Let's get this going again
Track title: “Judas Be My Guide”
Album: Fear of the Dark
Year: 1992
Written by: Bruce Dickinson/Dave Murray
Subject: ?
Type: Fast rocker
Length: 3:06
Familiar? Very
Rating: 9.5/10
This is more like it! Almost the penultimate track on the last album Bruce cut before heading off solo for ten years, and the last (in terms of track listing) he had any input into writing. It stands, for me anyway, head and shoulders above what has to be admitted as fairly average fare on
Fear of the Dark, showing clear evidence of the rot that had begun to set in around the time of
No Prayer For the Dying. The band were running out of ideas, rehashing old songs and generally running hard and fast but mostly getting nowhere, like a hamster in a wheel. One of the few shining stars on the last Bruce-helmed album before the new millennium, "Judas Be My Guide" gets you right away with its soaraway solo, following as it does the lacklustre "Fugitive", "Chains of Misery" (was ever a title more prophetic?) and "The Apparition".
Sadly it's followed by the piss-poor motorbike song "Weekend Warrior" (no "Wheels of Steel" or "Born to be Wild", I can tell you!) but for a brief moment there, with the title track to finish the album in fine style, you can forget how bad most of it is. Perhaps it proves that shorter songs were still the best way to go for Maiden. Bruce's voice is certainly on form here, and the boys lash out the riffs like there's no tomorrow. It also features, unlike most of the other tracks on the album (and the previous one too) a recognisable hook. You have to wonder if Bruce's angry, acerbic delivery is a statement on his disillusionment with the band? Maybe not. Great song though.