EMI
Alexander the Great wept because there were no more worlds to conquer. And after 30 years 80 million albums sold and more than 2000 live performances the same could be said of Albion’s prodigal sons Iron Maiden. Braving The Final Frontier for their 15th studio outing these career musicians have done a better job of preserving themselves than the majority of their peers.
Impossible to judge without referencing the band’s awe-inspiring back catalogue and its multi-generational army of adherents Frontier is a boundless yet masterfully controlled 77-minute juggernaut. Calling on the classic mercurial Maiden recipe of guitars guitars and more guitars the album overflows with ebullient positivity. Undeniably hooky riffs give vocalist Bruce “Air Raid Siren” Dickinson plenty of room to weave his four octave Neo-Arthurian sagas on epic cuts such as “The Talisman” “Starblind” and “The Alchemist.” Likewise guitarists Steve Harris and Adrian Smith — heroes of human endurance — embrace their global audience by layering in exotic Middle Eastern sophistication on “Isle of Avalon. ” Four years in the making this one’s for the fans: It requires careful listening. But the diehards will oblige.
