I have a soft spot for No Prayer. When I first discovered Maiden, there wasn't really any historical context to the albums I was listening to. I knew Dance of Death and BNW were the most recent albums, but beyond that I wasn't concerned with which albums came out when and why they sounded the way they did. So in that sense, everything was on equal ground. No Prayer was one of my favorites. I loved the raw energy and aggression as well as the graveyard vibe of the artwork and photos. Bruce's growl sounded pure evil to me, which I liked. Everything embodied what I liked about Maiden and, again no context, I felt it was closer to NOTB than anything else. On the other hand, I disliked Fear Of the Dark even back then.
Fast forward to today and while I definitely see its flaws and why many dislike it, I have to admit I'm still surprised at just how much hate it gets. I put it on about the same level as Tattooed Millionaire: decent albums for what they are but definitely a departure from what made Maiden and Bruce great. If I want to hear classic Maiden, there's plenty of that out there. If I want something different, No Prayer can sometimes be a fun departure from what I'm used to (I also feel this way about other "controversial" albums, such as Kiss Unmasked).
I hinted at it in my original post, but the MVP for me is without a doubt Dave Murray. The two best tracks are easily Public Enema and Fates Warning. If more of the album was in that vein, it'd be much more of a success IMO. Not only that, but I feel Dave really held down the fort on this album. Steve and Bruce seemed creatively lost, Janick was barely in the band at this point, and Nicko is consistently Nicko. Dave's guitar playing fits the material and his songwriting contributions make for some of the album's most memorable moments. You could definitely make the argument for him being the heart of the band, just by virtue of being there through all the ups and downs since the beginning.
Ironically, and this may be controversial, some of the weaker moments on the album are actually the title track and Mother Russia. They both seem like contrived rehashes to me. If they wanted to make something heavy and aggressive, they should've gone all out. Ditch the keyboards completely (they don't sound good on these songs) and don't worry about writing the obligatory "epic". Bruce's vocals on No Prayer just sound ridiculous to me too. I don't mind the raspy approach on the bulk of this album, but on that song in particular it just doesn't work.
Other controversial opinions: I actually like Hooks In You. I kinda agree with TAC that it seems like an obvious b-side, but I don't mind too much. The Assassin is another one that gets a lot of hate and while I don't dislike it, I'm pretty meh on it. Tailgunner is decent but another rehash. I go back and forth on Holy Smoke. It has some cool parts but is also fairly generic. The lyrics are well written but I feel Maiden were late to the subject by a couple years. Ozzy Osbourne already did a song about televangelists in 88 and Zappa had a routine about it around the same time. Of course at this point it doesn't really matter.
I used to dislike Bring Your Daughter, but I've come to appreciate it more for what it is. Run Silent Run Deep is awesome, I've heard Bruce dislikes it which seemed bizarre to me.
I'm surprised that Mosh didn't comment on them, but I gotta give it to the band for the 2 covers they chose for the Holy Smoke single; the A-side may have been pure unadulterated crap, but the 2 B-sides are among the best: All in Your Mind and Kill Me Ce Soir. I had gotten the CD single when it first came out and I remember listening to those 2 songs repeatedly. I wish more of their B-sides were of the same quality as these and the ones they did for SiT.
I've purposely avoided talking about most of the B-Sides since we will eventually get to Eddie's Archive which contains most of them. Feel free to discuss them though of course.
The only song I truly dislike and I don't care for is Hooks in You... kinda a bad last memory for Adrian to leave.
I totally agree with this. So out of left field for H in regards to Maiden it just seems a bit weird all round.
I think the riffs are pretty typical Adrian, my best guess is that Bruce twisted the song into something else once Adrian was no longer there to collaborate. I don't think Bruce totally recovered from the SIT burnout until the late 90s, a lot of what he did in between then was often just weird and aimless. When grounded by Adrian, Steve, or (later on) Roy Z, he can do some really cool stuff. But left to his own devices you got things like Hooks In You, Dive Dive Dive, and the Adventures of Lord Iffy Boatrace. He just wasn't really taking it seriously as much as before.
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