26. Iron Maiden – A Matter of Life and Death (2006)Everyone who knows anything about my musical tastes also had to know that Maiden would inevitably pop up at some point on this list, but I’m sure that the choice of the album surprised a lot of people, and it surprised me as well when I did the ranking, but looking at it, I can say that this album deserved this place, and that it is also one of the best Maiden albums ever recorded.
As probably everyone could guess from the cover, this album is fucking dark. While not a concept album, war and religion are recurring themes, especially in cases where they become linked, which results in a picture that isn’t very nice to look at, but is also, ultimately, a rather honest depiction of the circumstances.
Both the lyrics and the music aren’t really that different from many other Maiden albums, but on this album they complement each other perfectly and succeed in creating a dark and haunting atmosphere in a way that no other Maiden album has as of now succeeded. The music does become a little formulaic at certain points, with more than half of the songs following the structure of a calm beginning, then the song picking up, a few solos thrown in and a calm ending again – but Maiden manage to make this work in a way that this album is never boring, but an interesting listen at all times.
A special word has to, at this point, go out to The Legacy, which is one of my favourite Maiden songs of all time and features a stunning use of the acoustic guitar, as well as some of the best lyrics that I have ever heard on a Maiden album.
This album is easily the best post-reunion album and one that manages to dwarf most of Maiden’s catalogue, while standing as an equal next to the very best albums that this band has ever released.
Recommended tracks: These Colours Don’t Run, Brighter Than A Thousand Suns, The Pilgrim, For the Greater Good of God, The Legacy
25. Praying Mantis – Forever in Time (1998)Like Iron Maiden, Praying Mantis are a band that can be classified as New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and even though they popped up around the same time like Iron Maiden and many other successful bands of this genre. They even had close ties to Iron Maiden, with Praying Mantis featuring many ex-members of Iron Maiden, like Dennis Stratton, Paul Di’Anno and Clive Burr, and yet the band never gained any global, or even any local notoriety – why?
The main reason for this is that even though Praying Mantis delivered a very successful album in 1981, whose lead single even gained quite some radio airplay back in the day, they were never able to follow up on this success, due to line-up difficulties, and their next album was only released in 1991, when no-one cared about the genre anymore, and the only place that Praying Mantis could build up any kind of fan base was Japan, which still has the biggest amount of Praying Mantis fans today.
Like many other Praying Mantis albums, Forever in Time features a new line-up in comparison to the previous album, with two new members debuting for the band on this album (Praying Mantis had never been really good at maintaining steady line-ups and there are only two albums in the history of the band that were released with the same line-up): drummer Bruce Bisland and vocalist Tony O’Hora. Guitarist Dennis Stratton, who had been a member of the band since 1990 and the two founders of the band, Tino (guitar) and Chris Troy (bass) complete the line-up for what would be one of the best melodic rock albums that have, in my humble opinion, ever been released.
Forever in Time is a departure from the band’s previous, very straight-forward and guitar-dominated melodic rock, with much more focus being on the keyboards (don’t ask me who played them – I don’t have the album here at school and information on the band is hard to find – according to Wikipedia, the band never had a keyboard player) than on previous released. Sure, the guitars are still present, but the keyboards take over nearly as much of the atmosphere as the guitars do.
The musicianship is top notch on this album, with every member of the band showing that they are no slouches, especially vocalist Tony O’Hora, who is a massive improvement over previous vocalist Gary Barden, whose voice had a very off-putting timbre to it. As typical in melodic rock, this album is full of catchy melodies and hooks, coupled with gorgeous melodies and great soloing, which isn’t the fastest that I have ever heard, but it always fits the song.
There is also the obligatory power ballad on this album, and while it is an awesome track, it is the weakest on the album, because it is a little too cheesy. The rest of the material, however, is melodic rock at its finest, and an album that every fan of the genre is certain to adore.
Recommended tracks: The Messiah, Blood of an Angel, Changes, Man Behind the Mask, The Day The Sun Turned Cold