The Final FrontierEMI ***

With more than 75 million albums sold, and having secured their place in the history books of heavy metal music, the Maiden were hardly going to get all dubstep or prog-trance on us. But their 15th studio album tweaks enough of their winning rifftastic formula to provide something a tad different. Opener

Satellite 15 . . .The Final Frontier

sets up the vaguely aeronautical theme of the album, as the band go heavy

on the guitar effects pedals. The single, El Dorado, which well be about the current economic recession, rollicks along with a controlled intensity: "Greed, lust and angry pride/It's the same old, same old ride/The smoke and mirrors visions that you see are just like me/I'm a banker's face, with just a letter out of place". Elsewhere, on The Alchemistand Isle of Avalon, they push a bit at their usual parameters to come up with one of their sharpest albums in many a year. See ironmaiden.com

Download tracks:The Alchemist, Satellite 15