THE FINAL FRONTIER

Iron Maiden continues its 21st century winning strek with The Final Frontier, what will certainly go down as one of the most ambitious and artistic albums of the band's monolithic career. This record is filled with relentless-- and lengthy-- showcases of the band's always excellent brand of metal, showcasing peerless instrumental performances and nuanced songwriting, this time around with an even more epic sound and creative variety. The band absolutely nails this one, coming across as mature, sensative, and very heavy-metal.

The first thing fans of the group will notice is a sheer number of epic tracks on this album-- about 5 (though 7 might be closer to the truth), and they're all excellent. The compositions are first rate, as is the group's playing, which is very tight, intense, and melodic. These songs are self-contained and feel very focused, almost introverted actually. There are very few stand-up and shout choruses or iconic Maiden guitar solos which one will be likely to hear in concert: these songs have an air of craftsmenship to them not quite present in other albums. The shorter, more straight forward rockers are good, too, though they're eclipsed by the momentum and power held in tracks like "Isle of Avalon" and "Talisman". "Man Who Would Be King" features some very unique group playing during the bridge which will catch one's attention as well... just one of many new sounds Iron Maiden surprises us with with this release.

It's hard for me to chose a stand-out track, since all of them are so good, but then again, it's hard for me to say there is anything in this album which really grabbed me as strongly as their past few works. While not quite a masterpiece, Final Fronter plays like a prog-metal epic which blows away most metal albums I've heard lately with its style and effect. This is Maiden at their most progressive, most ambitious, but not quite they're most powerful. The Iron Maiden faithful will be more than pleased by the artistic direction of this most iconic of metal bands. They've come along way from "Run to the Hills"...and I am hoping their streak of excellence continues!

Songwriting: 4 Instrumental Performances: 4 Lyrics/Vocals: 4 Style/Emotion/Replay: 4