389. Iron Maiden / Fear of the Dark. 1992. 3/5

How does one go about judging Fear of the Dark. On my reaction at the time of its release? Or how I feel six months after its release? Or on how I feel about it now, some 15 years later? Certainly a combination of all three would be a sensible option, but I must confess that my love of this album has reached peaks and troughs over those years.
When this album was first released, I was just excited to have a new Iron Maiden album out. I was interested to hear how Jannick Gers would contribute to the writing of the album. I was hoping for more of Seventh Son of a Seventh Son than No Prayer For The Dying. With changes going on in my life with work and girlfriends, I guess I wanted the security of another Maiden album to love.

Even on first impressions, I was confused. Sure, the rollicking opening of “Be Quick or Be Dead” and “From Here to Eternity” grabbed me from the start, and the lull into the moody “Afraid To Shoot Strangers” was also effective. However, at this point I began to wonder what album I had actually purchased. “Fear Is The Key” has a very Deep Purple mood to it, and considering that Jannick used to play in Ian Gillan’s band I guess this is understandable. Whether it fits my idea of a Maiden album is another question.
Then there is the power ballad – and dear god I never thought I’d have to use that terminology with an Iron Maiden song – “Wasting Love”. Now, I am incredibly biased on this issue, but here it is – this is AWFUL!! To me it denigrates the name of Iron Maiden. I’m sorry, this just can’t be true. It is trash, and is the low point of the album.
The second half of the album just doesn’t seem to recover. These are half arsed, B-side material songs, not the quality that you associate with this band and these writers. I guess most of them aren’t really bad songs, but you expect so much more from a band like Iron Maiden. They are just average fare – “The Apparition”, “Chains of Misery”, “The Fugitive”, the rather ordinary “Weekend Warrior” – one has to wonder how they happened to become album-worthy. “Judas Be My Guide” rates slightly above this lot, listenable without being absorbing.
Even the title track, “Fear of the Dark” has been cruelled for me. As much as I loved it when this album first came out, the vast number of times it has now been in the band’s setlist, and therefore on every live release ever since, has dulled that love. I don’t hate it, but I can do without hearing it anymore.

How much did the fact that Bruce was on the verge of leaving the band affect this album? Who can tell. When it was released I still played it as much as any other new album at the time. No doubt I was blinded by the fact that it WAS Iron Maiden, so it HAD to be great… didn’t it?

Little has changed. This is an average Iron Maiden album. My rating of it may appear high, but that works on the theory that a bad Iron Maiden album is still better than most of the albums that have been released. It’s ranking overall would leave only Virtual XI below it. That perhaps is its final damnation.

Rating: Even the most brilliant sometimes have their dull days. 3/5.