It's not just you kavoo...
I too have been a huge fan since hearing Run To The Hills at 8:45am on the school bus around February 1982. They were phenomenal and so prolific with their run of album / tour / album / tour for a continuous half-decade wherein they just got better and better with each step... but then, after Seventh Son, it just stopped. Burn out..? No more riffs..? Lost the innocence and sheer hunger..? Who knows, but of course, when you're constantly climbing, there's only one way to go when you reach the peak...
I so wanted to find something to like in the new album, but my thoughts are just like yours... disappointed. Bruce is hard to listen to. Again, he was exceptional. Listen to anything on Number Of The Beast and his vocal performance is truly awesome - he's a million miles from that now and it's not an unfair criticism or claim that I could ever get close to doing what he has, it's just how it is.
Conversely, I watched the every episode of this documentary on YouTube the other evening and absolutely loved every moment! Whether that's just rose-tinted glasses or what I don't know, but the songs, the members, the themes, the achievements - every one of them awesome!
Seeing how grounded and humble Steve Harris has always been and still remains is quite something else though. It's almost as though he really never lost that any shred of his naivety or quite knew what he clearly was driving so brilliantly. Damned shame that No Prayer started the downslope, but it was inevitable I guess
All the same, "up the irons" indeed for what they were and stand for...