From Fear to Eternity

From Fear to Eternity: The Best of 1990-2010 is the latest release by heavy metal pioneers Iron Maiden. It is a compilation of the band’s greatest hits from the last 20 years. It encompasses the early '90s, when the band was going through significant musical changes, as well as the Blaze Bayley era, and the more recent reunion albums with singer Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith.

I was never exposed much to Iron Maiden, until a few years ago when I was able to make it to one of their concerts during their "Somewhere Back In Time World Tour." I left the concert blown away by the stunning live performance given by the band. Everything from Bruce’s wailing vocals to Steve Harris’ masterful bass playing was unlike anything I had ever seen at a concert before.

Though that concert tour was focused on the band’s hits from the 1980’s, it is what opened the door for me to listen to more material they have put out from the last 20 years.

From Fear to Eternity is an excellent compilation that any metal fan, young or old, should add to their collection. From the more mainstream tracks to the highly underrated, Iron Maiden did an excellent job with the range of songs that were selected.

There are epic songs such as the Blaze-era classic “The Clansman” and the World War I epic “Paschendale,” but there are several quick, riff-heavy songs such as “Rainmaker” and “Holy Smoke” for the fans who simply don’t have the patience to sit through an eight minute song from start to finish.

The newest Iron Maiden album The Final Frontier, also manages to place 3 songs on the compilation as well, including the Grammy award-winning single “El Dorado.”

The album also has several songs that are perennial live favorites such as “The Wicker Man” and of course, “Fear of the Dark”. Many of the songs have been included on the band’s recent world tour, such as the epic “Dance of Death,” the new single, “Coming Home,” and the title track from the first reunion lineup album, “Brave New World."

Despite being a great collection of songs that well-represent the band and its achievements, the album is somewhat lacking in some areas. Depending on your personal tastes, you might not like the fact that any songs from the two Blaze Bayley albums are replaced by live versions performed by Bruce Dickinson from other releases. Personally, I loved Blaze’s vocal work and was disappointed to see that his two albums with the band were overlooked, except for the few songs that Iron Maiden still occasionally plays since he left.

This album also seems to be missing that key feature that "Best Of" albums seem to have, an incentive to spend the money on a group of songs that fans of the band already probably have. There are no new songs that Iron Maiden wrote for this album as a special bonus, in the way that they wrote “Virus” for Best of the Beast.

Overall, this is a great compilation of hits from the 1990’s, and fans of Iron Maiden should definitely add it to their collection. With 23 songs picked from eight different studio releases, Iron Maiden did the best that they could to pick the right songs to attract new listeners, and keep the older ones happy. Though there are a few songs I’d rather have seen make the cut that didn’t, when a band has so many songs to choose from of high quality, it is really hard to go wrong with any combination.

For people who prefer compilation albums, prefer Bruce’s vocals to those of Blaze Bayley or Paul Di’Anno, or for people who stopped giving the band a listen during the changes of the 1990’s, I highly recommend that you give this album a listen.