No Guilty Pleasures #5: Iron Maiden's 'No Prayer For The Dying'
Friday, 27 February 2015
Written by Alec Chillingworth
I fucking love Iron Maiden. They are the quintessential metal band: epic tales of Byronic scope, dual-guitar harmonies and, of course, Bruce Dickinson's immortal Air Raid Siren operatics. For good measure and back-patch readiness, they also have a gigantic zombie as a mascot.
As the god-like Dickinson recovers after a bout of chemotherapy – everyone in the entire world sends their best, mate – Maiden fans have continued to religiously listen to the band’s sprawling back catalougue. But there's still little love for 'No Prayer For The Dying'. This is a problem.
Despite being recorded in a barn and featuring putter-of-his-leg-on-things JanickGers in place of Adrian Smith, 'No Prayer For The Dying' deserves more kudos than it reaps. Largely stripped of the bombastic synthesisers prominent on 'Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son' and 'Somewhere In Time', Maiden's eighth full-length is grittier than a copy of Trainspotting covered in grit.
Tailgunner, Holy Smoke and Public Enema Number One all boast spiteful snarls interspersed with Dickinson’s usual wails, laying down the foundations for Be Quick Or Be Dead on 'Fear Of The Dark'. His vibrato on the chorus of Run Silent Run Deep, too, is nothing short of epic, doubling up with an incredibly sexy guitar solo to hark back to 'Powerslave' levels of grandiosity.
As always, Steve Harris' basslines are more recognisable than your own mum's voice, bringing extra stomp to re-recorded Dickinson ditty Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter: a single so perversely nasty that the BBC ignored it while it clawed its way to the #1 spot on the UK singles chart. Rage Against The Machine, eat your little hearts out.
And then we have the beast that is Mother Russia. Put simply, this is the album's Alexander The Great or Hallowed Be Thy Name. It's ridiculous. Straight from the Gers/Dave Murray twin-guitar attack to Nicko McBrain's most commanding spell on the drums to date, it's an overlooked masterpiece in the Maiden canon. Just listen to it. It's glorious.
Granted, the album isn't without its pitfalls. Some may find Fates Warning, and, come to think of it, Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter a tad too cheesy to stomach, but we don't want to associate with those people. They're no fun.
Ultimately, Iron Maiden are yet to release a dud album with Bruce at the helm. They are the greatest metal band on the planet, even when they’re following up a genuine classic with a hard rock album recorded in a barn. Fuck cancer, up the Irons and have a lovely day.
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