I love it. It was a time of major changes for Iron Maiden: First change in lineup since "Piece Of Mind", and with new guitarist Janick Guers they went back to a more raw sound... It's sounds almost like their first album. Also at that point, Bruce Dickinson gave up all the high pitch wailing that makes a lot of people hate Maiden, and he went for deeper, angrier vocals. He finally reveals his sense of humour with those "Hee!Hees!".
After all those extremely successful albums, all they could do was decline, but "No Prayer For The Dying" includes their ONLY #1 HIT SINGLE "Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter". Come On... Isn't that a great song?
Once again, the people who hate this album are the music fascists who can't accept changes and would have liked another classic album with Adrian Smith on guitar... GET A LIFE!

P.S.: That new cover is rubbish. The man being strangled has been wiped away. Now Eddie isn't strangling anything. He looks like a pathetic zombie.

At the peak of their career, Iron Maiden decided, in 1990 with No prayer for the dying, to return to the roots. They were looking to recapture the sound of Killers and the Number of the beast. So they went back to shorter songs, drifting away from epics that made them famous. The result is disappointing, yet the album is not bad. The follow-up to a masterpiece like 7th son is always hard and No prayer suffered a lot from that. Also the departure of guitarist Adrian Smith who was replaced by Jannick Gers hurt the band. Gers's fast and furious style is 180 degres from Smith's style who is more of a technician.

1-Tailgunner : Very good opener. Another song that has war as the main inspiration. 8,5/10
2-Holy smoke : A critic of the televangelists. The 1st single after 7th son. The sound and the structure of the song are very "basic". A tough start. 7/10
3-No prayer for the dying : A very nice song with a great riff that followed the chorus. Should be more recognized. 9 /10

4-Public enema number one : With a better chorus it could have been a very good song. 7,5/10
5-Fates warning : Same as above with a slow intro that you wonder what it's doing. 7/10
6-The assassin : The killers of the 90's. Entertaining. 8,5/10
7-Run silent, run deep : Overall, the voice of Bruce Dickinson on the album is very average. On this song he's pushing a bit more. Good chorus for an OK song. 8/10
8-Hooks in you : The continuing story of Charlotte the harlot. It should have ended at the 22, Acacia Avenue. 7/10
9-Bring your daughter...to the slaughter : Originally performed and written by Bruce Dickinson on the OST of Nightmare on Elm Street 5, this song was re-done by Maiden. Was it because of a lack of material or just to please Dickinson who was aiming at a solo career ? Anyway, this a very good catchy song but it is not Iron Maiden ! It should have stayed a Bruce Dickinson solo song, even though it's the only Maiden song that reached the #1 chart position in the UK. 7/10
10-Mother Russia : A try to end the album on an epic. It fails, it's a very cheap version of Alexander the great. It's not an epic. 7/10

The album was a big disappointment and was the first step into the 90's who were very tough for Iron Maiden. The departure of Adrian Smith was the first step of many changes that would mark the history of Iron Maiden over the next 10 years. It's not a bad album but there are no classics. Some songs are very good while the others are just average.

I was 10 when this album came out, my brother and I put the c.d. on, we thought, wow, what a good rocker album. As i grew older, i realised what a difference in sound from SSOASS to no prayer. In fact, i heard that the change in sound was the reason (or at least one of) that adrian smith (guitarist----for non fans) had left the band. I guess that is my greatest complaint with this album. the sound is not good at all. with SSOASS, maiden hit their peak with that beautiful sound and on this album, first song we see is holy smoke. ok song but the sound sounds real sloppy. I do like quite a few songs on this album and i still don't understand why maiden refuse to play some songs from this album. give it a chance, it is definately not ssoass part 2. sound is different and writing is different too but it is a solid rocker album