IRON MAIDEN — A Matter Of Life And Death (review)

IRON MAIDEN — A Matter Of Life And Death album cover

Album · 2006 · Heavy Metal

4/5 · 2010-08-07
Pekka

The 80s, especially from The Number of the Beast to Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is justly seen as the golden age of Iron Maiden, but many say that a new golden age began when Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith joined the band after years of absence. They are not necessarily wrong, as 2006 brought a third consecutive album of excellence from this line-up.

At 72 minutes A Matter of Life and Death is the longest Iron Maiden album to date, soon to be dropped to #2 by The Final Frontier, and it continues the progressive fashion displayed on the previous albums with most of the album classifiable as epics. In my review of The X Factor I mentioned that around that time the band began to start off their songs with long quiet intros, and on this album this method is taken to the extreme with seven of the ten songs having an intro like that. Different World is one track that jumps right into the main riff, and as an opener it's too much of a Maiden-rocker-by-numbers to make a memorable entry to the album, but the other two, The Pilgrim and Out of the Shadows are considerably better with a slower tempo and a clearer character.

But the epics is what this album's about. Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, The Longest Day, For the Greater Good of God and The Legacy are all excellent longer tracks that touch on the subjects of war and religion, as does most of the album. The first of them has some exceptional bass work from Steve Harris, and one must also mention Nicko McBrain who is one fire throughout the album with joyous fills in every corner. A far cry from Virtual XI where he probably used a kit consisting of a bass drum, a snare and the cymbals. The Legacy could use a bigger climax in the end as it is an album closer, but a very fine piece this way as well.

The long intros, that do not feel redundant at all as may be the case in some of the other songs, make The Reincarnation of Benjaming Breeg and Lord of Light deceptively long, as in their core they are quite basic songs, but what songs they are! Benjamin Breeg has an absolutely crushing riff, one of their heaviest ever, some very tasty hi-hat work by Nicko and the melodies to make this one of my favourite Maiden tracks of the new century. And Lord of Light is even better, with an ominous intro breaking into a masterful heavy metal riff and an immensely powerful vocal by Bruce Dickinson. But it is the quieter middle part that make this perhaps my favourite Dickinson vocal track in the history of Maiden. "Free your soul and let it fly, mine was caught, I couldn't try", listen to the delivery of that line. Love it, absolutely love it. Since the release of this album, every time someone has asked me for my favourite Iron Maiden song, I've always answered Stranger in a Strange Land or Lord of Light. That's how good this track is.

Some say a band is just as good as their latest album, and judging by that Iron Maiden is in an excellent form. Just a week until the release of their next one, we'll see then how they're keeping it up.