A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH

It is always very satisfying when one of my favorite bands surprises everyone with a strong album. RUSH did it with Snakes and IRON MAIDEN with this album. With a smirk, I have been reading the glowing reviews of this album by newspapers and magazines who normally hates IRON MAIDEN with passion. Does that means IRON MAIDEN changed on this album ? Not much. Their lyrics became a bit more intelligent and Mr. Dickinson started to use his God given talents in a more intelligent manner. Vocals wise, this is his best ever album.

I am so tempted to write that IRON MAIDEN finally has come of age on this album. Well, I have just written that and I mean it. Both the music and the lyrics is very mature on this album. This album is much more conservative than the pretty radical Dance Of Death. There is no revolutions here, as opposed to that album. All songs here is pretty much in the IRON MAIDEN school of metal/prog rock. Which is a good thing.

IRON MAIDEN has both refined and improved their songwriting on this album. So much that most of the songs are somewhere between prog rock and heavy metal. This without slimming down their heavy metal whatsoever. This album is in fact very heavy. It is also very monumental and very epic. Monumental, heavy and epic is in my view the cornerstones of IRON MAIDEN. Add excellent musicianship and you have a full house.

There is no really weak tracks on this album. The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg is the best track here. A truly superb IRON MAIDEN song. The average length of the songs are seven minutes plus. The album is over seventy one minutes long. The album grows and grows every time I listen to it. It is full of small details. Each band member really contributes here. In short; this album has made me proud of being an IRON MAIDEN fan. Very proud.

I personally rank this album as IRON MAIDEN's second best album, just beaten to the top of the rostrum by Powerslave.

4.5 stars