THE FINAL FRONTIER

Iron Maiden's Final Frontier continues the "business as usual" thrust of their post-Brave New World reunion. Once again, you have a brace of compositions which suit the band's musical direction from their golden age between Number of the Beast and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, and which wouldn't embarrass any of those albums by their inclusion. (Indeed, the opening track Satellite 15 pulls off a futuristic rendition of the Maiden sound far more successfully than Somewhere In Time ever did.) Fans of the band's progressive leanings will be glad to hear them indulged here, with the songwriting centre of gravity clearly shifted towards their longer and more intricate types of song, and whilst it isn't the groundbreaking classic the very best Maiden albums were it's still a solid album that deserves a prominent place in the band's canon.