Iron Maiden
No Prayer for the Dying
EMI 1990
Why was it forgotten?
Upon its release in 1990, No Prayer for the Dying ushered in a new era for Iron Maiden – one without guitarist/songwriting contributor Adrian Smith, who helped pen such classics as “2 Minutes to Midnight,” “Wasted Years,” “Flight of Icarus,” and “22 Acacia Avenue.” Replacing him was Janick Gers, who had made himself known to Maiden fans as the guitarist on frontman Bruce Dickinson’s first solo album, Tattooed Millionaire. Adrian Smith had been long known for writing melodic, memorable hooks, and he provided a great contrast to bassist/main songwriter Steve Harris’s more epic, thundering numbers. Gers, while a great improviser and showman on the stage, was no Smith when it came to songwriting, and this album showed that Steve Harris could no longer carry the songwriting load like he did on Maiden’s earlier material.
In the U.S., Maiden’s popularity peaked with 1985’s Live After Death. Two subsequent releases, Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son were still successful enough to yield well-attended tours, but record sales had started to decline. Some fans thought the addition of synthesizers took away some of the edge that Maiden had in the older days, a thought that must have entered the band’s mind when recording No Prayer for the Dying.
Returning to the bare-bones approach of the band’s first two albums, No Prayer sounds like it was recorded live in the studio (a practice the band would actually implement later on, beginning with 2000’s Brave New World). The production is very raw and dry-sounding, and the band sounds like they are re-energized right off the bat with opening track “Tailgunner.” Another song about battles in the air during WWII, “Tailgunner” may have lyrical parallels to “Aces High,” but musically it doesn’t quite compare. Steve Harris has toned down his bass playing on this album, perhaps as a way to highlight new addition Gers’ skills, but it’s unfortunate. Following “Tailgunner” is “Holy Smoke,” a decent enough, catchy, hard rock track, that also has the misfortune of being one of the most embarrassing music videos ever assembled (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9fbaujXsb8). Taking on the ever-popular 80’s metal subject of televangelism, “Holy Smoke” mocks preachers out for your money. Truly groundbreaking stuff right here.
The title track, track 3, is where we get the first real melodic, memorable guitar line. The more I’ve listened to this album in recent years, the more I’ve liked this song. Featuring clean, laid-back verses, building to loud choruses and a great bridge/solo section, this song is a forgotten Maiden classic, if you ask me. While it doesn’t have any great vocal hooks, it has some great musical ones. Following up the title track is the worst-titled song in Iron Maiden’s history, “Public Enema Number One,” which I have to believe influenced Blink 182’s album titled Enema of the State. Opening with a by-the-books Maiden twin guitar melody, this song is much better than its title would have you believe. “Fates Warning” follows, and its opening reminds me of Piece of Mind’s “Still Life,” although it turns into a galloping rocker after about a minute. Dickinson really shows his range for the first time on the album in this song, not simply growling and gruffly singing like he does on some of the more abrasive rockers.
“The Assassin” opens well enough, with some good clean arpeggiated guitar work from Dave Murray, but by the time it gets to its ultra-cheesy chorus, (“Better watch out, cause I’m the ass-ass-in!” repeated 800 times), the song really loses steam. This song is the definition of a skipper. “Run Silent, Run Deep” opens again with clean guitar, but picks up with some decent riffing and an okay chorus. “Hooks in You” sounds like a “2 Minutes to Midnight” ripoff, with a chorus about some sort of bondage dungeon that involves hanging people from hooks. Dickinson absolutely hams this one up, “Knock on wood, you know I like that sou-wow-und!” is actually one of the lines from this song, unfortunately. Maiden always seemed to stray from writing about sex and girls (“Charlotte the Harlot” being the only real exception), so it was clear that they were lyrically running out of ideas by this point.
Speaking of running out of ideas, Steve Harris liked a song that Bruce had written for his solo band so much that he made Bruce use it for this album instead. The culprit is “Bring Your Daughter… to the Slaughter,” which was actually a bit of a hit and concert favorite for the band. Originally written for appearance on a Nightmare on Elm Street sequel, this song knows it’s cheesy and relishes in it, so there’s a certain charm to it that’s not evident on garbage like “Hooks in You.”
The album ends with the “epic” “Mother Russia,” which wouldn’t have been out of place in This Is Spinal Tap. Steve Harris has written some incredible epics – “Phantom of the Opera” being the first great Maiden epic, and “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” with its 14 awesome, interesting, captivating minutes filled with great riffs and solos – but he’s also written some stinkers (“Alexander the Great,” anybody?). “Mother Russia” is luckily only 5 and a half minutes long, but it still doesn’t compare to the great epics in the Maiden catalogue. I think the production doesn’t do a song like this any favors, as it just sounds too stripped down, no matter how many layers of guitars and keyboards they add in the middle of the song. This song is primarily instrumental following the first verse, which is good, because the song’s lyrics about the fall of communism are pretty wretched.
Should it be forgotten?
Short answer: Yes. Are there good tracks on this album? Of course, but this was the first Maiden album where the number of filler songs outweighed the good. Fear of the Dark would follow the same pattern, although its good tracks were more solid than anything on No Prayer, before the whole Blaze Bayley debacle happened in the mid-to-late 90s (if you don’t know, don’t ask). Luckily for Maiden, Smith and Dickinson would re-join in 1999 and the band would reclaim their popularity in the US touring circuit and release 3 excellent albums in the new millennium.
Recommended Tracks: “No Prayer for the Dying,” “Public Enema Number One,” “Run Silent, Run Deep,” “Bring Your Daughter… to the Slaughter”
Matt Steele
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