- Country: United Kingdom
- Style: Heavy metal / Progressive metal
- Label: EMI / Universal Music Enterprises
- Release date: 13 August 2010
When The Final Frontier arrived, a good part of the fanbase read the title as a farewell note. It was the band’s fifteenth studio album, the name sounded like a full stop, and nobody in the camp rushed to deny the rumours. Fifteen years on, with more records behind it, that panic looks charming. The music itself never sounded like a band packing up.
The sessions took Iron Maiden back to Compass Point Studios in Nassau, the room where Piece Of Mind and parts of Somewhere In Time were cut in the eighties. Kevin Shirley produced again, and the mixing was done in Malibu. The whole thing runs past 76 minutes, which tells you where the priorities were.
The first half is the friendlier one. “El Dorado” is a galloping, slightly sneering rocker, and it picked up a Grammy for Best Metal Performance the following February. “Coming Home” is Bruce Dickinson in full romantic mode, a big open chorus that works far better live than on paper. The opening “Satellite 15… The Final Frontier” is odd, a long, droning intro bolted onto a straightforward title song, and it still divides people.
The second half is where the record earns its keep. “The Talisman” takes its time and grows into a proper epic, while “When the Wild Wind Blows”, about eleven minutes of patient storytelling, closes the album without ever hurrying. These long pieces lean towards the progressive side that A Matter Of Life And Death had opened up, but they breathe more and repeat less than some of the sprawling songs on Dance Of Death.
Commercially it was a monster: number one in 28 countries and number 4 on the Billboard 200, their best American placing at the time. Not every minute is essential, and the three-guitar wall sometimes smooths out the edges. Still, for a band three decades past its debut, the sheer appetite here is hard to argue with. Start with the closer and work backwards.
Best tracks:
El Dorado
Coming Home
The Talisman
When the Wild Wind Blows
Author’s rating: 8.2/10
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