Their ninth album, No Prayer for the Dying, finds the guys in Iron Maiden caught once again between the monster-movie metal that helped them sell 25 million albums during the last decade and the overarranged, '70s art-rock they've always aspired to. There's a certain sick humor in ''Bring Your Daughter...to the Slaughter,'' and ''Hooks in You'' actually has a decent hook, but pseudo-epics like the preposterous ''Mother Russia'' — which asks ''Can you be happy now your people are free?'' — simply crash and burn. And even on its own shock-rock terms, a song like ''Public Enema Number One'' doesn't live up (or rather down) to its title. C+
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