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Rating: Once playback is finished, the listener becomes aware of a truth about “No Prayer For The Dying”: it presents no novelty, there's an air of déjà vû throughout the album. If one excludes the evident self-plagiarism that Iron Maiden have committed, it must be said that the music generally presents gray, barren, lifeless tones, better described as "dying." The tracks have no flavor, do not stimulate, do not evoke any emotion in the soul of those who patiently commit to listening to the record, and this can be linked to the fact that the sounds have a certain, or better yet, more than a certain déjà vû feel.
The British band, after two years from their last album of original songs, “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son,” an ambitious concept album in which the synthesizer appears for the first time, releases, on October 1, 1990, the eighth studio album of their career, "No Prayer For The Dying." Perhaps it is thanks to the polemical tone of the lyrics and the title itself that “No Prayer For The Dying” gains some appeal, marking a positive point. Not that Iron Maiden had never been polemical and direct in their lyrics before, but the renewed critical approach towards the world's harshest realities, including war, imperialism, prostitution, the mind control exercised by TV, preachers, and religious propaganda in general, manages to impact and inspire trust towards an album that, if not for the lyrics, would be quite mediocre.
Ten tracks follow one another without incidents, an old heavy metal, feeling as if it has lost its luster, pleasant in its simplicity, but banal, extremely banal. If “Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son” had represented the last resort, the last decisive step of the band's golden age, to which credit is given for reviving heavy metal with the eponymous debut (Bruce Dickinson was not part of it yet), along with the coeval Judas Priest, “No Prayer For The Dying” is the album that gathers the glorious remains of an era now ended, picking excerpts here and there from the most famous songs.
Bruce and company are no longer the band they used to be, but a copy of the band that artistically faded away in '88. The intro of the title track is almost identical to the intro of “Infinite Dreams” from the aforementioned predecessor, the electric guitar phrasing of “The Assassin” over which Bruce repeats the title word four times is that of “Can I Play With Madness,” again from “Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son”... The intro of “Run Silent Run Deep” “strangely” resembles Metallica’s “One” from two years earlier, while the violent guitar proceeding that follows is very similar to that of “Powerslave,” 1984, by Iron Maiden themselves. Not even “Mother Russia,” the most articulate of the album, is saved, because the culminating musical moment, the point where the pathos takes hold, is very similar to that of “Hallowed Be Thy Name” from the renowned “The Number Of The Beast” from 1982, the first album featuring Dickinson's epic voice, replacing that of Paul Di’Anno, one of the most bewildering vocalists in heavy metal history, whose vocal range can be compared to that of an emerging heavy metal bigwig, Ian Gillan.
Summarizing and repeating what has already been said, “No Prayer For The Dying” is a banal, ordinary album, lacking a backbone: if not mediocre, definitely insufficient. It is not an album that must be listened to, but naturally, if one wants to get an idea of the transition from stars to downfall by Iron Maiden, it is highly recommended. Anyway, honor and glory to Bruce and company in good times and bad, and so it is. Up the irons!
4/10
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Tailgunner (04:15)
Trace your way back 50 years
To the glow of Dresden - blood and tears
In the black above by the cruel searchlight
Men will die and men will fight - yeah!
Who shoot who and who fired first?
Dripping death to wet the bloodthirst
No radar lock on - skin and bone
The bomber boys are going home
Chours:
Climb into the sky never wonder why - Tailgunner
you're a tailgunner
Climb into the sky never wonder why - Tailgunner
you're a tailgunner
Climb into the sky never wonder why - Tailgunner
you're a tailgunner
Climb into the sky never wonder why - Tailgunner
you're a tailgunner
Nail that Fokker kill that son
Gonna blow your guts out with my gun
The weather forecast's good for war
Colonge and Frankfurt? Have some more!
Tail end Charlie in the boiling sky
The Enola Gay was my last try
Now that this Tailguner's gone
No more bombers (just one big bomb)
Chorus:
02 Holy Smoke (03:49)
Believe in me - send no money
Died on the cross, and that ain't funny
But my so called friends they're making me a joke
They missed out what I said like I never spoke
They choose what they wanna hear - they don't tell a lie
They just leave out the truth as they're watching you die
Saving your soul by taking your money
Flies around shit, bees around honey
Holy Smoke, Holy Smoke, plenty bad preachers for
The devil to stoke
Feed 'em in feet first this is no joke
This is thirsty work making Holy Smoke
Jimmy Reptile and all his friends
Say they gonna be with you at the end
Burning records, burning books
Holy soldiers, Nazi looks
Crocodile smiles, just wait awhile
Till the TV Queen gets her make up clean
I've lived in filth, I've lived in sin
And I still smell cleaner than the shit your in
Holy Smoke, Holy Smoke, plenty bad preachers for
The devil to stoke
Feed 'em in feet first this is no joke
This is thirsty work making Holy Smoke
They ain't religious but they ain't no fools
When Noah built his Cadillac it was cool
Two by two they're still going down
And the satellite circus just left town
I think they're strange and when they're dead
They can have a Lincoln for their bed
Friend of the president - trick of the tail
Now they ain't got a prayer - 100 years in jail
Holy Smoke, Holy Smoke, plenty bad preachers for
The devil to stoke
Feed 'em in feet first this is no joke
This is thirsty work making Holy Smoke
05 Fates Warning (04:12)
Why is it some of us are destined to stay alive
And some of us are here just so that we'll die
How come the bullet hits the other guy
Do we have to try and reason why
Be it the devil or be it him
You can count on just one thing
When the time is up you'll know
Not just one power runs the show
Are we the lucky ones saved for another day
Or they the lucky ones who are taken away
Is it a hand on your shoulder from the Lord above
Or the Devil himself come to give you a shove
Be it the devil or be it him
You can count on just one thing
When the time is up you'll know
Not just one power runs the show
A volcano erupts and sweeps a town away
A hurricane devastates the cities in its way
The grief and misery for the ones that are left behind
The worst is yet to come a hell to face mankind
06 The Assassin (04:35)
Now the contracts out
They've put the word about
I'm coming after you
It's not the money I make
It's the thrill of the chase
And I'm coming after you
I watch your every move
Study the things you do
And the pattern of your ways
I watch the way you walk
I hear your telephone talk
I want to understand the way you think
chorus
Better watch out, cos I'm the Assassin,
Better watch out, better watch out
(repeat)
I'm in a cold cold sweat
I taste the smell of death
I know the moment's getting closer
And as you walk to the light
I feel my hands go tight
Excitement running through my veins
I've got you in my sights
I've got you dead to rights
The triggers waiting for my finger
I feel adrenalin rush
It's just the final touch
You can kiss your arse goodbye
chorus
08 Hooks in You (04:08)
I got the keys to view at number 22
Behind my green door there's nothing to see
Stone cold sober and sitting in silence, laid
Back and looking for symphaty
I like a girl who knows where she's bound
I don't like girls who've been hanging around
Hooks in you, hooks in me,
hooks in the ceiling
For that well hung feeling
No big deal, no big sin,
strung up on love
I got the hooks screwed in
She's tied up she can't come to the phone
You must have got your wires crossed
cos she ain't home
Knock on wood - you know i like that sound
She never could keep her feet on the ground
Right on the money got it wrapped up tight
New ideas for the decor tonight
Gonna make this house a preservation zone
Gonna set her in concrete
set her up on her own
09 Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter (04:45)
Honey its getting close to midnight
And all the myths are in town
True love and lipstick on your linen
Bite the pillow make no sound
If there's some living to be done
Before your life becomes your tomb
You'd better know that I'm the one
So unchain your back door invite me around
[Chorus]
Bring your daughter,bring your daughter to the slaughter
Let her go,let her go,let her go.
Bring your daughter,bring your daughter to the slaughter
Let her go,let her go,let her go.
Let her go
Honey its getting close to daybreak
The sun is creeping in the sky
No patent remedies for heartache
Just empty words and humble pie
So get down on your kneees honey
Assume an attitude
You just pray that I'll be waiting
Cos you know I'm coming soon
[Chorus]
Pick up your foolish pride,no going back
No where,no way,no place to hide
[solo]
Bring me your daughter, Bring me your daughter, Bring me your daughter, Bring me your daughter, Bring me your daughter, Bring me your daughter, To the slaughter.
Bring me your daughter, Bring me your daughter, Bring me your daughter, Bring me your daughter, Bring me your daughter, Bring me your daughter, To the slaughter.
Bring me your daughter, Fetch your daughter, Bring me your daughter, Fetch your daughter, Bring me your daughter, Fetch your daughter, To the slaughter.
Bring me your daughter, Fetch your daughter, Bring me your daughter, Fetch your daughter, Bring me your daughter, Fetch your daughter, To the slaughter.
[Chorus]X2
10 Mother Russia (05:32)
Mother Russia how are you sleeping
middle winter cold winds blow
from the trees the snowflakes drifting
swirling round like ghosts in the snow
Mother Russia poetry majestic
tells the time of a great empire
turning round the old man ponders
reminiscing an age gone by
Mother Russia
dance of the czars
hold up your heads
so proud of what you are
now it has come
freedom at last
turning the tides of history
and your past
Mother Russia
dance of the czars
hold up your heads
remember who you are
can you release
the anger and the grief
can you be happy
now your people are free
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Other reviews
By velvetunderground
No Prayer For The Dying is the calm after the storm!
Only the most faithful will find themselves there to visit this hidden cemetery, to bring some shy flowers to their loved ones!
By Starblazer
"No Prayer For The Dying is worthy in every respect of being part of the Iron Maiden saga."
"Mother Russia is a real masterpiece of the album: of rare beauty and evocative power."
