic era, there’s a much more palpable finality here between the off-the-cuff songwriting, distinct autumn mood, and performances that can’t decide if they’re giving the fans one last hurrah or just want to get this over with. It’s like a transition between the band’s youthful ambitions and the wizened musings that come to define them in old age. It’s easy to see why this stuff doesn’t show up in the setlists anymore, but it’s certainly worth a good excavation.

Well, the 90s weren’t that great for the Irons, but at least they tried. Without a doubt, 1992’s Fear of the Dark is their best effort (sorry but not sorry, X-Factor worshipers) from that unkind to trad metal decade, though not necessarily by a wide margin. This one still carries a lot of the flavor of its predecessor, the uninspired No Prayer for the Dying, albeit with several stronger points. For starters, the iconic title-track is hands down an all-time top 10 Maiden tune, whereas most songs from the preceding LP decidedly lie outside the top 50 (“Bring Your Daughter…” being the sole exception), taking into account the Irons full studio discography to date. Then there’s the variety of the songs, we have a greater span of song lengths, tempos, themes and styles, as in Maiden’s classic 80s output. And finally, the torch was passed from the great Derek Riggs to fellow countryman and at the time, relatively unknown, Melvyn Grant, who became the second artist ever to depict the perennial Eddie, in what remains one of Iron Maiden’s greatest album artworks, and quite fittingly, the scariest ever… though I’ll credit Riggs’ Hooks in You to be darn close in that regard. The evil-tree Eddie is metal as fuck!

Fear of the Dark was a very lengthy release for its day and age, the first one for the Brits to be close to one hour in duration, released as a double LP in vinyl form. We have, for better or worse, witnessed much longer records being released by the Irons since then. With that runtime unfortunately, came the need to scrutinize more every song, to see and hear for ourselves if their inclusion was necessary or if they fit in the dreaded category of “fillers”. Iron Maiden’s ninth studio album is sadly not without weak tracks, though none which would clearly qualify as filler. The mid-section of the record, starting with “The Fugitive” is just not great, but neither bad. After that poor man’s spiritual successor to “The Prisoner”, comes the 80s Deep Purple-sounding “Chains of Misery”, a little too simple, if not entirely devoid of catchiness thanks to its chorus. “The Apparition” might be the worse track due to the construction of its sung parts, but has an interesting and compelling instrumental middle section. Of marginally better quality, “Fear Is the Key”, “Weekend Warrior” and the album’s second single, “From Here to Eternity” all are solid and catchy tracks will good moments, though none qualify as a Maidenian masterpiece.

The record’s remaining 30+ minutes constitute its cream of the crop. Opener “Be Quick or Be Dead”, an ode to the brutality and cold-bloodedness of the stock market, is the closest Iron Maiden will ever get to composing a speed metal tune, even closer than any song of the DiAnno era. It’s pretty bad ass, and I only regret to not being able to witness it being played live so far, I doubt I’ll ever get that chance. “Childhood’s End” is a soulful semi-ballad, a pessimistic but realistic take on Third World’s children and their harsh reality, with an epic-feel that reminds me of the future Brave New World. “Wasting Love” is a more traditional power ballad, both romantic but melancholic, and a first for the band. While it isn’t as potent as many others from its time, it’s sufficiently good, with an emotive guitar work by Murray and Gers on display, both in melodies and during the solos, and a great performance by Bruce. “Judas Be My Guide”, the shortest track here, is a song I’ve come to rediscover and re-appreciate, as I currently find it quite catchy and underrated, with great melodies and chorus, despite its negative message. It carries some 80s Maiden feel, unlike the two remaining, longest compositions; “Afraid to Shoot Strangers” and the title-track. The former one, about the Gulf War, is another great addition to Maiden’s war-themed songs, a topic they’re pretty good at. It’s the most progressive composition of the album, at almost seven minutes in length and traversing well-crafted different sections, and like “Childhood’s End”, its keyboard orchestrations heralds the grandiose sound Iron Maiden would pursue more in future releases.

Finally, the best for the last, “Fear of the Dark” itself, is another masterful composition by the Irons that shares with “Afraid to Shoot Strangers” the use of ballad-esque, semi-acoustic calm moments, in this case bookending the main section, mixed with heavier ones. The lyrics about, well, the fear of the dark, are also quite relatable and spooky. It’s one of the first Iron Maiden songs I ever listened to, and in fact, Fear of the Dark was the first album I ever experienced by the Irons. I still listen to many of its songs occasionally, by “Fear of the Dark” is my favorite here by a landslide. I especially love it in live renditions, the one song I feel gets better and better on a live environment, with the crowd chants, and Nicko seemingly adding more and more accents and touches here and there. The formula for its composition proved to be so iconic and well-received, that the band had re-used it many times on many future songs, like “Brave New World”, “Out of the Silent Planet”, “No More Lies”, “Dance of Death”, “Brighter than a Thousand Suns” and so on. It has become overused, but still, it’s a signature formula by Maiden, so nothing wrong if the rip off themselves.

The band as a whole remained quite tight, though I still feel Bruce’s voice continued to deteriorate and became more strained, a process started in the previous album. He still performs good, just not as 80s good. Steve Harris co-produced the album with longtime legend Martin Birch, in what would be his last work. It was another impactful passing of the torch, but Steve learned from the best and has managed to do pretty good. The mix is quite crisp and balanced. The rhythmic section remained precise and interesting, while the guitars provide many great passages here. Though it’s not among my favorite Maiden records in terms of quality, power and memorability, 30 years after its release, Fear of the Dark still has a special place in my heart. Oddly, the Fear of the Dark Tour would bring Iron Maiden to my home city of Guadalajara, Mexico, but I was too young and not even familiar with them when that took place. I still own the ’98 remastered and expanded version of this record, and will depart from this life with it when the time comes.

Probably the odd one out in the Maiden discography, being that the title track is one of their biggest songs, but the rest of the album is almost never mentioned. I feel like Fear of the Dark as an album still gets too much hate for being different to their 80's output. However, every track here is substantial to a point and warrants recognition as ranging from musically apt to masterful. Sure, there is one track on this record in particular that is a massive dip in quality relative to the rest of the album, of course being Weekend Warrior, with its irritating hooks and lack of inspiration. Other than that, I would argue that this record is amazing, it might not feature grandiose lead guitar work or iconic songwriting like the band's previous material, but there's an abundance of fresh ideas on Fear of the Dark that make it a more than great experience.

Firstly, the more gritty atmosphere of No Prayer For The Dying is retained here, although the music is generally more eerie, with more reverb-centred guitars and more streamlined vocal harmonies that honestly improve the songs hugely. For example, songs like Judas Be My Guide and The Fugitive would otherwise be ok tracks, but Bruce's outstanding vocal performance makes those songs the classics that they are. There's a certain attitude to the music here, and it's noticeable across more of the runtime, it sounds like the band is paying homage to their more rock-oriented roots of Thin Lizzy and Montrose; holding the melody back a bit and focusing more on riffs and hooks. Regardless, this still definitely sounds like Maiden, and when the lead guitars do kick in, they bring some of the highlights of Dave Murray's career as well as Janick Gers'. If this isn't exemplified in the title track alone, the jaw-dropping solos in Afraid To Shoot Strangers prove that this was an overlooked record, and a victim of the band's forsaken 90's period.

With that being said, Afraid To Shoot Strangers could be considered a ballad, at least the first half. Fear of the Dark shows that Iron Maiden can write amazing ballads, as the band only really dabbled with the idea in 2 or 3 tracks before this, but maybe it's something they should've tried more often, considering how legendary some of these songs are. Of course, when reviewing Iron Maiden, the main focal point is the songwriting, and these songs are written exceptionally, with a contemporary commercial sound in mind but without resorting to bland pop rock songs, Maiden knows how to keep a track together and this record isn't any exception, since the album manages to sound catchy and consistent with varied structures despite the relatively short average track length.

Featuring one staple for the band and a few other somewhat popular hits, Fear of the Dark is immensely underrated, and I feel that there is a lot of material here to enjoy past what you might've already heard. Virtually every song is memorable and enjoyable. The main reason I gave this album a nearly perfect score is because of how consistent the band is able to keep the songs.

When we talk about a classic record, many may miss an album like this. Surely, the choice of each person may vary, but the feeling this band produce in their fans goes beyond time. That's where the difficult, fussy definition of 'classic' comes into play. If you ask me, the answer is in the review title: it's a classic distantly akin to their eighties material. This may sound very oxymoron. This band are not just heavy metal or any banally attributed category/label, because the magic they discovered and the mystique they achieved was beyond anything done by any of their contemporaries, with the exception of the metal gods Judas Priest. Perhaps a banal label you can bestow on Fear of the Dark is hard rock, and you're welcome. If I want to talk about this is not because it's one of their best solid albums but because it was the moment they began to manifest a hopeful return to form. Beyond all, this album marked a special moment in my early years as a listener when I started discovering metal thanks to this disc, The Black Album, Countdown To Extinction, Metalium and so. Maybe this has nothing to do with the hypnotic power of the guitars, Harris's bass, Nicko's drums, and the majestic magnetism of the master Bruce as those are the variables taken into account when it comes to their quintessential classics.

The truth is that these songs helped me to enter the Maiden world, hence why my special affection for it. So, after a decade they had established among the best exponents of the NWOBHM. They left the great scepter imposed with their masterpieces and had the duty to improve the previous back-to-the-roots album... and they did. First, they improved the art cover with a creepy Eddie in which the band makes it clear that they were the indicated guides to enter mysterious lands, so to say. Cuts like Be Quick Or Be Dead gave the first blow of energy and quality, not in vain did they manage to become the most representative that have survived oblivion after 30 years without disparate results, to say the least. Structurally, songs like Afraid To Shoot Strangers lash out to leave everyone open-mouthed. Those songs were well done with a lot of sobriety compositionally speaking. Best leads supporting Dickinson's intense singing were destined to turn them into anthems. Also, I would like to give an unpopular opinion: Weekend Warrior is quite entertaining and rides on a fleeting, fast hard-rock riff that gives way to Bruce's rebellious lines whose impolite, long-winded solos cross each other in its middle part.

Reaching the top of the album, a stellar Dave Murray appears hovering over an emotional solo and satisfying this new batch of arena rock that caught many off guards. But apart from the arena rock vibe, as you go to the end of the album you realize that there are also competent stuff with the standard of this band, I mean, they could be 80s classics easily. They sound fresh, catchy, very well executed, and have the nerve of planting choruses with more glitter than sequins; they enter the first and are chanted to the lungs. To finish it, they had to give the final push with the self-titled song, which is their essence at its finest, a veil of occultism with voices from beyond the grave and a melody that makes your hair stand on end. It's a tense song, preoccupied with every detail that these notes produce in your imagination. Not surprisingly, they have surpassed the category of heavy metal and become the cultists of a unique and recognizable style. The rest of the songs are good on their own and would go on to develop well in their own right. In fact, all the songs are well developed to a greater or lesser degree and are evenly distributed in the tracklist. The bass lines are permanently functional and arrogant as always, but with fair reasons since there is no album in which the bass is a complaint.

The cadence of the guitars is combined with the rumbling powerful bass, added to the interventions that Murray and Gers combine; and along with Dickinson's incredible lines they build a story of curses and surprises; check and listen to the middle section of Fear Is The Key where with a magnetic touch and regular tempo we see McBrain with different eyes, who by the way also provides slightly more functional performances than in his later years. They were -and still are- the hidden yearning that each one of us felt for the unknown, and what a better way to reveal it through their exquisite music. Contrary to popular opinion, Fear of the Dark is a worthy release. The songs are so spectacular that the melodies and bass lines work as the perfect background for any creation. At this point, more than seven albums have passed and they made it clear that this album was painted to be an eternal classic. And there still were two more albums to experience during the 90s that in the end didn't reach the expected offer. Fear of the Dark is the end of a classic period that couldn't recover until Brave New World. After listening to the first two singles, we can think they won't invent any novel wheel indeed, but listening to this is also a constant scenic railway. Apart from two epics with long intros and higher instrumental developments, you can find much simpler cuts that don't need ornamentation or synths to shine on their own.

That's how they are, a band that transcended any elitist frontier. Nonetheless, I acknowledge its faults as The Apparition can catch you off guard with its lack of substance because it seems like an unfinished song. All in all, Bruce and the other guys continue to guard the spiked sarcophagus, despite not having a greater compositional brilliance. It's not better than their 80s classics, but it still holds the bar high, maybe in a less passionate way. There is nothing new at this point but they kept polishing their music despite the wear and tear of the years and the chaos of changing members. Maybe if they discarded The Apparition this could be nearly perfect. With its pros and cons, Fear of the Dark is an unequivocal testimony to a bygone era, the 80s, seen with nostalgia by some and clearly outdated by others. Your possibility of enjoyment rests on that version of the band which you identify with. If you like fun, light-hearted hard rock, the kind you feel like playing on while cruising the roads in a convertible, this could be your thing. If you're one of those who take themselves very seriously and think you've left that far behind, mate, go for Seventh Son, Killers, or Powerslave.

Something that seems a useless exercise is when someone tries to get out of the map when it comes to an intimate cultural fact as music itself. However, when you travel to the heart of a group like Maiden, the danger is the opposite as long as you wish nothing's left you outside. I suppose there are many of us who thinks that when we talk about this band we also talk about ourselves, also about who we are and what we were, or where the hell they've gone for so many years (“So, understand, don't waste your time…”). Usually, it's spoken about the band's difficult years, then, there are not very loved classics like Sabbath's Born Again or Dio's Angry Machines. I have long dusted each album with a happy melancholy, so melancholic that I dare to write this dedication about Fear of the Dark, another one that has been abused by critics. The album that too many stones are thrown at. Too many.

Fear of the Dark was released in the 90s when heavy metal started to suck, or at least that's what pessimists say. Grunge started to take off but metal hasn't a too bad time, nor that decadent. Arguably, black, death, power, viking and doom metal were untouched, so heavy, thrash metal were hardest hit undoubtedly. Weekend Warrior, The Apparition, Chains of Misery, From Here To Eternity are rock songs you would never expect from gods Iron Maiden, where Bruce shows his roughest voices in all expressions. The opener, the title track, Afraid To Shoot Strangers, Judas Be My Guide are the ones that least deviate from the Maiden vibe and I understand why they're preferred and acclaimed often. Janick Gers may not be on Adrian Smith's level but he offers crunchy solos that any 90s rock band can wish.

These guys are still here, Senjutsu impressed me, but they are still here, although it's impossible to know for how long. Or even for what. It's always like that, but only after a certain age, you discover it's true... that everything was serious. Each new Maiden album opens so many floodgates and writes on so many pages of me that I can't help but wonder what it will be like for others, especially for young fans. How do they see the times they haven't lived? What do you think when you listen to the classic records, and then you contemplate pictures of those glorious tours when others saw men transmuted into gods? I don't know how far they perceive that the past is what it wasn't for some and what it won't be for others, again. But all this defines how we actually perceive Iron Maiden in 1982, 1992, 2003, 2021, the year you choose. Because it seems paradoxical yet. Probably these new generations can understand better the sound that defines an entire era, the last one whose artistic manifestation navigates away from these songs. Old people walk, we youngs trace their steps, each one in their own way. And those who saw Fear of the Dark released at the time would never imagine they'd see the band's goodbye to their original DNA, that’ll metamorphose into their current progressive facet inevitably (or pseudo-progressive, whatever you want to call it).

Notably, they improved their songwriting respecting their previous work. Sometimes people think we shouldn't fool ourselves with the improvement either, but I do affirm they've reached another compendium among the classics, and this perspective abounds in the oriented hard rock songs especially. This album sparks good vibes from the beginning. The artwork far surpasses the poor sketch presented by Derek Riggs and to make matters worse, it's the last one with the original logo until appearing in The Book of Souls again. Also, as if wasn't enough, the opening "Be Quick Or Be Dead" is absolutely brutal and makes you want to listen to this, so you want to keep discovering if they returned indeed; even if someone says it's not worthy of fireworks, but it's undeniably that the band want to recover forms and structures of the past. For this return, there has been an absolutely determining factor, a guarantee that proves it's another album sounding like them: Dave Murray and Bruce Dickinson. Yet downgraded, the prodigal son returns to give the hallmark they had lost, because this band is a compendium, is a set... is a puzzle that doesn't fit if a piece is missing.

Maybe many consider it a weak album yet it isn't a that weak effort as Virtual XI. Looks like it has a lower level respecting they used to offer. Although we find flashes of interest here and there, it still struggles in their discographic magnitude. For many, this album supposedly help them to regain their lost credibility because of the fact that Iron Maiden has entered into a creative crisis difficult to solve. This album has series of songs headed by the endlessly chanted title track, one of the most beloved ones and a recurring protagonist in most legendary moments in concerts. It's a track with many changes and twists, full of choreable melodies that delight live. Be Quick or Be Dead is a fast-paced thrashy song released as the first single. From Here To Eternity, a punkish piece (though still sounds like Iron Maiden, of course) that can be reminiscent of their first two albums style. Afraid to Shoot Strangers is one of the remarkable songs that chronics the dilemmas and thoughts about soldier's minds on the battlefield. It's a deep and very interesting song I use to listening to and it grows up as a forgotten classic.

Fear is the Key is more progressive and developed when it comes to instruments and songwriting levels. The lyrics are an interesting reflection about the social impact that AIDS had on sexual relations, written when the death of Freddie Mercury was known as a result of his disease. Bruce Dickinson had said: There's a phrase in Fear Is The Key that says: "Nobody cares until someone famous dies". And that is sadly true. As long as the virus was limited to homosexuals or drug addicts, no one gave a shit. Celebrities started to die so people started to worry about it.

No Prayer For The Dying had had a very poor response in sales as the specialized press criticized it harshly, pointing out it was -I share the same opinion- a low level with songs that seems to be fillers compared to Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, considered as a high-level masterpiece by many. Nonetheless, this was the last album Martin Birch produced and the first not-designed cover by Derek Riggs. Times were coming to change for them, culminating in Bruce Dickinson's departure. There were years when grunge started to explode and after a somewhat lucky stuff Iron Maiden released this album that saved their reputation and kept them among the greats of rock in the world metal scene. The band plays with more rocker compositions as long as they can maintain their essence. It doesn't mean they're quiet songs, on the contrary, speed may be a little slower than in others, but melodies are really dark and Bruce's raspy voice gives it a really underground packaging.

In this one they return to their classic sound and it's less flat than their previous album. The opener and the closer work amazingly live and have everything you need in order to move your neck. Despite the hard rockish-oriented line, it's a pleasure to hear how the music blends with the grunge-like vocal lines. This record marked the end of Bruce Dickinson's stay at Iron Maiden. In March 1993, with his mind and heart far removed, Bruce Dickinson announced his departure from the group. Relations between the singer and the band's leader Steve Harris had frequent periods of tension but get worse at this point. In fact, one of the journalists invited at the album presentation party in London did note the estrangement of Dickinson with the rest as he didn't even pose with members for a photo.

I suppose the thing that most confuses me each time I put on Fear of the Dark is how I'm waiting for the first bad song, and...well, that wasn't too bad...that was better than I remembered...some salvageable parts here...and so on. I mean that, despite quite patently not having the choicest selection of Iron Maiden highlights, this ninth album from the Londoners doesn't stray as far from the path as some would claim, nor does it entirely fail in its more experimental detours. The largest criticism that I can level off the bat would be related to the length of the release, totalling almost an hour across 12 songs, something that would grow to become a severe issue ever afterwards. But, let's face it, if each song lasts less than 5 minutes on average, a bad cut or two doesn't matter so much as if some of them are 10 minutes long.

In its own way, Fear of the Dark seems a very logical step further into the '90s for Maiden, broadening the quintet's range to include some other textures from more basic (stadium) rock, punk and post-punk, plus a dash of radio friendly stuff that sees moments turning closer to pop than these guys otherwise came. Obviously, all that gets mixed quite well into the old brand of romping melodic metal, and the highlights tend to remind more of classic Maiden of the previous 5 years, though the new features add some intrigue that probably wouldn't be there if rewriting 'Run to the Hills' and 'Aces High'. Allow me to be instantly hypocritical, however, by saying that 'Be Quick or Be Dead' uses that 'Aces High' format to blast the album off to an excellent start, tapping into some of the fiery speed metal from Powerslave and packing great soloing and a steadier chorus alongside a real humdinger of a riff - one of Maiden's best off any album. In general though, the pace very much relaxes for long periods, 'Afraid to Shoot Strangers' for instance hugging balladic territory for half its length and setting itself up as a different version of "heavy bass presence and moody vocals", which is one place I get post-punk vibes. Why Fear of the Dark gets away with this can be seen in the second half of this 7 minute song, where Dave Murray and Janick Gers are allowed to play leads and a nostalgic melody in far more energetic style.

Of course, a part of me keeps trying to compare this release to Maiden's latter day exploits, where the pace never really picked up past a steady lope and the solos hit that sweet spot much less. In the first place, with Murray still stuck on his trademark style - which I count among the most instantly recognizable and pleasing in metal - most of the leads can guarantee success, while Gers on his second album probably helped stir up the writing to bring in those new features. 'Fear Is the Key' shows just how differently Maiden were approaching songs, marrying another Egyptian-sounding melodic theme to pretty complex rhythms, which swagger around in the song's opening parts and then twist drunkenly while Bruce Dickinson creates an almost improvised vocal interlude with plenty of character and feeling, switching back to soaring leads that retain the desert style. These peculiarities turn up more often than you'd think, with the "regular" tracks actually numbering very few, maybe only the opener, the title track, 'The Fugitive', and 'Judas Be My Guide'. 'Childhood's End', intriguingly, plays classic Maiden with riffless melodies and shuffling drums for the chorus. On the one hand, the production never allows the riffing to hit all that hard, chalking up the first way that this proves less of a heavy metal album, while the smaller quantity of focal riffs during 'Childhood's End', 'Afraid to Shoot Strangers', 'Wasting Love', and 'Weekend Warrior' sort of compromise by aiming more for mood than heaviness anyway.

On the other hand, several of the songs just don't work very well. I find 'Wasting Love' in need of a name change to 'Wasting Time', while the slightly awkward rhythms (read: much less fluid momentum compared to earlier Maiden) in 'The Fugitive', 'Childhood's End', and 'The Apparition' also limit the enjoyment of those songs, as they seem to get stuck around transitions and lack a bit of a finishing touch. Although I mentioned that the brevity of each individual song helps matters, all those numbers just mentioned drag a bit, while only the sub-4 minute trio in the album's second half actually save their mediocre potential by true economy. Of those, 'Chains of Misery' rocks the gang vocals most of all, which had really come into the sound for Fear of the Dark and contribute to some of its punky/rocky character. Again, Dickinson's charisma does all sorts of favours for that one. Odd in a way that the main sticking points highlight the rhythm section in my view, since they formed such an important basis of the band up to this juncture: the rather dull beats that Nicko McBrain wheels out on the rockier songs contrast Steve Harris heading in another direction, whose moody introductions and verse parts to the balladic songs (very clearly evident in 'From Here to Eternity') work alright yet distract from the drama too often.

I've got down to my conclusion without mentioning the title track almost at all, and that's because I've heard so many tremendous live renditions of it that comparing to this slightly flat but very serviceable recording will certainly put it in a negative light. Truly, 'Fear of the Dark' is the only instance of more progressive songwriting here and it unsurprisingly runs longest too, in addition to standing out in terms of the melodic suss and storytelling lyrics. A deserving classic, but mixed among too many different things that sometimes don't work to let the album of the same name approach classic status. Indeed, I find almost every cut interesting, occasionally despite the clear flaws in decision-making or production, and so it's nice to visit Fear of the Dark when feeling that all the early albums have become too familiar. I'll take this over post-2010 Maiden.

Despite being overshadowed by more far-reaching works in their career, this album is worth getting. It has given me great moments, and Iron Maiden is one of those bands that is not worth a compilation to have the best of them because many wonders are left behind, so this album should also have its place on the shelf of everyone who likes good British Heavy Metal that the '80s gave us, and... why not? also the '90s.

The good: Be Quick or Be Dead, Afraid to Shoot Strangers, Childhood's End, The Fugitive, Judas Be My Guide and Fear of the Dark. Judas Be My Guide is one of their best compositions from their classic age and it has never possessed the status as Can Play With Madness have enjoyed, which always seemed like a song that could've be played in bumper cars. The most curious thing is "Be Quick Or Be Dead", which presumably started from the success that Judas got with Painkiller. It's like a way to go beyond what the public thought about them in the nineties, not because of any particular similarity with Painkiller, but because of the desire to be a harder composition than expected in the band's catalog. Ultimately, the intention was to create the thrash song climate at the time, but spiced up and modified to the unique Maiden style.

The average: From Here to Eternity, Fear is the Key, Wasting Love and Chains of Misery. They're very funny songs and Fear is the Key is more listenable because of its middle eastern riffs and solos, but they could have do it much better (listen "7;00 From Tashkent" by Artillery, for that matter).

The bad: Weekend Warrior and The Apparition. These ones are easily their worst and futile songs ever, they're bad hard rock songs which try to sound like AC/DC and they're pretty annoying to hear. I never understand why this band release their remastered records but they don't remaster "Sanctuary", "Twilight Zone" and "Total Eclipse". These songs fucking rules. Instead, they should remove the two worst, useless songs ever from this album in the new versions, with this tracklist:

1. Be Quick Or Be Dead
2. From Here To Eternity
3. Afraid To Shoot Strangers
4. Fear Is The Key
5. Childhood's End
6. Wasting Love
7. The Fugitive
8. Chains Of Misery
9. Judas Be My Guide
10. Fear Of The Dark

Full-length: 49:03

If they release a new version with 10 songs I would give 88% to this. This is the record where Maiden became darker, rockier and more carefree than on previous outcast No Prayer For The Dying. I really love Dickinson's cruder and harsher sonority here, more torn in his manner, a look that sparked bad thoughts and wagged stupid tongues that "Bruce was done". I think it was a failed attempt by Harris to reach an hour full-length like Metallica's Black Album, released a year earlier. But with 49 minutes he could deliver a stellar work, maybe not at the level of their 80's stuff but that's not matter because is just like Priest's British Steel, also considered a classic in "miniature", for not living up the 70's albums, so yeah, Fear of the Dark is Iron Maiden's British Steel, with the difference that Priest's album doesn't includes awful fillers.

In my opinion, the least brilliant disc from their classic age (1980-1988 and 1992) without including NPOTD. It's like the unwanted baby by a couple in crisis but in the end they decide to have. A very complicated disc, but you know, Iron Maiden is a band for everyone, and with an era for each person. Privileged and sons of bitches, the ones we still enjoy them.

Whilst the 1980s were synonymous with excess, it’s fair to say that the 90s were guilty, even if that excess manifested itself in largely different ways. If the 1980s had cocaine and massive false knockers, then the 90s held their own with 25% extra cans of lager and all day breakfast in a tin. Fear of the Dark suffers from two particularly 1990’s excessive traits and ones that have always been irksome for me as listener. Firstly, the band were clearly struggling to muster up enough material to fill a CD (CDs were relatively expensive at the time and bands thought it best to give the listener maximum value for money, despite the fact that most of them struggled to write enough quality material to fill both sides of an LP) and, obviously, the quality suffers for it. Secondly, the album suffers from its “early digital” recording quality, as despite the largely stripped down, raw material present on the album - Fear of the Dark finds Maiden with their most polished, gloopy sound ever – apparently their first foray into the world of digital recording.

There were certainly other digitally produced metal albums prior to this one – Manowar’s Fighting the World and Judas Priest’s Turbo being two early examples – and, yet, even more than half a decade later Fear of the Dark suffers from a similar set of problems. Rather than gelling together, the sound is way too separated, too shiny and, particularly, the rhythm section suffers for it (why are Nicko’s drums so boxy? Why is Steve’s bass afflicted with a pristine-yet-grating tone?). Ironically, however, guitar harmonies seem to blend into a mush rather than having a more clearly distinct contrast between the two lines (for a point of reference, you could always hear who was playing which part on the Dave/Adrian albums of the 80s). Sonically, the tones here probably are closest to, say, Somewhere in Time and whilst that production job fits the space-age grandeur of the said album, here it makes me think of those rather ropey mid-to-late 80s AC/DC albums that just strip the band of their raw energy. It is noteworthy that the band universally praised this somewhat sickly, syrupy sound – apparently it’ll sound “better on the radio” than the highly appropriate sound on No Prayer for the Dying (Martin Birch’s last proper Maiden album, as he seemed to be in more of an executive producer role here). Really, I’ve always felt that there is a great disparity between the sound of this album and the material contained herein.

Of course, if Fear of the Dark’s problems were limited to a slippery production job and an excessive running time, we’d be in for a much more enjoyable album. Honestly, as most people will know, the album’s variation is synonymous with inconsistency. Whilst songs like ‘Be Quick or Be Dead’ or ‘Childhood’s End’ might make you forget that you’re listening to a subpar album from a top class band, ‘From Here to Eternity’ will make you rue the day Steve Harris started listening to AC/DC. That’s certainly worth discussing, too, as while Fear of the Dark and No Prayer for the Dying are closely related albums, I feel that the 1990 release rocks in a significantly better manner. No Prayer’s sole AC/DC worship number, ‘Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter’, is actually a song I really enjoy; it’s more like Maiden paying homage to 80’s horror and Bon Scott era AC/DC with a macabre and tongue-in-cheek twist (the song plays with imagery from the Nightmare on Elm Street films as well as the pre-menstrual anxiety girls feel before their first period – which is definitely quite unique). Here, however, the hard rock songs stink of overcooked Brian Johnson late 80’s AC/DC (remember Blow Up Your Video? No, me neither). That is to say they’re incredibly stale sounding and have no redeeming darkness to them. ‘From Here to Eternity’ – woefully positioned as the album’s second track for no apparent reason if not to cause the listener great harm – is just incredibly unconvincing. Harris had no business writing hard rock and Bruce’s tones on this album come across more as “karaoke night Ian Gillan impression” rather than the work of a first class singer.

Elsewhere, the hard rocking manifests itself in a different manner; ‘Fear is the Key’ has a kind of Zeppelin-meets-Rainbow stomp (tellingly Janick’s guitarwork pays homage to both Page and Blackmore) that ends up being more Kingdom Come than anyone would probably like. Furthermore, the middle section with its ‘lies and lies’ part reminds me of Tubbs from The League of Gentlemen when she describes seeing a train track for the first time. Clunky arrangements and risible choices seem to be a running theme here. ‘Wasting Love’ is desperately trying to come across as heartfelt and its theme of “casual sex is hollow” is quite interesting, but the song never seems to break out from its perfunctory ballad role, especially given the really uninteresting chord choices (although that it’s Maiden playing a ballad is something quite unusual for the band). Still, it’s nice to hear Janick playing such a measured, melodic solo. Of course, within this first category of hard rock songs, ‘Weekend Warrior’ is the absolute worst, almost like a precursor to ‘The Angel and the Gambler’ albeit with fewer repeats. Iron Maiden writing The Who-esque rock stompers about football hooliganism sounds like a shit idea on paper, and in practice it’s even worse. Of course, Bruce Dickinson is a thespian who spends his free time writing ribald limericks (or whatever the fuck his books were) and has no place singing about football and his performance on this song resembles that of a cartoon duck – if you pay close attention, you can actually hear him spiritually leaving the band. I don’t know, leave singing about hooliganism to Cock Sparrer.

Our second category is the ‘metallic yet not quite there’ which range from pleasant to frustrating. ‘Afraid to Shoot Strangers’ seems to be the model for much of Harris’s later, gloomy mid-tempo writing. Its execution seems to be very bare-bones (exemplified by the hollow sounding production) and the fast parts seem to be lifted straight from ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’ (which were also ripped off on No Prayer for the Dying’s title track). In short, it’s Harris’s limited vocabulary as a writer coming back to bite him. ‘The Fugitive’ (doesn’t that remind you of an earlier Maiden song? No? Never mind) follows suit from various fillers on No Prayer… and seems to follow the typical “writing songs about the last film I saw”, which seems to be Harris’s default position at this point in his career. Is the film any good? The song’s really not up to much. ‘Chains of Misery’ is much more entertaining – if only for its surprisingly uncomplicated and straightforward drive. Actually, more so than anything, the song’s bouncy and fuss-free formula remind me a bit of Helloween – even if it’s chorus is a little more “LA” than the Germans ever managed. Quite refreshing actually, especially given the fact that it doesn’t outstay its welcome. ‘The Apparition’, in contrast, is pure stodge – leaden and midtempo, boring chord choices with Nicko’s surprisingly dull drumming (what happened – he doesn’t really do many interesting fills on this album, does he?). Definitely one of the unremarkable songs in Maiden’s discography.

Thirdly, you have the actually rewarding songs from this album, the ones that really justify its place in your collection. Despite my gripes with this album – and, well, let’s face it all post-1988 Maiden – I feel that this “new darker Maiden for a new decade” has its strengths and, when it works, I like it a lot. ‘Be Quick or Be Dead’ showcases Gers’ strength as a riff-writer – he and Dave actually write some very good stuff on this album, despite neither of them being as prolific as Harris or Dickinson – and it has a raucous and vicious vibe that very few Iron Maiden songs have. Certainly, one of the songs that really fit Bruce’s newly adopted vocal style. Despite my criticisms of a lot of his writing around this time, ‘Childhood’s End’ still shows Harris’s simple galloping formula can work – given an inspired format. Very simplistic, but rewardingly bleak. Given the hollow, pornographic clarity of the sound you really notice the subtle undertones of keyboards on this album, which makes for a pleasant listen on occasion. ‘Judas Be My Guide’, of course, is every Maiden fans “unsung classic” choice and with good reason, it has an excellent pacing and, similar to ‘Chains of Misery’ and Dave’s uncomplicated writing style and brevity (a concept the band often struggle with) wins big in my book. Catchy, well-paced, with a good sense of forward momentum and plenty of great leads – it’s something I wish the band would do much more often. Weirdly, despite there being 3 live releases surrounding this album, the band couldn’t put this on any of them!

Of course, the title track is masterful and one of Harris’s definitive classics, but even here some of the flaws that hinder the album still come to the fore. In contrast to the live versions of the track, it appears a little too laidback and the contrasts between the opening and the verse are less dramatic. Similarly, the solos work much better when they’re full of that raging intensity as they tend to be live. Nonetheless, it’s still a brilliant song. It captures that childish fear of night time, the urgency on which you rush yourself home on dark nights and that time you really regretted taking that short cut through the park (how were you to know it was cottaging season?). It’s a relatively simplistic epic, but I think that works in its favour – absolutely gripping writing and I love the, well, dark atmosphere it has (again, I really wish they had been able to translate their “new dark Iron Maiden” into a wholly successful album at some point, alas).

Overall, however, despite ending on a triumphant note, the overall impression Fear of the Dark leaves is of bitterness due to its inconsistency and the sense that a great band were all too happy to coast on by rather than making a few more risks along the way. Bruce Dickinson recently described his exit from the band in 1993 as like “leaving a safe job” and, definitely, you can feel that inertia creeping in here. There’s a stagnation and a safety to this record that I don’t really appreciate, despite Fear of the Dark having some clear strengths. One can only imagine Bruce putting on a brave face whilst having to stare at Nicko’s nose during breakfast and dinner (egg and chips again!) or listen to Steve write another song with that chord progression… he knew he’d have to go somewhere else if he was to flourish (and even that took some stumbling at first).

Though I completely understand where a lot of the turnoffs are for this album's predecessor, I will never understand the attacks that bestow Fear Of The Dark. There's no nostalgia rooted in this, if anything a bit long, but a bit long full of strong songs and perhaps a few fillers. But as any songwriter knows, not every song is gonna be a damn anthem, and fillers can potentially be fine. But much like with No Prayer, this is very much a "collection of songs" that are more webbed than linear, pumped with adrenaline and emotion depending on the song.

Emotion comes through in the quick doses of speed and the longer songs themselves. I won't pretend that either are intricate, but both yield some of my favorite Iron Maiden moments ever. "Afraid To Shoot Strangers" is the latter, utilizing a slow and somber base that gives way to a very colorful lick that drives the entire song before the eruption at the end. A longer tune that needs all three of its phases. To the opposite end, "Judas Be My Guide" is possibly one of my favorite songs by the band in general. It's fast and choppy, but the melodies throughout and the passion in Bruce's voice through the chorus gives me goosebumps. Even the short bridge that rides on the higher frets is superb and untouchable.

To the opposite end, you get your blitzkrieg warfare that drops itself immediately in "Be Quick Or Be Dead." This one could almost be a thrash metal song just from the attitude and grit alone. The infamous title track combines everything that I've mentioned thus far; emotion, slow licks, speedy kicks, harder attitude, intricacy, and phases that make it a wonderful classic and live staple. You'll get drops of strength in the lesser known tracks, too. See "Wasting Love" or "Childhood's End," some that hardly get spoken about but allow for stomping passages and plenty of range to take from.

But like I said, I won't pretend that Fear Of The Dark doesn't have some obvious filler. "From Here To Eternity" is an obvious one, with its rock 'n roll basics and hokey lyrics, or perhaps the watered-down "Weekend Warriors." Even "Chains Of Misery" casts a lot of the same silly energy as "Hooks In You" from before. The thing about all of these songs is that they're still entertaining. They're ear-worms, and ultimately are only really guilty of being below the bar that Iron Maiden have set for themselves previously.

Despite some weird writing here and there, and perhaps some inconsistency, this is a fantastic fucking album and one of my favorites. None of those things bring anything down significantly, and if nothing else, give the record some more identity of its own. I'll take fillers that stand out over intricate tunes that feel lifeless any day (see the next record for that).

Iron Maiden's ninth studio full lengther has a special place in my heart. Not because it was Bruce's "last" Maiden album, but because me and some my friends loved it to death, and "Fear of the Dark Tour" gig in Helsinki was my first ever Maiden concert experience. So please take this into consideration when reading this review.

'Fear of the Dark' is the second album without the "hit-machine", guitarist Adrian Smith. That does not mean, that there was no catchy songs, or that there was just long epics on the album. The title track is the only song that goes beyond 7 minutes. Still being a setlist regular, the song is one of the trademark songs from the band. But later about it... 'Fear of the Dark' is also the second Maiden album, after some more epic ones, that is pretty streetwise rocking heavy metal. 'No Prayer for the Dying' from 1990 was the first such album for years, since 1981 album 'Killers'. In many ways this one is easiest to compare to that Maiden classic. A lot of people always say, that Iron Maiden cannot change, but still I beg to differ. They still do, and have always done it. That's what makes them interesting, among many other things. Okay, I seem to ramble around with this text. So, let's start from the beginning. But before that, let me warn you: This could be a bit of a track-by-track review. However, the songs are so different to each other, that this is basically obligatory.

The striking single cut 'Be Quick or Be Dead' is another fine opener for a Maiden album. This fast song (one of the band's fastest ones) goes straight into action, as the drummer Nicko McBrain hits the beginning strokes. The guitar duo Dave Murray and Janick Gers, who replaced Adrian Smith for the previous album, let it rip with riffs filled with street credibility. Steve Harris's finger-played clanking bass is as flashy as always. Bruce Dickinson's vocals are angry, really throaty and snarling at times, something like he did on his first solo album 'Tattooed Millionaire' two years earlier. By the way, Janick Gers played on that album too, plus the song was written by the two... Mr. Dickinson's range is huge as there is typical clean, high-pitched singing, too. A very energetic, visceral opener that leads the way for more bluesy (in an English way, that is) rocking Harris's song 'From Here to Eternity', which is one of my favourite songs off the abum. The song smells like exhaust fumes, and rolls on like the band was on two-wheelers. This pair of songs shouldn't be such an obstacle after 'Holy Smoke', really. But upbeat and catchy 'Weekend Warrior' might. A song about going to see a soccer game (really!), and possible violence happening there. Mr. Harris is an avid West Ham United Football Club suppoter, so it's not a total surprise as a lyric topic, but on a heavy metal album...?!? Anyway, it was one of the first songs that I really liked off of this album, and still is, even though Bruce's croaking vocals are featured.

After these two ass-kicking pieces, it is time to calm down. Emotional 'Afraid to Shoot Strangers', again by Harris, is such of a song the band has never done before and after (okay, it does have quite similar truly dark aura that the following 1995 album 'The X Factor' carries). The song builds up pretty slowly, but does not contain ill-fitted parts, as some songs from the band. It's a very atmospheric song, that also lets it rip, going through a Hammond organ part. 'Fear is a Key' is another slower one with somewhat Deep Purple-ish and Rainbow-ish, plus Mid-Eastern vibes (not surprisingly by Dickinson and Gers). It feels like it was a bit more jammed in the studio, and is one of worse songs from the band; it simply feels like it was work in progress, but listen to that guitar solo! Let's include the album's third sedate piece here: Highly affective 'Wasting Love' by same duo, is a ballad-ish, if not a ballad, and one of the band's most calm songs. Not quite as calm as 'Change of Heart' from Mr. Dickinson, though.

Another Harris one, 'Childhood's End', takes a turn into more epic, metal stuff. It balances between slow and faster parts, with some out-of-norm tom drumming that doesn't really work very well because them parts are a tad too long. But the vocals are some of the best on the album; truly filled with emotions. Also the guitar melodies are ace and 100% Maiden. 'The Fugitive' is another more metal piece, but is a relative to 'The Assassin', meaning that it's one of the band's worse songs. It's too sullen to be a fist-pumper, which it tries to be. Harris's worst, possibly. 'Chains of Misery' is also on gloomy side, but packs much more energy, and contains some gang vocals on its stadion rock chorus. So, one thumb up! 'The Apparition' is the oddball cousin from the woods: The bass and the guitars change places, in a way, in this wickedly exhilarating song. Even though it's a weirdo, I like it a lot. Experiment not failed. Most traditional Maiden song 'Judas Be My Guide's reverbing guitar solo harks back to old times, and the song contains a very good chorus. These two were by Dickinson and Murray, so good to hear Dave's rather succesful input. However, none of these songs aren't 'The Trooper', 'Aces High' or 'The Evil That Men Do', not even close.

Oops, the Harris-penned title track is still missing... Now, my friends, this is it what all of you've been waiting for! Fucking epic piece of Maiden-songsmith. 'Hallowed Be Thy Name' of the 1990s. The band have played this one probably in every concert since. There's no other way to say this, but if there was more songs of this quality on the album, it could have been a real killer. The band just seems to be on totally different plane on this one. Even though there are more songs that I love, this easily deserves the highest of accolades of these twelve songs.

So, the album isn't very uniform. First, it has so different songs packed in, and some of them feel uncompleted, or simply too much like experiments. Also, three calm songs on tracks 3, 4 and 6. These are the biggest weakness about the album. Almost every song I've learned to like, even love. So, another Ying/Yang of an album, this. And when thinking about epicness versus rocking, could they've gone further into majesty after 'Seventh Son of a Seventh Son'? I do not think so. Not with a full album, but with songs, yes.

Bruce is pretty damn theatrical on this album, and most varying ever. sadly, his soaring pipes are not heard that much, but more of that raspy and snarly street rocker thing. The lyrical themes are mostly about real life (perhaps unlike the Melvyn Grant cover art let's one to believe): Money runs the corrupt world, war (a soldier thinking why does he shoot some unknown human beings, not a story of a massive attack), AIDS, TV series ('The Fugitive', which is bloody far from the grandeur of 'The Prisoner'!), and wicked side of human minds. But there's more fantasy (?) material, too, as Charlotte the harlot gets another sequel, and a ghost comes to give some good advice for life. I've always liked Iron Maiden's lyrics, because they are nothing too poetic, and truly differ from masses.

It is easy to tell difference between the guitarists; one being more bluesy and picturesque and other more rough and ripping. The Steve Harris bass is what's expected: amazingly superhuman, clanking, and everywhere. Mr. McBrain still wanted to experiment a bit, and this is miles higher than him being basic on 'Virtual XI' . There's some synthesizer mat sounds heard, as well as aforementioned Hammond stuff. I'm not sure if this really needed those, though. Sound-wise the album is very clear. It's actually a bit too airy, perhaps. Anyway, it kicks asses of Kevin Shirley produced albums...

As a whole, 'Fear of the Dark' was close to being the band's least good album when it came out. Still, for the most part it was an instant hit for me. It remains as a point of history now; it's not that hot music-wise, but it's great to return to it every now and then and go through the memories it summons. But from reviewing point of view, this belongs amongst the five worst Maiden albums with 'The Book of Souls', 'The Final Frontier', 'Virtual XI' and 'No Prayer for the Dying' (not in any order). But some days I can spin it all day long! Go figure.

(Originally written for ArchaicMetallurgy.com)

When I think of Iron Maiden, I think of grand musical endeavors complete with epic themes, soaring instrumentals, fantastic solos and all of that great musicianship and general prowess that's usually associated with these guys. They're heavy metal legends, but their career is not exactly spotless. I'm usually quite open to change, it never really bothers me when a band changes their sound as long as the same amount of ingenuity or passion is applied to what they're doing. A hard rock Maiden would be pretty badass on paper, but if it's executed like this, then I'll pass. This album has never impressed me despite what many fans say about it and it really does compete for the spot as my least favorite Iron Maiden album.

This album shows Maiden as an absolute shell of a band. The musicianship is bare-bones, the songwriting is quite lacking, Bruce literally sounds bored, and the production is even extremely bland. The epic compositions are replaced by more simplistic, catchier approaches that rely on sing-along chorus', bouncier riffs, and even a bunch of acoustic sections to drive things along. The biggest problem is that it blatantly sounds like they're forcing it. The music almost has the same serious, dark mood as some of the previous Iron Maiden releases but it's executed with these fruity arrangements and as a result - everything sort of clashes. It's trying to be catchy and hooky but it's still trying to be Maiden. "From Here To Eternity" in particular grinds my gears with it's outrageous, prancing and totally generic construction; it seriously hits almost every pop rockish cliche you can think of.

Really though, the whole album reeks of extremely weak songwriting and execution. Even on the songs that lack the overt simplicity and lack of creativity, the hole in the band's overall drive is gargantuan. For instance, "Afraid to Shoot Strangers" features a mellow (and completely ridiculous) intro that lacks any sliver of the dark, somber tone that it goes for. Then the band just tries to give 'er the 'ol "Hallowed Be Thy Name" and haphazardly jump into overdrive without any successful buildup. It's like a song that exists only as a blueprint for other, better Iron Maiden songs. The band fails on the catchy side and the epic side of things, they just utterly fail here. I think the cover art does a fine job of summing things up, Eddie is no longer the badass mascot he used to be, he's just stuck to a fucking tree.

In addition to the awkward usage of all of these more commercially inclined elements, which wouldn't be inherently bad if not for how weirdly they're pulled off, the musicianship is just weak. The riffs are all just totally lacking power and the band sounds bored. Steve's melodic bass lines sound thrown in, Bruce's voice isn't too bad but he is without any ounce of essence, and everything just sounds as if Maiden wanted to throw in the towel but did an album anyway. It doesn't stop at just the writing and musicianship though, you've got yourself the ridiculous lyrics as well. I won't get into them, but the lyrics are almost as offensive as the boring music present here.

This album is Iron Maiden almost completely bankrupt; they lost their musical, lyrical, and conceptual edge on this album big time. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy "Be Quick or Be Dead", "The Apparition", and that overrated title track, but they are simply decent songs in the midst of a rather barren harvest. It may be an unpopular opinion, but I do consider this to be one of Maiden's absolute weakest records. They didn't have the same creativity and drive behind this at all and again, a hard rock Maiden might not have been too bad, but here the experiment crashes and burns. I'm just happy that the pathetic butchering of my favorite Budgie song didn't make it onto the album.

“Fear of the Dark” is Iron Maiden’s second best selling record of all times, had quite high chart positions and includes one of the band’s most famous songs ever with the title track which has also become an almost irreplaceable live anthem. Still, this release is often criticized by fans of the band and generally seen as one of the weaker releases. Both positions are partially right.

Let’s start with the negative facts first. Usually, I really like the fact when you get value for money but in this case, the quantity of twelve songs may be more elevated than ever in the band’s career but several tracks also lack quality. Especially the middle section of this album is really weak. “Chains of Misery” is the most exchangeable song the band has ever written in my opinion. It has a boring topic, a generic length and above all a lifeless chorus. “The Apparition” is already more original because it doesn’t have a chorus and is a straighter song. It kicks off promisingly but soon the same pattern is repeated over four minutes. The pale and hectically performed instrumental section even adds to the negative development. Bad song writing leads down an initially interesting idea. “Judas Be My Guide” is better than the other two songs and often pointed out as a hidden gem but only a few melodies have a certain atmosphere while the song structure itself is once again less exciting and build around a chorus that tries too hard to be catchy and retro rock inspired but fails because of its too commercial and generic tone. If this album had been cut down to eight great songs or separated as two short releases, it would have been a strong comeback after the unbalanced back to the roots effort that was “No Prayer for the Dying” but as it is, “Fear of the Dark” is only a slight improvement from there.

This improvement is largely due to two songs that really stand out among the others. The atmospheric, majestic and passionate title track is one of the very best heavy metal songs in history in my opinion. I’m still getting goose bumps each time I hear the menacing melodies of the epic introduction and I still can’t stand still as soon as the track gets faster and leads to a powerful chorus and an incredible bridge with strong soli and vivid sing along parts. I think I don’t need to mention that the track’s majesty works even better on stage. This song is definitely a masterpiece. In my opinion, “Afraid to Shoot Strangers” comes really close to the title track. I know that both songs have very similar song structures but they are still different enough from each other to be both considered as excellent heavy metal songs. The third song on this release starts in a more melodic and plodding way than the title track and the dark and almost narrative introduction is a strong hint at what would be very present on “The X-Factor”. The guitar melodies are simply out of this world and mange to touch me each time I listen to them. On the other side, the track gets progressively faster and meaner than the title song and includes fast riffs battling with melodic soli in the outstanding middle part before it goes back to a more harmonious tone to close the circle. This epic track has been my first contact with Iron Maiden and I’m still deeply in love with this tune more than one decade later.

In between these two stand-out tracks and three of the worst songs ever written by the band, there still is a lot of hit and miss. The guiding line of an effort that would have otherwise sounded like a loose compilation effort as its predecessor is the melodic tone and melancholic atmosphere of several songs. The two stand-out efforts share their atmosphere with the melancholic “Childhood’s End”, the touching half-ballad “Wasting Love” which is among the best calmer and more commercial tracks the band has ever written and the majestic “The Fugitive” which is often ignored but manages to fusion faster and meaner riffs with hopeful melodies and powerful vocals. These three tracks are more than just decent, they are highlights on the record and the reason why this album is not among the weakest of the band in my opinion.

Iron Maiden was open for experimentation on the record. From the surprisingly fast, hectic and almost slightly thrash metal ridden opener “Be Quick or Be Dead” to the unusual psychedelic elements and sudden changes of tone and style in “Fear is the Key” that took many years to grow on me, Iron Maiden really offers several courageous song writing ideas. The problem is that these songs don’t really fit together on the album and create a very odd flow. This album requests a lot of attention and patience as well as an open-minded attitude towards different forms of rock and metal music to be fully appreciated. Many fans of the band expected the band to return to shorter and more consistent conceptual releases from the past, didn’t give this album a real chance and left it dusting on a shelf over the years. I think these fans should give the record a new chance and re-evaluate it more than twenty-two years later and they might realize that this release is still among the better efforts of the last twenty-five years.

Iron Maiden had a lot of interesting and also original song writing ideas and also a few great lyrical inspirations on this release. Maybe the world wasn’t ready for a visionary heavy metal band singing about the deadly consequences of AIDS, childhood poverty in war-ridden territories and a critical analysis of football hooliganism. In my opinion, this lyrical diversity adds a lot to the intellectual charm of the record and shows a band that has matured and didn’t want to repeat itself.

After all, I really adore this album despite a few flaws and three weaker tracks in here. The best songs on the album are among the best the band has ever written and several other tracks have either touching melodies, intellectually challenging lyrics or both which makes this record sound mature and fresh at the same time. Despite some hit and miss efforts, this album never gets boring and I regularly listen to it as it includes pretty much everything Iron Maiden stands for from melodic twin guitar solos over extremely atmospheric live anthems and from short crunching heavy metal tracks to more progressive epics. The band has lost this balance of shorter and longer tracks on more recent records which means a significant decrease in quality for me. This album reveals to have a lot more qualities than one might think of. Some fans should re-evaluate this release that ultimately deserved its commercial success and is much more appealing than its reputation.

If you ask the average person to rattle off the names of five classic metal bands, you can be reasonably certain Iron Maiden will be one of them. The band is almost universally beloved by metalheads. Their output from The Number of the Beast through Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is considered one of metal’s few sacred cows.

I grew up in a very small town without any friends who knew more about metal than I did. first learned of the band from a book. See, before Wikipedia, Allmusic, and Metal Archives, there were actually books that listed thousands of albums and had ratings accompanied by short descriptions of the bands. My mom had one of these, and I pored over it looking for metal bands. I never got around to getting any of their albums for a long time, and finally got into the band while in law school. Since I came to them relatively later in life (compared to most metalheads), it should mean something when I say their output from 1982 through 1988 absolutely deserves that sacred cow status.

But they are not without their faults. Tomorrow, May 12 [2012], marks the 20th anniversary of Fear of the Dark. The record follows No Prayer for the Dying, and between the two of them they constitute what is considered the low point of the Bruce Dickinson years. It’s easy to dismiss a bad record as the result of a bad lineup, but that excuse can’t be applied here as Adrian Smith was not a primary songwriter, nor is the rhythm guitar a serious problem.

But I came to the band around 2006. I got Fear and Powerslave at basically the same time. So perhaps that gives me some clarity of vision, an outsider’s take on the record that may put it in a different light.

Well, just because that’s possible doesn’t mean it’s true. The majority view of Fear is that it has a handful of great songs and a load of garbage. The majority view is correct, as I see it.

There are three absolutely killer tracks on this record. “Childhood’s End,” “The Fugitive,” and the incredible title track stand up alongside the very best the band has ever recorded. “Judas Be My Guide” and “Chains of Misery,” aren’t bad either. Either one could be the worst song from “Piece of Mind,” which is to say that they’re still pretty damn good. But that’s where the praise must end. “Fear is the Key” could have been a great song, except that for the last couple minutes Dickinson is just winging it. He truly sounds as if he has nothing prepared, but they went with the first take anyway. There are four tracks beside that are so dull they aren’t even worth mentioning, full of boring riffs and what sound like improvised vocal lines.

Then there are two incredibly bad songs. “Afraid to Shoot Strangers” is just fucking awful. Some of the leads could have been salvageable, but it’s too long, too boring, and too stupid. I have no idea what they were thinking, and even some of its production choices are curious. “Weekend Warrior,” on the other hand, has the band’s thinking clearly printed on its sleeve. It’s a piss-poor attempt at emulating the teenage rebellion anthems of the 80’s hair metal bands, but it fails for multiple reasons. Maiden was the alternative to hair metal garbage. They don’t grasp it all that well anyway, so it ends up sounding like a parody.

The Verdict: Even a (for all intents and purposes) classic lineup can fuck things up. There are numerous other examples of that. If you put Maiden’s 90’s albums up against Metallica’s, you’re presented with an interesting question: What is worse, to fail at doing what you’ve always done well, or to mostly succeed at trying something questionable? Fear of the Dark is, for the most part, a failure, although it gives us a few enduring sing-along anthems.

originally written for http://fullmetalattorney.blogspot.com/

Fear of the Dark is often bunched together with No Prayer for the Dying as Maiden’s two mediocre albums, before Bruce left and the dreaded Blaze era began. The difference between the two albums, however, was that while No Prayer… felt like a mediocre album that, while not bad, was entirely forgettable, Fear of the Dark gave us an album that was a very mixed bag, and while No Prayer felt less like a return to the roots and more like “Maiden By Numbers” or a tribute band doing original material, this sounds like a band that is trying to respond to that criticism, but is entirely unsure of a new musical direction. Musically, it goes back and forth between experimentation, standard fare Maiden sound, and “what the hell were they thinking?!”. As a result, we get a confused album that hits the mark and, well, quite a few times gives us a few of Maiden's greatest, if not least memorable, moments as well as some of the worst material they have ever written.

The great stuff: Be Quick or be Dead kicks off the album with some immense power and speed with Bruce spitting out his vocals angrily, but right off the bat it’s obvious he’s still going with his more raw vocals from No Prayer. Still, this is up there with Aces High as far as energetic, speedy Maiden songs. Afraid to Shoot Strangers starts off very melodic with Bruce singing in a raspy near-whisper. The first several minutes are actually quite beautiful, and let me tell you, it was really something when I saw it live as well. It gets a little heavier about halfway through and goes through an aggressive solo before going to a more melodic ending. Childhood’s End is a darker, mid-paced song. The chorus is a little odd, consisting of a sort of short tam drum spasm and riff being repeated as Bruce spits out two-word chorus lines, but it’s direct and to the point. It’s a little out of the ordinary for a Maiden song, but not as much as some of the other experiments on the album, and it gets to the bridge/solo section that’s classic Maiden. Overall, it’s a decent and memorable song. Judas Be My Guide took a while to grow on me, but it’s a fun song with a catchy verse and catchy chorus. The verses and choruses focus on simplicity and it works for what might have been an okay live song if the band had been a more cohesive unit both live and in the studio at the time. I always thought it was strange how pessimistic the song was for a Maiden song. Not that I’m not used to any dark Maiden songs, but unlike most others where the darkness seems like a foreboding warning or some kind of depressing reflection song, the attitude of this song, along with lines like “Everything’s wasted, is that all there is, can I go now?” seem genuinely pessimistic. Maybe this is a reflection of Dickinson’s feelings on the band and his interest in a solo project at the time. Or maybe I just read into these things too much and it’s about war or something.

What could I be forgetting? Oh yeah, apparently some people appreciate the title track. It seems like while the quality of any of the aforementioned songs could be argued as well as any other song on this album, just about every Maiden fan loves the album's closer, the epic Fear of the Dark, and why not? It’s an amazing song, especially live. Melodic, dark, beautiful in the intro, and then just exploding where even on the album version you can imagine how Bruce would be running around the stage like a madman in an arena. And do I sense some Middle Eastern influence in the very beginning? God, how I love that style in metal. It truly is classic Maiden and is really a fine example of it on an album that otherwise sounds like it’s written by a band whose unsure of who they are anymore. It’s also one of the moments on the album where Bruce shows his voice still has some fucking power behind it. Although his rasp is still certainly here, there are also times it sounds like it was recorded with the Bruce from Powerslave.

The decent stuff: Fear is the Key is an average song with a cool, Middle Eastern-sounding riff which, as I mentioned before, is a sound I’ve always loved in metal, however it’s much more predominant in this song. The chorus is pretty fun and catchy enough, however there are the forgettable verses and the inclusion of a middle part that just doesn’t fit feels a little forced and features Bruce saying the word ‘lies’ about 30 times. It was as though they felt the need to add a progressive part or something for no reason. There’s also a strange noise and guitar squeal part that sounds like Dimebag Darell might be getting ready to play Floods in there somewhere. However, Bruce does a pretty fucking sick Ian Gillan impression at one point. Overall, not a song I’d call good, but also not bad. The Fugitive begins rather heavy, the chorus is catchy, and the “I AM A FUGITIVE” part would have probably been a good live piece, but the rest is pretty forgettable. Neither of these songs are terrible. I never feel the need to skip them, but if you asked me what songs were on the album, these are the ones I’d probably forget.

The controversial stuff: these songs will probably fit into either the decent or shitty category depending on who you ask. I don’t think you’ll find many who will say these are amazing because they’re not. However, liking or hating them is completely dependent on musical taste. They all sound like things Maiden would have never done on any album before this, so I credit them for trying new things. Unfortunately, just attempting an experiment doesn’t necessarily make it successful. From Here to Eternity: Have you ever heard an AC/DC song? Well then you’ve heard every AC/DC song ever. AC/DC wrote one song, then wrote it 500 more times. Why do I bring this up? Do you like AC/DC? If you do, you might dig this. If you don’t, you WILL hate this because this song is that one single AC/DC song. Bruce even seems to be doing his best Brian Johnson impression. Personally, AC/DC is alright with me, however I only like them when I’m in the right mood, and if I want to listen to AC/DC, I’ll put on AC/DC. I don’t put on Maiden to hear AC/DC. So while I don’t hate this song, I see no use for it. Wasting Love is a power ballad, pure and simple. You should be able to tell from that opening riff. I’m not entirely sure who the hell was ever asking for a power ballad from Maiden. If you’re the kind of guy saying, “FUCK POWER BALLADS!!”. this might not be for you. Personally, I enjoyed it and thought it was interesting to hear Maiden do something along that line. I originally thought I never wanted to hear Maiden do a power ballad and I originally skipped this song constantly, but it ended up growing on me. It also chooses to be an entirely depressing song, seemingly about loneliness and isolation rather than a love and/or lost love song like many other power ballads I’m familiar with. Ok, not a massive change of pace, but I think we all feel that way sometimes, whether you’re that guy who can’t get into a relationship or have been married for 20 years. Decent stuff either way as far as I’m concerned.

The shitty: The Apparition is just an awkward song. I can’t even say I have a straightforward opinion on it. It has what couldn’t quite be called a riff, maybe an awkward groove and Bruce almost doing a rap-type thing, a short, decent solo, and then back to the groove rap. Again, I appreciate the band trying new things, but this experiment didn’t quite make the grade with me. Although maybe shitty is a little harsh, Chains of Misery feels like filler. It’s a little too average rock and the layered vocals on the words “he’s got your chains of misery” makes it feel like they wanted to make an arena rock anthem or something. However, the part of this song that really made me group it here rather than controversial is the incredibly and undeniably awkward “he’s got the key to your heart” part.

Then there’s Weekend Warrior. Both The Apparition and Chains of Misery I could see enjoying and, really, I can listen to the album without skipping them, but this song just pisses me off. It’s apparently about a soccer (sorry, I’m North American, “football”) game which, while I suppose is understandable as they all are apparently soccer (/football) fans, there isn’t shit about soccer that’s metal or belongs on a metal album. The lyrics are relentlessly cheesy, especially in the context. “Maybe someone will die… someone will die… someone will die.” Shut up, Bruce. No one dies in soccer. The intro attempts to be melodic, but just kind of meanders, then it goes into a groove similar to The Apparition in a way. Before each chorus the meandering riff from the intro comes in as Bruce repeats whatever the last two words he just said 4 times or so and complains about his friend changing and being an asshole when he plays soccer. The chorus is pretty generic Maiden stuff, but the lyrics for it suck. Even the chorus is among the least interesting I’ve ever heard from Maiden. It’s like they wanted to try my patience for 5 and a half minutes before giving me the godly Fear of the Dark. This song alone impacts my view of the album to drop the score about 3 percentage points. Maybe I’m being a little harsh, but this song exists to piss me off and accomplishes it in ways that are unimaginable. This isn’t a song Iron Maiden should have ever written. Fuck Weekend Warrior.

So, while No Prayer for the Dying disappointed fans by being a somewhat safe, back to the roots album and having for the most part a lot of/too much continuity, Fear of the Dark disappointed fans by having very little continuity. The album blasts off with Be Quick or be Dead, possibly one of the heaviest songs the band has written, into an AC/DC-sounding rock song. From the worst song on the album, Weekend Warrior, to what is considered the best, Fear of the Dark. The band tried too many things on one release, and while many individual songs definitely work, the whole album is less effective and comes off as confused and disjointed. About half the album the average fan will enjoy more than No Prayer, while the other half will be hated, resulting in something of a musical cocktease.

I know this probably sounds strange, but Fear of the Dark was actually my introduction to our gods that are Iron Maiden. I mean, I knew about the other albums, I knew the choruses to "Run to the Hills" and "Number of the Beast" from a young age like every child with good parents should, but I'd never heard of albums like Seventh Son of a Seventh Son prior to my pre-teen years. I've mentioned it a thousand times before, but my early taste in music was largely the work of my mother. She was less into Maiden than she was, say Dio and Metallica in the 80s, but an appreciation was there nonetheless (likely due to the fact that Iron Maiden was and is utterly ubiquitous in the scope of metal fandom). I was born a little over a month before No Prayer for the Dying came out, so the fact that Fear of the Dark was the only Maiden album I could find in her CD stash during one of my 11 year old raids makes sense considering it was around that time she'd stopped buying tapes and recovered from taking care of an infant. I remember looking at the cover art and thinking "Well this is weird, didn't their mascot have long hair?" (a full eighteen years after his first haircut, of course), and figured oh well, it's probably cool so I'll just take it up to my room and listen to it while I do my homework.

Long story short, I didn't think it was great, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Now, eleven years later, my opinion has actually managed to soften. Seriously, the more I listen to this album, the more I like it. I'd always claimed that this was the last Maiden album worth listening to, but I didn't consider it one of their "good" ones until recently. Everybody knows the dichotomy of last two albums of Dickinson's first run (NPftD was bad because it was homogenous and bland while FotD was bad because of wildly inconsistent songwriting and an identity crisis), and maybe I'm just a total fanboy, but I actually really like some of the songs that don't sound like Iron Maiden. I honestly really dig "From Here to Eternity" and "Fear is the Key". No joke.

Maybe I'm not very harsh on this album because I have a nostalgic tie to it, I won't deny that that is a strong possibility. But let's face a sad truth about the band really quickly; as great and near flawless as those seven albums from the 80s are, we've heard them all no less than four squillion times by now. In 1992, we'd already heard them two trillion times. We know who Iron Maiden is, we know what they sound like. And whether or not this album was a musical success, I give it a ton of respect for at least attempting to do something drastically different with their formula for a change. I mean yeah, Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son introduced light synths and took on a much more grand atmosphere, but they still fell in line with what the band had been sounding like since 1983. Even No Prayer was basically just ten filler tracks in a row, with only the odd moment of their past brilliance here and there (Say what you will, I love both "Tailgunner" and "Holy Smoke"). But now we've reached 1992, and you know what? This is new. This is something entirely different. I mean yeah, "Weekend Warrior" is an awful butt rock song and "The Apparition" is annoying but damn at least they're not "The Assassin" or "Hooks in You". Most fans agree they ran out of good ideas when the 80s ended, but at least here they're new bad ideas instead of incredibly safe, faceless ones like the previous album. Sometimes they strike out, but at least they're swinging for the fences.

And when they connect, they really strike gold. The title track is a classic and a live staple, everybody knows that, and it's definitely deserving of the honor with which it's been bestowed. When the band does one of their tours where they say they'll only play old songs that everybody already likes, "Fear of the Dark" is the only track from the 90s that will consistently find itself in the setlist. It's a big, anthemic number, with a great buildup, excellent singalong melody, and a dark overtone that few of their songs really capture. It's the "epic" of this album, and like most of its predecessors, it's easily one of the highlights of the album and one of the band's best songs. I'm also a gigantic fan of the opening track, "Be Quick or Be Dead". The fact that this isn't a live staple is proof that there is no God. This is the closest they every got to recapturing the high speed magic that is "Aces High", with the only real difference being the fact that the vocals are more subdued here. I love it when Maiden really cuts loose and delivers a high-octane barnburner like this, and really wish they'd do it slightly more often than "once every six years".

Those are the only two truly classic songs, unfortunately, though most of the rest at least rank as "good" at the very least. "Afraid to Shoot Strangers" is one of the fan favorites and one of the two songs most people can admit to liking from this album without getting weird looks. Personally, I can't fully get behind it. Of its nearly seven minute runtime, I can only say I adore a little over half of it. That long, moody buildup just goes on for far too long and does nothing to build up the rest of the song. I love how the main melody manages to sound remorseful, I love how the fast part is basically just the big epic release from "Hallowed Be Thy Name", I love the ludicrously over the top guitar solo, I love everything about it except the first two and a half minutes. "Judas Be My Guide" is another great one that deserves more love than it gets, it does a fantastic job of conjuring the atmosphere from Seventh Son of a Seventh Son and combines it with the hard-hitting straightforwardness of Powerslave. It's not as good as "Be Quick or Be Dead", but it's another one of the forgotten songs that would be more fondly remembered if it were placed on a different album.

Now, here's where I get hypocritical, did you notice something about those four mostly-great tracks I mentioned? Every last one of them was compared to something the band did in the 80s, right after I spent all that time going on about how I respected them for trying new things. That's because even though I respect and support the band trying something new, there's really no denying that what they did in the 80s was the pinnacle of their career, so when they reach back to that, obviously it's going to be more effective than their newer, more commercial approach. There are two tracks that really exemplify this idea, and those are "From Here to Eternity" and "Weekend Warrior". The former is good, because it has a lot of energy and a fun, catchy chorus, whereas the latter sucks because it sounds like a phoned-in Van Halen b-side that the band didn't even fully believe was good enough to be on the album. "Weekend Warrior" is pretty much the Scrappy Doo of Iron Maiden's career, because it really kind of knocked the band down to its knees, castrated it mightily, and they've since been trying to recover, and never fully succeeding. Yeah, yeah, I know the near-perfect title track follows it, but let's just agree that "Weekend Warrior" is a big, steaming pile of spunk that the band pretty much chokeslammed their own career into.

There are a few other strange experiments, like the country-style groove that might as well jump out of a closet while yelling "BOO" in "Fear is the Key". Despite clashing horribly with the great, mid paced brooding of the opening riff, I still really like this song. It's Maiden trying something new, it only halfway succeeds but it's a valiant effort if nothing else. "Chains of Misery" and "The Fugitive" are two other kinda bad butt rock songs that work for what they are, despite really not being inspired or anything. I know it's kind of a cop out to do what I've been doing here (just pointing out certain tracks and explaining what they sound like in comparison to the rest of the album), but with something as wildly inconsistent and all over the board as Fear of the Dark, there's really no other way to do it. The only real constants throughout the album are the fact that the choruses are all normally pretty weak (barring "Be Quick or Be Dead" and "Fear of the Dark" of course) and the guitars really don't do anything to stand out amongst the pack, a giant rarity for a Maiden album.

The more I listen to this, the more I like it, but at the same time this is an album I "respect" more than I "love". If No Prayer for the Dying was the band half-hearting a ton of filler tracks because they'd used up most of their good ideas, then Fear of the Dark is the result of the band just throwing out a bunch of random shit and anything they could think of in a haze of incense smoke and surrounded by scores of empty beer cans. Only a couple of these ideas really stick, but I applaud the band for trying, if nothing else. For most fans, this is probably skippable, if only due to the fact that there are only a handful of bona-fide Iron Maiden classics, but if you're okay with an interesting failure, then this is definitely worth checking out. I don't consider this a failure, since I actually like a lot of the songs here that are crapped on ("Fear is the Key", "Childhood's End", "From Here to Eternity"), but I do understand that this was the last stumble before falling flat on their face for the next twenty years.


Originally written for http://lairofthebastard.blogspot.com/

Despite having one of the band's best-known crowd favourites, Iron Maiden's 'Fear Of The Dark' is a somewhat less successful album for the legends, at least critically speaking. My first experience with the band, the album may have more of a personal significance to me, and while proving to be one of the band's less consistent works, there is some great music here from the band. While not as good as the true classic material of the band, 'Fear Of The Dark' is an at-times wonderful collection of tracks from one of metal's most enduring acts.

'Be Quick Or Be Dead' kicks off the album in a fairly classic Maiden fashion; a fast pace, galloping rhythm, and Bruce Dickinson's howl makes this track one that I would not have been surprised to see one of the earlier records. 'From Here To Eternity' also somewhat follows this formula. Truth be told though, Iron Maiden does take the rest of the album down a somewhat different lane. While it's certainly nothing alien to what Iron Maiden had already been doing, the music is perhaps a little more conservative in terms of speed, with many of these tracks veering towards Judas Priest's 'older' sound. Cutting straight to the point; this is done very well at times, but some songs fall off the wagon, and this may be why some fans of the band do not regard this album as highly. 'The Fugitive' and 'Judas Be My Guide' are two more straightforward tracks that really rock. While the intensity is toned down a bit, the riffs are in much the same style that Maiden had done before. Despite the subdued angle, there is still the care taken to the dual guitar harmonies. Weekend Warrior' is the only miss of a track here, with fairly uninspired guitars and facepalm-inducing lyrics. Here, Iron Maiden virtually declaws their music, and despite being released in '92, 'Weekend Warrior' sounds like it would have been some arena rock track from the heyday of the '80s. One bad apple aside, I don't think it hurts the rest of the songs.

Bruce Dickinson's voice is a point of contention for some, especially seeing as he would leave the band for the next two albums after this. Although some of the melodies are not so inspired or memorable, his voice was still in top shape, although he does not quite sound like himself here. At times, he sounds like Rob Halford- a good thing- and at others, he ad-libs away in the style of Axl Rose- a decidedly bad thing. 'Fear Of The Dark' certainly has some weaknesses to contend with, but the album's two most involving songs take it from being merely decent, to a very good album. Those two are the famed title track, and the lesser-known 'Afraid To Shoot Strangers'. The first of these evokes a maddening response from the crowd whenever its played live, and for good reason. It begins with a classic riff, then takes a breath as it gently builds into the most intense passage of the album. 'Afraid To Shoot Strangers' proceeds in much the same manner, with perhaps a more progressive direction. With these two songs alone, 'Fear Of The Dark' is more than worth a listen to a fan of the band.

Iron Maiden have gone through many phases, and 'Fear Of The Dark' falls on the brink of a rough transition for the band. All the same, there are many good songs, and even some gold to hear with this one. A painfully underrated album.

Fear of the Dark is not a terrible album and actually contains some great songs. Though unlike Iron Maiden's previous releases that are in my opinion 100% excellent with every track pulling its weight and no filler, this one seems a bit too average and had a bit of filler.

Lets start with the musicianship. Each member of the band plays well on this album. Bruce Dickinson's vocals are a bit more gritty on this album than most people are used to. They are comparable to his singing on the previous album, No Prayer for the Dying. The bass of course is great, for it is Steve Harris playing. Nicko McBrain's drumming is good as usual. The guitar playing of Dave Murray and Janik Gers is quite good actually, and Janik's guitar solos are one of the highlights of the album.

Before I start the track by track rundown, I want to say that a mediocre song from this band is great when compared to other songs from other bands, but this album didn't live up to usual Maiden spectacularity.

The first track, "Be Quick or be Dead", is a heavy, fast-paced opener that is almost a bit thrashy. It isn't the usual Maiden, but it is still a great song and shouldn't be ignored. "From Here to Eternity", the second track, finishes up the story of "Charlotte the Harlot" that began on their debut album. This one is alright and some may deem it a classic. It is enjoyable, though had more of a rock feel than it does Maiden epicness. "Afraid to Shoot Strangers" is absolutely great. Great music, lyrics, everything, and is a highlight of the album. It has great melodic riffs. There is a live Blaze Bayley version as well that is also pretty good, if not better. "Fear is the Key" is where many would say the filler starts. The beginning of the song is cool, but it changes to a cheesy rock-ish riff. The song has some good parts and isn't terrible and I don't always skip it on my iPod. The next track is a very different song compared to most in the bands repertoire. "Childhood's End" is, in my opinion, an excellent song, though some may disagree. The song has emotion that can really be felt during the chorus which has interesting drumming. Give it a chance. "Wasting Love" is met with a lot of disappointment as many deem it Iron Maiden's power ballad, and they aren't exactly wrong. But just because a song is mellow doesn't mean it is bad. It isn't glammy Poison bullshit, so give it a chance. You may like it.

"The Fugitive" is filler because of the lyrics. The song isn't bad. Actually it's rather catchy, but the lyrics are too generic and simple for Iron Maiden and left me disappointed. "Chains of Misery" is just okay as the chorus and riff is a bit cheesy. You can call it filler, but it isn't terrible. "The Apparition" is filler. They should have just cut it from the album and the total length would have still been enough and the album would be better overall. "Judas be my Guide" is AWESOME and is a hugely underrated Iron Maiden song with a badass chorus and harmonizing guitar riff with plenty of emotion. It's hard not to sing along. It is classic Maiden greatness. "Weekend Warrior" is filler. I mean, look at the title. Does that sound like Iron Maiden? Skip it and skip some disappointment. Now we get to the title track, "Fear of the Dark". It is a definite Maiden anthem and I don't think the band has played a concert and not played this since it was written. I'm sure you've heard it 'cause it's pretty awesome.

If they had simply cut 2 or 3 of the filler tracks from this album and left it at 9 tracks, this album could be great overall, but the few filler tracks are just unnecessary and detract from the album's overall rating. If you are new to Iron Maiden, don't start with this album. If you already like the band and are familiar with their work, this album is still enjoyably good and you should go ahead and get it.

Filler be damned, but even the mightiest get caught up with such deception. Fear Of The Dark could have been a well-thought out follow-up to the mundane No Prayer For The Dying, even though it still wouldn’t live up to the previous ‘80s flock. That’s a hard family to stick with because heavy metal calls upon them like superheroes. For the ‘90s flock, Maiden sort of crept under the radar instead of going out with a blaze (uh oh) of fury, but Fear Of The Dark proves that the band at least attempted to bring back some of that glory. At heart, the band still had it in them, but it was one wasted bullet that turned into a wasted album.

Unlike No Prayer For The Dying, some good songs shine on amidst the clutter of bad ones. The bar has been raised a centimeter, thankfully, but we’re still a far ways away from “Caught Somewhere In Time” or “Die With Your Boots On,” which is an understandable disappointment. More or less, I was expecting another offering in the same ballpark as No Prayer For The Dying, and new listeners should expect the same to save themselves from utter dismay. The main difference is that when throwing this album in the garbage, there’s a hint of legacy – you can take something away from this that you can look back on and cherish. For me, it was the title track, though for you it’ll probably be something else as well.

Production wise the band sticks to the dry, stock job that excels in mixing and then-modern power, but lacks certain character and style. This can become a love / hate deal between listeners since such production benefits the instruments but detracts from the music in certain ways (atmosphere, for instance). I’d expect the band to notice this and create what they can using the trademark Maiden ambition, but instead they opt to go for flaccid heavy metal (read: rock) tunes that make up the majority of this album. Some of them pass the mark for a number of reasons – amusement, energy, harmonies, riffs, vocals (advice: pick one) – but this album is basically a bunch of copper and a piece of gold in a cove of shit.

You get the Beavis & Butthead-lambasted “From Here To Eternity” (a poppy hard rock jingle), the harmony-driven brooder “Afraid To Shoot Strangers,” the grim “Childhood’s End,” the poignant “Wasting Love,” and the epic monster of a title track to seal the deal. These tracks to me make up the true spirit of Fear Of The Dark; everything else gets in the way with their suckage. This makes five good tracks scattered with seven mediocre-to-lame tracks in a whopping kiddy pool of twelve tracks, which is not the kind of album anyone wants to be stuck in. Between these tracks, Steve Harris is able to make one last stand; it’s a desperate attempt and the organization isn’t better than No Prayer For The Dying, but it serves as a ray of hope for the rest of the band to follow suit. Like the previous album, there are bits and pieces – riffs, verses, solos, etc. – that reside in fractured songs… songs that are butchered by the band in more than one way.

First up is Dickinson, who by this point I’m assuming gave less than a shit. We all know his vocals – those well-known wails burned like stomach fuel and launched like a rainbow in the dark – yet only one track really nails it down. This would be the title track, where Dickinson lurches during the calm intro and initiates tremendous howls of fervent emotion as the song progresses. With “Wasting Love” (for this album) I can bear to hear his soft croons as he delicately cries and moans passionately; each line of the verse is met with flurrying acoustics before the excitement overcomes the listener. Both these songs mark the high points of the album, with the title track being the fluctuated opus penned by an incredibly melodious main riff while the latter serves as the ballad (at most) to show us what the band really wanted.

Hardly any other of the tracks I chose are as impactful as those two aforementioned songs, and the tracks I haven’t mentioned (the ones I’d rather feed to sharks) are too disjointed or flat-out pathetic to live up to the Maiden name. To me, the band got very lazy and decided to keep piling on one song after the other without actually fleshing any of them out. None of the other tracks are worthy because they aren’t very developed – for some shitty band, sure, but by Maiden’s standards this is a mess. The band shouldn’t have to be held to their greatest potential all the time, but there should always be a fine line to keep them from producing mediocre or lifeless songs. I’m trying to get my head around Nicko’s drum beats, which remain the only piece not completely overwhelmed by the same shallowness as the rest of the band. The guy is a comedian at heart, and the same thin hat tatters filled by buoyant snares are the route he goes to keep his kit afloat; the drum bass is still a bunch of dead fish being clubbed, though.

For the rest of the album, listeners have to defend themselves against wasted vocals, incredibly dumb lyrics, some annoying choruses, lackluster riffs, shallow harmonies, inert solos, and shadowy bass lines. Now this is spread out across seven boring, studio filler tracks that you need to put up with unless you burned your own copy with a shorter tracklist (which would be wiser than buying this if you really need a physical copy). Harris usually manages to emulate the guitar harmonies on his sovereign bass with his own licks, but here he mostly follows in their footsteps. Therefore, you’ll get everything mundane played both by guitars and by a blubbery bass, which is still nice in an “every Iron Maiden fan loves Steve Harris like a father” kind of way.

For the guitar duo, I’m not hearing a whole lot of commitment, either; it’s the kind of thing a metalhead can just tune in and notice. On the chosen tracks they mean what they play, but everything else is taken up for the sake of existence – alive, but just breathing. I wouldn’t back anything that isn’t meant to last, and that’s where the majority of Fear Of The Dark disagrees. The precise, consistent flare of the guitar tone is mostly wasted on shallow rock tunes with immobile choruses that bailed on the listener within the first lines of their shameful lyrics. Aggressiveness, class, caution, fervor, and the Maiden style show up too few and dispersed, with even fewer moments of true glory; the band gives us a lot, but unleashes very little – we get quantity over quality.

I figured this had to be better than the previous album and in the end it still seems that way. What good that came from Fear Of The Dark outdoes what good came from No Prayer For The Dying; they both are still pretty bad, though. Pick either one that’s mediocre and bad as a whole or one with crap interspersed with some good, but you’re still digging in the wrong pool. Yes, this is the kiddy section – you want the big kid’s pool, which consists of classics like Piece Of Mind, Killers, and Somewhere In Time, among others. Every decade has its own pool, and this ‘90s kiddy pool still has some crap that needs to be eradicated.

Fear of the Dark is the 9th album of UK heroes Iron Maiden, and in my opinion the best they would release in the 90s. It's one of the band's longer efforts, clocking in at nearly an hour, with a dozen tracks, most of which are at least catchy, if not entirely at the level of the previous decade. The album compensates slightly for its predecessor No Prayer for the Dying, which seemed to thrive on filler, with only a few truly memorable tracks, but Fear of the Dark too seems to take the same excess tongue lashing from fans. It's a little more rock than the previous albums, and about half the songs are laid back and accessible (this might explain some of the loathing), but I'm honestly surprised that a few of them haven't been given a little more attention through the band's set lists over the years.

This was the last album before Bruce Dickinson would split from the band and be replaced by Blaze Bayley for Maiden's most miserable albums, but this possibility was not set in stone at the time, so there is no sense of emergency or desperation here. It's just business as usual, with the same penchant for catchy guitar melodies, carefully crafted leads that never hinge on excess, busy bass that feels central to so many of their compositions, and a top shelf performance from Dickinson. And in 1992, a year in which death and black metal were still taking off, and 'alternative music' and grunge rock were the orders of the day, Fear of the Dark feels somewhat like refreshment, from a band that many people were probably tiring of as they turned towards the next shiny audio bauble. Among such shifts in trend, the album often feels like a statement that the guard will NOT be changing via metal's highly successful dignitaries...oh, what sweet irony!

"Be Quick or Be Dead" is a fine opener to the album, a fast and memorable track which recalls the uncouth power and ribaldry of something like "The Trooper" or "Aces High". Dickinson spits some of his nastier vocals, with a clipped pitch to his voice that sounds like he had just dialed the Beast's number again and was feeling slightly possessed. I enjoy the riffs, I enjoy the way the vocal echoes off in the chorus, and the verse rhythm is pure old 80s barbarity. It's followed "From Here to Eternity", which feels a little like a Dire Straits or ZZ Top track at first, with a decent hard rock kick to the verse and then another obvious chorus with backup vocals that felt a little like AC/DC. This wound up being one of the more popular tracks from the album, at least so much that Maiden would include it on live shows and albums, and I have to say that I'm somewhat less impressed by this than numerous other pieces on the album. Another of the staples is "Afraid to Shoot Strangers", which is a cooler tune with a morose intro section laden in subtle synths and flowing, catchy clean guitar melodies. It feels like a lullaby about the Gulf War gone wrong, but the chorus remains quite atmospheric due to the guitar line that weaves through it, and the track does pick up for some solid driving metal.

"Fear is the Key" has a thundering step to it that feels a lot like a rambling Zeppelin rhythm, but I personally enjoy the vocals here and the message of lost rebellion and youth. The mystical wall of melody that opens and recurs through the track is also quite nice. "Childhood's End" sadly doesn't seem based upon the fantastic Arthur C. Clarke science fiction novel, instead a lament for the poor and suffering of the world. However, it's probably my favorite track on this album, with glorious, cascading melodies that storm behind Dickinson's highly memorable chorus line (though the lyrics are rather weak). Very surprised this song did not take off and become a single or a live standard. Had "Wasting Love" come out a few years earlier, it might have run headlong against popular hard rock power ballads like "I'll Remember You", "Heaven" or "Fly to the Angels", but here it feels a little cheesy until the chords crash in.

The latter half of the album begins with "The Fugitive", an average song with some of the similar, simple and expressive chords that Maiden used to make a name for themselves in the decade prior. Not sure if the lyrics were inspired by the book or film, but alas, they're pretty weak, though the progression of the song does seem to build an urgency that might be shared by one on a run from whatever institution is narrowing in on him, and there's a cool groove buried after 3:30 where the solo begins. I found "Chains of Misery" rather amusing, for all its swagger, vocal hooks and the little guitar fills in the pre-verse and chorus. "The Apparition" seems a little too light hearted, or playful, but the riffs aren't all that bad and it has a nicely wailing solo with some melodies catapulting beneath it, alongside the bass.

"Judas Be My Guide" is a hidden gem, with excellent, flowing guitar melodies that recall the same fire that I loved about so much earlier NWOBHM, simple and blues-based and scurrying off into the night. The chorus is fantastic, not unlike something from an early Queensryche album. "Weekend Warriors" is one of the most loathed tracks on the album, an homage to football hooligans which I also felt could be about corporate paintball matches...but either way, it's acoustic opening makes it sound like a Traveling Wilbury's song, and then it rocks out like mid-80s party Priest. In fact if I close my eyes I could almost envision Halford sharing the vocals here just they did on "The One You Love to Hate". Maybe they should try it some time! The chorus is really not all that bad, and in fact this is not one of the least memorable tracks on the album, so I believe the negativity leveled at it is slightly blown out of proportion. Though believe me, the last thing I want is an Iron Maiden that sings about sporting events. The 7+ title track serves as the finale to the album, and though it's not bad either, it simply isn't one of the most striking tracks in my opinion, so naturally it becomes the one Maiden plays most in their sets and live albums. Go figure.

Fear of the Dark is nowhere near as lousy as the fans and media of the day tried to spin it, they were simply too busy with their tongues and noses up Kurt Cobain's rear to realize that it's just another Maiden album, with a bunch of good songs that, while not about to set the record straight, have a lot of appeal for me even after nearly two decades. The lyrics are among the band's weakest, and there are a few songs that could be clipped. But this is certainly stronger than No Prayer for the Dying, the humdrum X Factor or the abominable Virtual XI, and I listen with anticipation to at least half the songs every time I hearken back to it.

Highlights: Be Quick or Be Dead, Childhood's End, Chains of Misery, Judas Be My Guide

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

I never understood the musical course that Maiden took after Seventh Son. Although Seventh Son was a huge success in Europe and elsewhere, they lost fans or fan’s interest in the U.S. The raw and simplistic attack of No Prayer for the Dying appeared to be a reaction to the highly progressive and produced heavy metal created on Seventh Son. No Prayer in my opinion is the worst release in the Dickenson era. Fear of the Dark was stuck somewhere in the middle of those albums with moments of greatness, average-ness and awfulness.

The production is a ten fold improvement over the sparseness of No Prayer. It is a successful merging of the gloss of Seventh Son with the more live feeling of No Prayer. Rather than the sloppy feel to No Prayer, the production here is crisper, without seeming fake or polished. The performances themselves are not questioned even over some of the more banal material. The solos from Mr. Murray and even Mr. Gers are always a highlight.

The Great. The opener Be Quick or Be Dead is fast, catchy and short, a perfect opener. Although you can tell Bruce’s vocals are straining a bit on most of this album, it works perfectly on this aggressive song. Afraid to Shoot Strangers is a great epic that builds from a slow ballad to a great melody to an aggressive middle section then back to a more mid paced ending. Childhood’s End, a totally underrated song that builds on a cool staccato type chorus and memorable melody line. It is a very dark song both musically and lyrically. Finally the classic Fear of The Dark. What more can be said of this song that is still played frequently on live tours. The second chorus that introduces the galloping vibe is undeniable. These four songs are better than anything on No Prayer and hold up very well against most Maiden classics.

The Average. Fear is the Key, an ok song with social lyrics that fit the time Maiden was trying to live in. The song is too long and the sped up part towards the end seems awkward. It was an attempt at something different which I appreciate. The Fugitive has a great heavy beginning and catchy first verse. The chorus is a bit bland which brings things down a notch. The Apparition is half successful and kind of presages the type of riffing that was used to great success on the X Factor album. It’s not great, but not overly long and different to the entire album. Finally Judas Be My Guide is a simple and catchy song that I enjoy quite a bit, although not typical Maiden fare.

The Ugly. From Here to Eternity is probably the worst Maiden song ever released on a full length. It’s a bland dumb and unconvincing rock and roll song that has no place in their catalog, let alone as a single. Wasting Love actually vacillates between this group and the average group depending on my mood. Since the main melody line and chorus is a little weak and the song is way too long and repetitive, it’s inclusion here. Chains of Misery and Weekend Warrior are just bland, watered down rock songs. Unlike …Here to Eternity, Maiden didn’t try to convince fans these were any good, by playing them live. I do have to admit the pre chorus guitar line in Chains of Misery is pretty cool though, that however is about 12 seconds in the entire song.

One will never know what impact the impending (and probably well known) departure of Mr. Dickenson had on the song writing during this period. The ability to write great songs was still there but most of the song writing was way too average or boring. The band seemed split on whether it should embrace the progression displayed on Seventh Son, or the simplistic form of No Prayer. It took a change in singers and subsequent reunion to fully rekindle those progressive tendencies. However, the change in singers and the dark and epic follow up in The X Factor signaled a direction I was more favorable towards.

After the lackluster (to say the least) No Prayer for the Dying, Maiden returned with Fear of the Dark. While No Prayer was a 100% straight-forward album, Fear of the Dark is a bit different. Don't get me wrong, the majority of the songs of this record are also very simple and catchy, but the band attempted to create a more diverse record, with the inclusions of a ballad, Wasting Love, and some progressive numbers, in the vein of the band's past works (the title track, Afraid to Shoot Strangers). Anyways, the result was poor: this record lacks direction and, most of all, INSPIRATION.

The performances of the musicians aren't very good as well. Nicko McBrain is no longer delivering technical work, preferring to stay behind the band and play some uncreative beats, which add nothing new to the songs. Steve Harris' bass is pretty hard to hear some times and Dickinson sounds like he's trying to emulate Axl Rose or Brian Johnson, which is obviously a BAD thing. The guitar work is what saves this record from the realms of mediocrity; Gers and Murray play some good solos here and there, like the one on From Here to Eternity, and also some interesting riffs. Despite not being their best performance ever, when compared to the other's contributions, theirs is great.

The record begins, however, amazingly well with Be Quick or Be Dead, a song one million times better than the monotonous No Prayer for the Dying opener, Tailgunner; it features some very fast guitar and drum work. Hell, even Dickinson sounds great here, screaming like Halford in the beginning and with his rasping approach fitting greatly with the aggressive music. From Here to Eternity is another classic, a song that I don't understand why is so criticized by the other reviewers. Sure it sounds like AC/DC, but, hey, in the end it is catchy as hell with that awesome anthemic chorus; the solos are absolutely great too. I love the breakdown too, top notch material, no doubts. Afraid to Shoot Strangers is the last good song before the fillers intoxication, its main riff being the best Maiden ever wrote and the lyrics recalling the Seventh Son days, speaking about death and the meaning of life.

After this track ends, be prepared because you'll be intoxicated with fillers, the first one being Fear is the Key, a plodding song that clocks at five painful minutes. Wasting Love is a poor attempt at a power ballad, although the intro sounds good (I especially like the bass line). The chorus is pretty repetitive though, despite the emotional Dickinson approach. The next three tracks probably form the worst trilogy of songs ever put into CD (or vynil) and I won't talk about them, I hope you never listen to those atrocities, for your own sake.

Nevertheless, there are two more songs on the record that are worth listening: the title track and Judas be my Guide. The latter is an average rocker that compared to songs like Weekend Warrior sounds like a masterpiece. The chorus is among the best of the album and the guitar intro is very good too. About the title track, it certainly is a good song, but not the fantastic tune that many say it is. It begins very softly, with some interesting guitar lines and Dickinson singing calmly. Then it progresses to a heavier part where Bruce sings the awesome chorus. This song is no Rime of the Ancient Mariner or Powerslave, but good in its own way. If you want to listen to the best version of Fear of the Dark, it's better to pick the live one, with the crowd interaction.

Anyways, Iron Maiden absolutely were going through a bad time during the early 90's. After being criticized for the progressive approach they adopted while composing the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son album, the band tried to return to their more straight-forward period with No Prayer for the Dying, which was a big mistake, since that record is absolutely the worst ever made by this british group. Fear of the Dark is a huge step forward, there are some really good songs here, but, as I've already said, there are too many fillers and the whole listening experience is ruined because of that. It's better for you to ignore the record and create your own version of Fear of the Dark, with this tracklist:

1.Be Quick or Be Dead
2.From Here to Eternity
3.Afraid to Shoot Strangers
4.Childhood's End
5.Wasting Love
6.Judas Be My Guide
7.Fear of the Dark

Just seven tracks but, hey, why more, the record would sound much, much better if this was the chosen tracklist. Anyway, I totally understand why this album is so poor, since Maiden had already released tons of records and, you know, inspiration isn't endless! After the Fear of the Dark tour, Dickinson thankfully leaved the band and Blaize was hired for the job. Despite his low vocal range, I think that his addition in the band was very good, since he gave to the music a fresher and newer sound.
So, to summarize, this is one of the worst Maiden albums I've ever heard, but, hey, after the huge amount of classic records the act has released, the lack of creativity displayed here is understandable.

Best Moments of the CD (yes, because there are some interesting moments, after all):
-the beginning of the record - what an explosion of speed and aggression!
-the breakdown of From Here to Eternity.
-when the main heavy riff of Afraid to Shoot Strangers is played for the first time.

50 points – Some great songs, but too many fillers. It's better not to listen to this record as a whole, select those seven songs and play them, forget about the others. That's my advice (I gave a positive rating just because of the existence of some really good songs. If that tracks weren't featured on the record, I would give a rating between the 20 and 30 points).

While often associated with other parts of the largely forgettable 90s Maiden catalog, “Fear of the Dark” carries a similar sense of commercial viability to its incredibly lackluster predecessor “No Prayer for the Dying”, yet lacks a good deal of the problems the former had. The production has been cleaned up considerably, particularly the drums, and almost becomes too slick for its own good. And although the songwriting is still a considerable step down from the songwriting glory days of the late 1980s, there is actually a considerable collection of quality material on here.

Bruce’s vocals are still rough and throaty, but he makes better use of this newfound style and the music mostly conforms to it. “Be Quick or be Dead” and “Judas be my Guide” are the closest to what could be considered speed metal in the context of Maiden’s 90s sound, and between the melodic riffs and the shouted and over-the-top operatic bursts from Dickinson, a fun and memorable result is born. Likewise, slower versions of this can be heard in the arena friendly rocker “From Here to Eternity” (the 4th installment of the Charlotte the Harlot saga) and the quasi-epic film homage “The Fugitive”.

Naturally there are still some bad holdovers from the last album that worm their way into the mix, either sporting goofy lyrics, over-repeated ideas, or musical misfires. “Childhood’s End” has some solid musical ideas, but suffers from over-repetition and a halfcocked vocal delivery. Likewise, “Fear is the Key” has a solid main riff, but goes on too long and goes through an off-the-cuff tempo change with a silly sounding vocal ad lib section. “Weekend Warrior” and “The Apparition” are both decrepit outtakes from heavy metal comedy hour, their so cheesy sounding and musically comical that they induce laughter on first listen, but repeated listens might draw you to shake your head and wonder what the hell they were thinking.

But on the whole, this opus delivers some good listening material and a few classics worthy of a greatest hits compilation. If I had to pick two of the best representations of Maiden’s 90s material, they would come from this album. The title track is an obvious favorite live song; say what you will about the constant repetition and overly formulaic background music, the principle theme just never leaves you once you’ve heard it. Likewise, although the slow narrative section in the first 1/3 of the song drags on, “Afraid to Shoot Strangers” delivers one of the most dramatic interchanges of thematic material and guitar majesty to be heard circa 1992.

If you take this album all the way through, it is quite flawed and could only be qualified as good rather than great. But individually several songs on here shine like true diamonds in the rough. Although perhaps not the greatest thing that Bruce could have left us with before his 8 year hiatus, it is a strong constellation that we were left with this rather than what immediately preceded it. It is a good entry level album for a classic rock fan looking to ease his way into the NWOBHM sound, and it is worthy of, although far from equal to the 80s Iron Maiden that most have come to know and love.

I never thought I'd ever stop and say "wow, this sucks total monkey scrotum!" so many times while listening to an Iron Maiden album, but here it is anyway; proof that anything in the whole wide world is possible. Maiden were on a downward spiral after their prestigious Seventh Son, which was a masterclass, epic power/heavy metal album that managed to pack a grandiose sense of world crushing power into a mere 40 minutes or so. They released the merely average No Prayer for the Dying after that, and then hit rock bottom when they released this, their worst studio effort to date and most likely ever. Fear of the Dark isn't consistently bad, as we have a few cuts like the speedy, pugilistic "Be Quick or Be Dead", which is one of their fastest songs to date, the epic "Afraid to Shoot Strangers", the majestic "Childhood's End" and the dark, moody title track which everyone and their catatonic grandmother knows already, but just about everything else is complete and utterly worthless fecal matter that the band should've just released under a different name.

This is barely even Iron Maiden for most of its duration; instead sounding like some awful garage rock band covering them and doing a generally fucked up job of it. And that about sums it up; as half the time, this album is not even metal, leaning toward a very hard rock-ish sound on several songs here. It wouldn't be so bad if they had turned into a classy hard rock band as Slough Feg have recently done, but this is a really fucking terrible hard rock album. Dickinson's vocals are raspy and strained and too loud in the mix (although this opinion may be influenced by the fact that they're so irritating; I'm not sure), and the riffs are a groovy mishmash of half baked ideas by a band that had run out of ideas by this point. Seriously, the riffs may be there and the solos may be pretty good, but there's nothing new on display here. At all. It's just Steve Harris recycling the same old, tired ideas for one more agonizing ferris wheel ride, except this time we have some truly bad outside influences barging their ways in. The production is hollow and dirty and it basically sucks. As for the songwriting...who the fuck are you kidding? "Fear is the Key" is awful, as is "The Apparition" and "The Fugitive", all stupid, groovy exercises in boring, insipid heavy metal touched up with annoying, repetitive choruses. "Chains of Misery" and "From Here to Eternity" are listenable - if you're a fan of shallow, substance-less glam rock. "Judas Be My Guide" sounds like the band wrote it in 15 minutes without much effort put into it, and "Weekend Warrior" is bar none the worst song the band has ever written in their entire career. I could say a lot about the numerous displays of amateurish fuckery the band displays here, from the annoying, overly repetitive chorus to the idiotic, bouncy riff that chugs its way through all 5 torturous minutes of this song, but I'll just say that it sounds like a...well, I honestly can't think of an adjective insulting enough to describe this piece of trash. Ungodly bad.

So, this can be viewed as a collection of Iron Maiden's worst ideas ever, and it's really only necessary for absolute Maiden completionists and die hards. There are some surprisingly terrible, terrible songs here, the likes of which Maiden fans never would've dreamed of before this album was released, and it's puzzling - how does such a mature, sophisticated heavy metal outfit as Iron Maiden sink this low? Maybe they were just "having fun", but that's no excuse at all for how bad this is. Bad songwriting, bad vocals, bad production...this is just all around BAD. I'm done wasting time on this, so in closing, avoid this aberration and just go listen to Powerslave again.

Inconsistent. That’s the best word to describe ‘Fear Of The Dark’. After the hardrockish and far from epical ‘No Prayer For The Dying’ Iron Maiden attempted to make an album incorporating all styles they’d played so far and more. This time the production was good again. Being transparent and not too much in your face. Gers was getting used to being in the band by now and Bruce Dickinson was singing like he used to again. So far, so good.

‘Be Quick or Be Dead’ could have come straight from the ‘No Prayer…’ sessions and was a perfect speedy opener for the album. With ‘Afraid To Shoot Strangers’, ‘Fear Of The Dark’ and ‘Chilhoods End’ the band presented their fans a threesome of extremely high quality epic songs which were simply mindblowing in all facets. Unfortunately ‘Fear is The Key’, ‘The Fugitive’ and The Apparition’ were typical Iron Maiden songs yet lacked something. Kind of what you would like to call ‘fillers’. Adequate yet soon to be forgotten.

So here we have described about 58% of the album. How about the rest? That’s where it all went terribly wrong. The hideous attempt at imitating AC/DC with a hint of Golden Earing called ‘Form Hell To Eternity’ is a farce an absolutely unworthy. ‘Wasting Love’ is everything Iron Maiden opposed in the eighties: a hideous radio friendly rock love song. And it’s not even a good one! The awful singalong choruses of ‘Chains of Misery’ and ‘Weekend Warrior’ are so cheesy it’s almost impossible to describe! ‘Judas Be My Guide’ was deadly boring by the way.

Only four songs worthy of their legacy. Simple math would say:
4/12 really good songs: 33,33 points. Plus good sound and excellent performance by Dickinson = 53 points.

Fear of the Dark might just be the least consistent Maiden album to date, with a broad spectrum of song types that maintain the stylistic departure that began with No Prayer for the Dying. And yet, I find most of the songs on here catchy enough to deem it forgivable as an album. Yes, this is quite mediocre for a Maiden release, but it has enough great moments to prove that even Maiden's mediocrity is quite listenable.

One of my biggest complaints with this is that the band is pushing no boundaries. The instrumentation on this album leaves you to believe they were more focused on releasing this album than writing it, leaving a lot to be desired in the songwriting department. I'd love to put some of the blame on Janick Gers, whose playing is mediocre and his writing much less than that, but this album's weaknesses are not entirely his fault (though a lot of the riffing is reminiscent of Gers' playing on Dickinson's first solo album, aka shit). The drumming and bass are pretty standard, many of the riffs are uninspired, and Bruce sounds like half the vocalist he was on Seventh Son. Iron Maiden didn't even attempt to make this outstanding.

And yet, every song on here manages to spark my interest, if only for a moment. "Fear is the Key" and "The Apparition" are meandering, but make up for it in atmosphere and melody. Straight-forward rockers like "Be Quick or Be Dead," "Chains of Misery," and "From Here to Eternity" have just enough energy and natural catchiness to be considered solid songs. And of course, "Fear of the Dark" is an atmospheric masterpiece, with great lyrics aplenty and a powerful sense of mood. I really can't find enough fault in any song to say that I don't like it, even if some of them are really begging for disapproval.

So I consider this a good metal/hard rock release, although not necessarily a good Maiden release. Fear of the Dark is definitely the underachiever in the band's catalogue, but it performs just well enough to make the grade.

Woah, have Maiden hit rock bottom here. This is their most uninspired and random effort ever. This album has a hard rock overtone to it, check out glam rockers like ‘From Here To Eternity’ or the Bon Jovi-esque ‘Weekend Warrior’, This isn’t bad, except in Maiden’s case – it just doesn’t work especially when they can make longer, more well drawn out compositions that far outclass these songs. The album ahs some absolutely amazing songs - actually six of the albums 12 tracks are amazing. These songs are anything better than the best No Prayer could offer. The problem is the remaining
Six songs. Whereas ‘No Prayer for the Dying’ had no amazing songs but maintained a level of consistency, this release is heavily polarized. Six of the total songs totally stomp and the rest are absolute swill.

Bruce here continues the rasp style developed on ‘No Prayer’ on a few songs, on others though he adopts Bon Jovi-esque vocals (Weekend Warrior especially), then he also tries some 70’s crooning and the most common style prevalent here is the good old’ Bruce style. The guitars have definitely improved, well in 6 song that is. Dave and Janick’s solos are consistently good throught the album. Steve and Nicko still don’t play much of a part in album proceedings.

The six songs to be noted are the first three songs and ‘The Fugitive’, ‘Judas Be My Guide’ and of course, the title track.‘Be Quick Or Be Dead’ starts off the album with a bang – awesome heavy riffing to be found here. This is undoubtedly Maiden’s best opener and speed song, even better than Aces High! The monstrous riffing is combined with Bruce’s vicious snarling and rasping and with a really great chorus, great sense of melody and nice soloing – this thing comes off as nothing short of a masterpiece. Then, ‘From Here To Eternity’ is an 80’s glam-influenced track. Its very singalong and fun, another of the albums highlights. ‘Afraid To Shoot Strangers’ is a great atmospheric ballad akin to ‘Children Of The Damned’, Bruce even croons here. ‘The Fugitive’ is a nice, catchy song with Bruce doing very well on vocals and great memorable riffing to back him up. Then comes ‘Judas Be My Guide’. It’d take a damn awesome track to beat the opener – and yes, this is that damn awesome track. Bruce here snarls with passion while Dave and Gers throw out excellent dual-guitars and awesome catchy riffing. The title track is an undisputable classic and holds on well to other Maiden closers. The song starts off with a beautiful pseudo-Latin strum that really does get one kicked awake after the snoozefest of ‘Weekend Warrior’. The lyrics sound delightfully naïve and Bruce perfectly imitates a man’s phobia of the dark on vocals. The riffing here is absolutely magnificent – very very catchy. The soloing too is excellent.

The rest of the six tracks are not worth dissecting at all. They’re the songs that Maiden thought of at random just to fill in the album length as they were out of ideas. ‘Fear Is The Key’ I guess qualifies as the best among the fillers but it too is goddamn awful. Brcue sounds pathetic on vocals although the music is fine but extremely boring. ‘Wasting Love’ is the worst ballad Maiden have ever done. ‘Childhood’s End’, ‘The Aparation’, ‘Chains Of Misery’ – heck, all stuff written at random with absolutely no sense of coherency or melody in mind. ‘Weekend Warrior’ I need not mention, this one is Maiden’s most blatantly commercial song. If this would have been released as a single in place of ‘Be Quick Or Be Dead’, it would have hit #1 so fast Maiden themselves would be knocked over. The reason is simple, this one has them imitating a Bon Jovi. Check out Bruce – ‘just look at youuuu noooow’ – that’s Bon Jovi, you could almost mistake Bruce for him.

On the whole, this is Maiden’s worst album. Why they insist on keeping the fillers instead of drafting an EP of killers is beyond me. Its like adding Tabasco sauce to a plum – the entire thing (in this case, the album) ends up a mediocre mess. Download the six tracks mentioned and avoid the rest as if they were infected, this isn’t even for a die-hard Maiden fan.

Fear of the Dark, the second album without guitarist Adrian Smith and the last with Bruce Dickinson until a few years later. People have different opinions on this album, but almost everyone can agree it's nowhere near their best. I guess to put it simply: this would be quite a good album.... if it wasn't Iron Maiden.

OK, on to the argument, it definitely has some great moments, but those are mixed with equally horrible ones.

Bad points include songs such as Chains of Misery and From Here to Eternity (and I'm sure I'm missing a couple more) that have that standard 80's/90's "crowd chorus", for lack of a better term, making the songs sound like generic rock, although From Here to Eternity's chorus is almost catchy enough to be a cool song. The other problem of course is Bruce's raspy voice, which is just plain terrible compared to other albums he's been on. It's perceived by many as being obvious that Bruce just wanted out of the band.

On the other hand, you've first got Childhood's End, a song that, besides just being cool, has an awesome chorus that I myself consider very similiar to some of Dance of Death's choruses. Fear of the Dark is the most popular and well-known song on the album that has become one of the most popular live songs. This is for good reason, it creates an awesome atmosphere (that some compare to Dance of Death) and great riff(s), simply a great song and simply the gem of the album.

Overall, the album could use some Adrian Smith and no Janick Gers (Adrian's replacement). Bruce Dickinson's performance is arguably his worst of any album as well. In my and many other's opinion, this is one of the four worst Iron Maiden albums (but by no means THE worst), along with No Prayer For The Dying, X Factor and Virtual XI. Curiously, those are all of the Maiden albums from the 90's.

To put it bluntly, if you don't have Maiden's first 7 albums and their latest 2 (those are questionable be several people), you have no need to get this album.

Fear of the Dark features Bruce's last album with Maiden for a few years, which probably was a good thing as they were going steadily downhill. Then again, Brave New World is not very good either, but that's a different story.
Fear of the Dark is an awfully inconsistent album, with a few killers, some decent songs and some boring as hell fillers.
The music is more straightforward than the classic Maiden, with a definite classic 80's metal vibe, while still remaining the Maiden touch.
The guitarwork is still very melodic but not as memorable as it usually is; many riffs are quite forgettable. Though we have some really nice solos, which also them have a classic 80's metal feeling.
Bruce's vocals are much rawer than before, and sound more aggressive and somewhat hoarse, but they are still very good.
Steve's bassplaying is as usual very evident and well played, not much more to say on that matter.
And then we have the drumming, done by Nicko McBrain. Sure, he's a very fast and nice drummer, but I do prefer Clive Burr as a drummer. His drumming was always very catchy and memorable. Not to say that Nicko is a bad drummer, but Clive is one of the best.

All in all, combining all the things I've said above, they could've put out a quite excellent album of about 8 tracks. But, now there are 12 tracks on here, and there's a bunch of forced and uninspired songs that are just plain bad.

The great songs... The speedy opening track Be Quick or Be Dead, which features Bruce's most aggressive vocal work on the entire album and some damn heavy riffing and drumming. The beautiful ballad Afraid to Shoot Strangers, which features some of Maiden's most memorable and spinechilling guitar melodies ever, and one of Bruce's cleanest and most emotional vocal performances up to date. Judas Be My Guide, which just has damn catchy riffwork and an insanely powerful and memorable chorus. And of course, the title track. Memorable guitar melodies galore here! This song is amazing. The opening verses are slow and atmospheric, before it totally speeds up, and goes into the solo which was made to play live. There are loads of guitar riffs perfect for crowd singalongs.

The mediocre songs... From Here to Eternity is quite hair metal influenced, it seems. Very catchy and upbeat, and a very straightforward guitar solo. Quite nice song, but nothing remarkable. Childhood's End is a nice, melodic song with beautiful guitar riffs playing during the chorus.
The Fugitive is just a decent, midpaced track. Nothing remarkable, neither bad nor good. Chains of Misery is quite catchy, more upbeat 80's metal stuff.

The bad songs... Fear is the Key is midpaced, and just utterly boring. Until it reaches the final section, where Bruce makes a complete fool of himself. Hearing him saying, "they're telling liiies and liiies and liiiiiiiiies" in a very whiny voice hurts my ears. Wasting Love is a ballad that tries to be beautiful, but ends up quite forgettable. The Apparition... There's just one vers, and it goes on throughout the entire song except for a rather boring solo. And that vers is the worst piece of crap they've ever done. Interesting lyrics can't save this from being Maiden's possibly worst song ever. Weekend Warrior is just awkward. It's too upbeat and silly, the riffs are annoying and forgettable, blah blah blah. Basically, this song sucks.

All in all, it could be a great album, but there's too much shit on here. If they just sad down and tried really hard, they could come up with one or two more great songs to complete this album, and then they could throw away all the crap. But, what's done is done, so in an attempt to forget this failure, I'll give Powerslave a spin. Good ol' Powerslave.