Whatever it may be,Iron Maiden has "SUCKED" for the last 25 years now(1986 Somewhere In Shit album) with only one decent album(2006). The Final Frontier is utterly a gross display of shit,its boring,and spanks of shit song writting.
This band used to crank out cult classics like Where Eagles Dare,Flash Of The Blade,The Prisoner,To tame A Land,Aces High,Wrathchild,Phantom Of The Opera...and then came the Somewhere In Shit album....sure Seventh Son was ok,and then 2006's A Matter Of Life And Death was "ok" but everything else is shit.
After Powerslave and since they wrote the Somewhere In Crap album they have "NEVER RECOVERED". There are a small percentage of fan..(a small) that like the newer Maiden just as much as the old,but not many. Thats like saying there are a small percentage of fans that like the shit Turbo album too. Same thing. Iron Maiden are the 2nd biggest disappointment in metal history with Shitallica at number one.
Speaking in general, I reckon what sometimes happens is bands develop as musicians from the early days and want to showcase this in their albums. You often hear them saying it in interviews. This seems in many cases, to result in songs becoming technical magnum opuses, or concept albums. Sometimes though it's the rawness of the earlier music which attracted a lot of people to them, many of who are not accomplished musicians ourselves and don't appreciate the "improved" direction of the newer stuff. Probably this is why after a while you get a back to their roots album.
I remember that documentary a few years ago featuring Saxon where Harvey Goldsmith the PR man was trying to basically commercialise the band sound to appeal to a new audience. The band didn't like what he had planned for them and told him it was great to get new fans, but they had fans who'd been following them for nearly 30 years to consider too.
