Fear of the Dark

Fear of the Dark is the ninth studio album released by Iron Maiden. Released on 11 May 1992, it was their last studio release to feature Bruce Dickinson as the group’s lead vocalist until his return in 1999, the last to feature the work of producer Martin Birch (who retired after its release), and the first album in which Steve Harris is credited as a co-producer.

The album’s musical style showed some experimentation with Be Quick or Be Dead, a fast tempo song released as the album’s first single, and Wasting Love, the group’s first power ballad, which dates back to Dickinson’s first solo album, Tattooed Millionaire. Both songs were Dickinson/Gers collaborations.

Iron Maiden had a lot of interesting and also original songwriting ideas and also a few great lyrical inspirations on this release. Other songs show a heavy metal band singing about the deadly consequences of AIDS, childhood poverty in war-ridden territories and a critical analysis of football hooliganism. The lyrical diversity, which follows the social-oriented lyrical content started with No Prayer for the Dying adds a lot to the intellectual charm of the record and shows a band that has matured and didn’t want to repeat itself.