My least favourite Maiden album...
Never could get on with this album. I thought No Prayer For The Dying was average (a shock for a Maiden fan from the old days) but this one is downright awful. I was moderately hopeful when the single of Be Quick Or Be Dead was released, but this album crushed those hopes. Some of the vocals are okay (Childhood's End) and the title track finally made some kind of sense after seeing it live...but no thanks.

standard, excellent music from Maiden
While I believe that "Somewhere in Time" was Maiden's best work, this album was full of great tunes.

In standard fashion, Maiden had the harmonized lead guitars, the awesome voicework, and non-stop energy driving this album.

While the next album with the pretender vocalist really sucked, this album was top notch and gave metal fans like me something good to listen to, as opposed to the grunge crap dominating the airwaves.

classic but changes added new things to the standard recipe.
this cd had some old school classic maiden songs on it but with a long career come challenges staying fresh and how to compare to the newer bands.maiden are survivers but not experts they tried to pick up the pace with be quick or be dead(an attempt to match up to thrash style?) not them but they do stand their groung on many song the classic fear of the dark,from her to eternity and still seam to lose groung on quite a few song (trying to expertment with new things) to boost their sales.

"Be Quick Or Be Dead!" 3 1/2 Stars
In 1990 Iron Maiden released "No Prayers For The Dying",an attemp to return to their roots which resulted in one of the band's worst album(Adrian Smith has said he left because he wasn't happy with the direction the band was taking,he did not participate in any way to it).Two years latter they return to a more traditionnal style for 1992's "Fear Of The Dark",obviously better than its predecessor.Fear Of The Dark was released without much promotion and at the time Grunge music had pretty much destroyed everything so there wasn't a lot left directionwise.Maiden still released an album true to themselves and managed to produce a few great songs with FOTD.Most fans were unhappy with the direction they took with their previous album and this one receved a better treatment from them.Fear is heavy,has the band being themselves and has some good songs and playing.

Fear would be the last album with Bruce Dickinson until 2000's "Brave New World" as he wouldn't return until 1999(Smith also rejoined with Bruce).You need to understand that there was a lot of tentions back ten in the band between Bruce and Maiden,so it was kind of Bruce versus Maiden in some ways.It's a band with a signer that they don't want there and a signer who doesn't want to be there either.It wasn't the best era of Maiden.The band would go on tour during 1992-1993,then record two live albums and Bruce would go on to make solo albums while Maiden would get a new singer,Blayze Bailey who would make two albums with them.The band wasn't fonctionning as a unit anymore it was the band in one side and Bruce in the other and let's face it,in those circumstances it is really hard to be committed at 100 % and do your best and give something great to your fans.It is also hard to pretend to your fans that everything is alright when you know inside it isn't.

The album opens with what is possibly the best song on the album,"Be Quick Or Be Dead",it is one of the classics on the album and its heavy and fast!Bruce's voice is different on this track he seems like he's posessed,some of his best singing.The following track "Hell Ain't A Bad Place" has Maiden trying to sound too much like AC/DC(should have been on Bruce's solo album),the video for this was a minor hit back then but I still don't like the song even today.Track number three "Afraid To Shoot Strangers" Is one of the shining tracks on the album.A slower paced song with some good group-chorus singing,the transition from ballad mode to heavy mode is fantasic.One of my favourites here."Fear Is The Key" has to be the darkest song on the album,im not really a fan of that one."Childhood's End" is underrated.A great track with a great feeling,Nicko does some great drumming here and the lyrics are very good,great song people."Wasting Love",a ballad,yeah for real!Pretty good at what it is too,it depends wheter or not you can handle ballads truly."The Fugitive" is excellent and underrated also,a more classic Maiden style song,not much more to say on this one."Chains Of Misery" is not one of the songs I like on the album."The Apparition",a love it or hate it song,I am in the middle."Judas Be My Guide" follows up,its pretty solid I don't have a lot to say on that one,its good."Weekend Warrior" is one of the most hated Maiden songs of the album if not ever.The title track "Fear Of The Dark" closes the album,it is amongst the best tracks of the album and is runner up for THE best one.Slow at first then it gets heavy and Bruce shines here,great chorus too.

Overral "Fear Of The Dark" is not their most classic and memorable album but it does have some classic songs that are really good and worth checking out.If you are a fan you should get this as a portion of the album at least will please you.Not the best but not the worst,if you are new to the band this isn't the first album you should get.Fear shouldn't be skipped it has some gems on it that you WANT to hear!I have their albums and this is pretty goof in my opinion,far from their best but better than some of the other stuff they did.You might want to hear the album before you buy it.I give it a three and a half stars rating,the highpoints aren't enough to cover all the lows.They should have cut out a few songs and remained with the usual 8-10 songs.Worth checking out!

2.5 stars- Iron who?
Back in 1989, Adrian Smith left the band and Janick Gers replaced, and in 1990, Maiden released the tad dissapointing but enjoyable nonetheless "No Prayer For The Dying" which got a backlash from the fans.

1992, Maiden released "Fear of the Dark". Ths is the second album minus Smith, and still got backlashed from the fans. Personally, I think No Prayer grows on you after 2 listens, this takes many.

BE QUICK OR BE DEAD: THe fast paced opener, very awesome and borderline Speed-metal.
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY: Not bad, but kind of an ACDC ripoff.
AFRAID TO SHOOT STRANGERS: An amazing song that starts off slow then gets fast then ends slow.
FEAR IS THE KEY- lol wut?
CHILDHOOD'S END- Classic Maiden track.
WASTING LOVE- Pretty good by Maiden ballad standards. I never have been a fan of their ballads, but for ballads, this takes the cake. Not a fan of the "Chilliwack Guitar", though.
THE FUGITIVE- Meh.
CHAINS OF MISERY- Another one to be tossed.
THE APPARITION- Most Maiden fans hate this, while I think it's not bad. It's not "Aces High" or "Mother Russia", but it's good. Sounds more like Savatage (a band I REALLY hate) than Maiden though.
JUDAS BE MY GUIDE- Wow, return of the stinkers!!!!!!
WEEKEND WARRIOR- Okay, people who suck Golden Yars and Synth Maiden's pen0r, why do you hate this? It's not a typicalMaiden song, but it has meaning. I like it, and you can't take that away from me.
FEAR OF THE DARK- The must play at concerts. Great song, sounds amazing live though.

This is not bad, only reccomended for die hards though. Reccomended if you're a fan, though!