After almost a decade with Capitol, Iron Maiden joined Epic with its first album of the 1990s, the Martin Burch-produced No Prayer for the Dying. The synthesizers and keyboards of Somewhere In Time and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son were gone, and the headbangers tended to favor a more direct, straightforward type of aggression this time around. Although not in a class with early albums like The Number of the Beast, Prayer is an impressive CD that has its share of assets. Bruce Dickenson (who debuted as a solo artist in 1990 with Tattooed Millionaire) is consistently spirited, and the writing is undeniably solid on such gothic scorchers as "Fates Warning," "Tailgunner" and "Run Silent, Run Deep." Some of the song titles are rather amusing, including "Public Enema Number One" and "Bring Your Daughter...To the Slaughter." For those who had followed Maiden from the beginning, Prayer demonstrated that these masters of fantasy metal could still excite.