As much as I try, it nice to hear me ...

Every now and then I get "The Final Frontier" off the shelf, to hear them again, but I like it every time a piece less.
The sound is immediately unpleasant: It acts carelessly and one has the impression that the board would have somehow recorded on the fly; pretty anemic and interestingly, the songs on the live recording from Chile far more power. Even the vocals of Bruce Dickinson acts as sung in passing. Very raw, no backing vocals, and quite pressed, if not overwhelmed (just listen to the toes Nage run scooter in the chorus of 'Mother Of Mercy').

Of the songs convinced her rather the first half with the shorter songs. The title track and 'El Dorado' are beautiful straight rockers and 'Coming Home' a good, typical Bruce ballad (in the manner of 'Tears Of A Dragon'). By contrast, the second half is more than mixed. The overlong songs are not particularly conclusive and built with the overused long intros consistently bland. Here I particularly like 'Star Blind'.

In sum, I like the predecessor "A Matter Of Life And Death", which is similar, much, much better and the best record of Dickinson II era remains by far the "Brave New World" (where all the sound worlds is better).