Imagine being charged with the task of picking out the best Iron Maiden tracks from the last twenty years, narrowing them down to a couple dozen. The first thing you would probably do is toss aside the two albums that featured Blaze Bayley, the singer who took what was left of the fractured band after Bruce Dickinson left and promptly drove it into the ditch. That would leave you with being able to select two or 3 cuts each from 2 decades worth of studio albums (with Dickinson back at the helm) to fill out your compilation. And that's exactly what's been done here; "No More Lies," "Paschendale" and the title cut are lifted from Dance of Death, "El Dorado," "Coming Home" and "When the Wild Wind Blows" are taken from last year's surprise hit The Final Frontier, and so on.
The Bayley era is represented but Bayley isn't; several live cuts, including a ten minute take on the Steve Harris-penned "Sign of the Cross" made the cut but they're taken from the Rock in Rio show that featured Dickinson on vocals.
Of course cuts like the Top-10 hit "The Wicker Man" and the delightfully creepy "Bring Your Daughter
To the Slaughter" are included but it'll remain to be seen if this collection will please Maiden's somewhat persnickety fan base.
For sure though From Fear to Eternity is a great chance to catch up for old fans who haven't updated their collection since Powerslave, especially considering that this generous sampler can be picked up for around ten bucks.
