I think Fear Of The Dark is MUCH stronger than No Prayer.
What I DO like about No Prayer is:
The Title Track….A Top 15 Maiden song for me. Outstanding!
Public Enema Number One- A great song even with its horrid title
Run Silent Run Deep- One of my favorite choruses and a great “mosh” part. The verses are just OK.
Fates Warning- Great vocal melody in the verses
The Assasin- Hey, I like it!
Kill Me Ce Soir- A Top 5 B side!
What I don’t like about it is:
Hooks In You...WTF is this?
Mother Russia..ditto
BYDTTS…musically a great song, but the chorus is just queer.
A distinct lack of Adrian Smith. Bruce still sounds like he’s in Tattooed Millionaire land, as the album just lacks a certain seriousness that is typically prevalent on a Maiden album.
Holy Smoke and Tailgunner are both extremely average in my book. The stripped down sound just does not fit Maiden, and is one of the same problems that they ran into on The X Factor and Vitrual IX.
I will say, that the No Prayer tour was freaking awesome. The stripped down stage definitely worked for them, like playing a huge club show. It’s one of my favorite tours by them (hell, they’re all great!). I loved how they played 22 Acacia Avenue and Hallowed Be Thy Name so early in the set, and Jannick’s energy really had a profound influence on the band, especially Dave.
As far as Fear Of The Dark goes, it definitely suffers from trying to cram so much on a CD. It’s 3 or 4 songs too long, but it’s top 7 songs are very strong. Very strong.
Be Quick Or Be Dead
Afraid To Shoot Strangers
Fear Is The Key
Childhood’s End
Wasting Love
The Fugitive
Fear Of The Dark
This album just sounds much more put together, although there are some inferior songs included, but I’d take the top 7 songs from Fear Of The Dark, and put them up against the top 7 from most of their albums. I can tell you, living through it was that I was very relieved when Fear came out, because it was like, OK, now Maiden’s back!