No prayer for the dying
| No prayer for the dying | ||||
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Studio album by 
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Publication |
October 1, 1990 |
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admission |
June - September 1990 |
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| Label (s) | EMI | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP, MC |
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Title (number) |
10 |
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running time |
43:57 |
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Studio (s) |
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No Prayer for the Dying (English for: " No prayer for the dying ") is the eighth studio album by the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden . The album was released on October 1, 1990 by EMI .
Emergence
Guitarist Adrian Smith resigned from the band in the run-up to the album. Smith said he would no longer be one hundred percent with the band. Smith still worked on the song Hooks In You . He was replaced by Janick Gers , who had already worked on Bruce Dickinson's solo album, Tattoed Millionaire , which was released just months before No Prayer for the Dying . The keyboardist Michael Kenney was hired as a guest musician .
The album should go more in the earlier direction of Iron Maiden, less bombast, no complicated song structures and no complex production.
" The idea was to try and strip the band's sound down and go for an album that sounded almost as if it was recorded live on stage. We felt we'd gone pretty far in one direction with the two previous albums and now we wanted to go completely the other way. "
The album was recorded “live” in the Rolling Stones mobile studio . The studio was built on Steve Harris' property. It was the first Iron Maiden album since The Number of the Beast , which was recorded in England. As with the previous albums, the producer was Martin Birch.
The no-prayer-on-the-road tour, which was a bit different from the bombast and special effects of previous tours, also went well with the album's “back-to-the-roots” concept . The opening act played Wolfsbane (of which they recorded two albums later, the singer Blaze Bayley took over), anthrax and King's X .
Music genre
All songs are kept relatively short. To date, No Prayer for the Dying is the only Maiden album that does not contain a song that lasts longer than six minutes. After the progressive previous works Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son , No Prayer for the Dying sounds much more earthy and is more reminiscent of the band's early works. Dickinson experiments on the album with a different singing style. His voice sounds rougher and a little scratchy. The synthesizer passages have moved into the background.
Track list
- Tailgunner (Bruce Dickinson, Steve Harris) - 4:15
- Holy Smoke (Bruce Dickinson, Steve Harris) - 3:49
- No Prayer for the Dying (Steve Harris) - 4:23
- Public Enema Number One (Bruce Dickinson, Dave Murray) - 4:13
- Fates Warning (Steve Harris, Dave Murray) - 4:12
- The Assassin (Steve Harris) - 4:35
- Run Silent Run Deep (Bruce Dickinson, Steve Harris) - 4:35
- Hooks in You (Bruce Dickinson, Adrian Smith) - 4:08
- Bring Your Daughter ... to the Slaughter (Bruce Dickinson) - 4:45
- Mother Russia (Steve Harris) - 5:32
Song information
- Tailgunner is one of Iron Maiden's signature war songs and, like Aces High, is a song about dogfights. The song is about the bombing of Dresden during World War II and the dropping of the atomic bomb " Little Boy " by the B-29 - bomber " Enola Gay " over Hiroshima . Both the suffering of the civilian population and that of the pilots are treated. In the song itself, the Fokker aircraft is mentioned, which, however, was rarely used by Germany during World War II. With Tail-End Charlie Charles Cooper is meant a so-called ace was and became blind after an explosion of a German bomb 1,941th
- Holy Smoke is about television preachers . They are attested in the text hypocrisy and greed.
- The Assassin is written from the perspective of a hit man .
- Run Silent, Run Deep was inspired by the novel or film of the same name (German title: U 23 - Tödliche Tiefen ). It's about the Pacific Submarine War in World War II.
- Hooks in You is another title in the Charlotte the Harlot series that started with the debut album and was continued at 22, Acacia Avenue from The Number of the Beast album. The song is about a woman who does not want or can not have sexual intercourse with her partner.
- Bring Your Daughter ... To the Slaughter was already released on the soundtrack for the film Nightmare on Elm Street 5 - Das Trauma , although not by Iron Maiden, but by Bruce Dickinson solo, at that time with Janick Gers on guitar . The song is about the first menstruation and defloration of a girl and was inspired by the poem To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell .
- Mother Russia deals with the collapse of the Soviet Union after the political changes in the early 1990s.
Single releases
Holy Smoke
Holy Smoke was released as a single on September 10, 1990. Two cover versions were chosen as the B-side . All In Your Mind comes from the British band Stray (band) . Kill Me Ce Soir is from Golden Earring . The single was released as a 12-inch maxi with poster and as a limited picture disc . It reached # 3 on the UK charts.
- Holy Smoke (Steve Harris, Bruce Dickinson) - 3:50
- All In Your Mind (Bromham) - 4:31
- Kill Me Ce Soir (Kooymans, Hay, Fenton) - 6:17
Bring Your Daughter ... to the Slaughter
The cover of the single shows band mascot Eddie with a woman in a red dress. A nightclub in the background is called Paradise Club , which was also the name of a British television series. In episode 17 of the series, Bruce Dickinson appeared as guitarist and singer Jake Skinner. In the nightclub, according to the poster at the entrance, alongside Iron Maiden, Genghis Khan , Charlotte and the Harlots , 999 and the Inverted Morons and Ron Maiden and the Dixie Chickens will perform . Two cover songs were released as B-side, this time I'm a Mover by Free and Communication Breakdown by Led Zeppelin . The single was released on Christmas Eve 1990 and rose to number one on the British charts due to massive pre-orders. It is the band's only number one hit to date. One seven-inch, limited to 500 pieces, contained an incised autograph, another seven-inch came as a “Brain Pack” picture disc and a 12-inch version had a calendar attached.
- Bring Your Daughter ... to the Slaughter ( Bruce Dickinson ) - 4:45
- I'm a Mover (Fraser, Rodgers) - 3:21
- Communication Breakdown (Page, Jones, Bonham) - 2:41
reception
The album is considered by many Maiden fans as the worst Iron Maiden album with Bruce Dickinson on the microphone. For the first time in their career, the band had to take major criticism from the media and fans. Despite all the criticism, the album sold very well and became the band's last gold album in the USA for a long time .
Individual evidence
- ↑ No Prayer for the Dying ( Memento from October 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000204748
- ↑ No Prayer for the Dying ( Memento from April 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097981/soundtrack
- ↑ a b http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2931
- ↑ http://everyhit.com/
- ↑ Bring Your Daughter ( Memento of April 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive )