Iron Maiden - "Final Frontier" CD Review (EMI)

DOWNLOAD: Iron Maiden - "El Dorado" (Requires registration on IronMaiden.com)
(Note: Buzz-off RIAA weenies - This track is hosted on IronMaiden.Com)

Iron Maiden released their fifteenth studio album last month and...it sounds like an Iron Maiden album. Continuing on in the same epic, prog-rock vein as the other post-reunion albums, Final Frontier is Iron Maiden's longest album to-date (77 minutes) and most of the disc's ten tracks are in excess of seven minutes.

As reflected in the disc's cover art, many of the songs utilize science fiction themes to set the stage for stories of war, alienation and Armageddon. The album's first video (for the title track "Final Frontier") is almost something straight out of Star Wars and the song has a three+ minute industrial/tribal sounding lead-in (entitled "Satellite 15") that kicks off this disc.



The first half of this disc contains some of the more memorable songs which range from the triple guitar attack of "The Alchemist" to the galloping bass lines powering "El Dorado" and the stripped-down, reflective "Mother of Mercy" which highlight Dickenson's stellar vocals. The back-half of the disc contains the longer epic songs and the one notable song is the understated "When the Wild Wind Blows". This eleven minute Armageddon - themed epic starts with the sound of the blowing wind and builds to a crescendo around crashing guitars and Nicko McBrain's powerful drumming.

While many long-running bands have embarrassed themselves as they enter the third and fourth decade of their career (I'm specifically think of The Who and Rolling Stones and the numerous bands who continually tour without having released any new material in over a decade), Final Frontier is a solid addition to the Maiden catalogue. While I personally prefer the early Maiden albums, Final Frontier is a natural evolution of the band's sound and this disc clearly shows that the band will be relevant for years to come.

Links:
Iron Maiden

Lauren Harris: Opens for Iron Maiden Tonight at MSG + Exclusive Interview

Lauren Harris is opening Iron Maiden's Somewhere Back in Time tour and she and her band are in town this weekend for shows at PNC Arts Center and Madison Square Gardens (tonight). Lauren is touring behind her debut CD, "Calm Before The Storm", which was released earler this month. (There is a free download, Steal Your Fire, from this disc on Lauren's MySpace profile)

I had a chance to catch up with Lauren on Friday to talk about her new CD, the Maiden tour and what the last two years have been like as she has gone from playing in front of a couple dozen people at Don Hill's to playing major arenas worldwide.



Tonight's show at the Garden is sold out but there are always tickets on the street (and not all of them will be counterfeit)

Links:
Lauren Harris' Website

Paul Di'Anno (x-Iron Maiden) - Legal Music Download

Former Iron Maiden singer Paul Di'Annon has made the first two CDs from his early 90's band Killers available as a free download. Both CDs are long out of print and make for an interesting listen.

The first CD, Murder One (1992), is a logical extension of Di'Anno's Maiden and Battlezone days. The second CD, Menance to Society (1995), sees the band embracing a sound that falls somewhere between Pantera and Body Count. Menance to Society came out at a time when Di'Anno was living in Los Angeles and regularly brawling with gang members. I've read that Di'Anno wrote a good portion of this CD while in the LA County Jail. He is equal part crazed and pissed and it shows in both the music and lyrics.

Both CD are available on Paul Di'Anno's website.