[7] At 76 minutes and 34 seconds, it is the band's third-longest studio album to date,[8] a duration surpassed only by 2015's The Book of Souls and 2021's Senjutsu.

3, in addition to gaining the band their first Grammy Award in the Best Metal Performance category for the song "El Dorado", released as a free download on 8 June 2010.

"[19] On 2 November 2009, Janick Gers confirmed to BBC News that the band already had new material written and would head to Paris, France, to start composing and rehearsing the bulk of the new album.

"[18] After taking time off for Christmas, recording commenced in January at Compass Point Studios, Nassau, Bahamas, with Kevin Shirley producing.

[20] This was the first time the band returned to the Bahamas since they last recorded at Compass Point in the 1980s, to which Dickinson remarked: The studio had the same vibe and it was exactly as it had been in 1983, nothing had changed!

[9]After a month in Nassau, the production was moved to Malibu, California, where the songs were mixed and additional vocals were recorded.

[21] On 6 April, Shirley told Blabbermouth.net that he had completed mixing the album,[22] and commented on the final stages of its production on 6 May; "Bruce Dickinson flew in for a few days and sang all his parts before flying off to the four corners of the globe and Steve Harris stayed behind to finish the record with me.

Adrian Smith explains that, in recent years, Harris has become "more into writing lyrics and melodies and arranging" other members' tracks and only "brings in one or two songs" of his own.

[24] "El Dorado" was released as a free digital download on the band's official website on 8 June and went on to win in the Best Metal Performance category at the 2011 Grammy Awards.

[25] According to Smith, the song's lyrics, penned by Dickinson, are based on the economic recession which began in 2007 and comment on "people's expectations of a better life" and how "the rug [was] pulled out from under them" as a result of lending.

[28] In a 1 July 2010 interview with Billboard, guitarist Dave Murray commented that the album mixes "straight-ahead, uptempo rock songs with good grooves with some other tracks that are kind of longer and more complex", referring particularly to "When the Wild Wind Blows", the band's seventh longest song after "Empire of the Clouds", "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", "The Red and the Black", "The Parchment", "Hell on Earth" and "Sign of the Cross":[29] Interviewed for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on 14 July, guitarist Janick Gers discussed the album's overall sound: "We're taking it to extremes... the one song we released ["El Dorado"] isn't indicative of the rest of the album—there's so many different feels and ways of playing on the album.

[32] Classic Rock praised it as "densely layered and substantial", as well as "beautifully paced and disarmingly complex" and "a fresh take on a sound that has admirably withstood three decades of fashions and fads".

called it "a record that'll still bowl you over in a decade's time"[38] and MusicRadar stated that "Iron Maiden have created a work full of hypnotic excitement, unconventional structure and dizzying vision...the group have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

"[42] Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles called it "a thrilling and deeply satisfying glimpse into a brave new future for the people's metal band,"[43] while the BBC praised the album as "a remarkable achievement", complimenting the band for "no compromises, just complexities and challenges and more moments of brilliance than perhaps even they thought they still had left in them".

"[47] Many critics commented on where The Final Frontier rates in comparison to the band's past releases, with Consequence of Sound deeming the album "easily the best from the six-piece since 2000's Brave New World.

"[48] AllMusic agreed with this, stating, "The Final Frontier still brings Iron Maiden closer to their aesthetic legacy and triumphant year 2000 rebirth than its two predecessors.

"[33] Blabbermouth.net, on the other hand, praised it as "better than Brave New World", explaining that "this is the reason Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith rejoined the band, the fulfillment of a decade of promise, and arguably the first time that Steve Harris's post-Fear of the Dark cinematic vision has been backed up with consistently strong songwriting, spot-on production, and a fire-in-the-belly performance from the whole band".

[34] The Guardian were more critical of the release, commenting that "with four songs alone clocking in at 40 minutes, The Final Frontier becomes less an exercise in experimentation than old-fashioned endurance, and the hushed-intro-bombastic-chorus dynamic begins to grate a little".