A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH

Yeah . Iron Maiden is back now with new album (2006) : "A Matter of Life and Death". As the CD is produced locally at my country, I purchased the Cd at first release couple of weeks ago. This fact proves that there are many die hard fans of Iron Maiden. I have seen it with my own eyes when i-Rock! conducted regular jamming session, on last month event there was band that covered Iron Maiden who really burnt the venue! I myself not a die-hard fan but I can enjoy most of Iron Maiden's music.

For me personally, this is an excellent album where the roots of Iron Maiden's music in 80s can be heard from this album. Most tracks are written beautifully in practically straight forward rock music with triple guitars. Most tracks were written by Steve Harris and co-written with Bruce Dickinson, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers. The music flows excellently to my ears from the opening track "Different World" (straight rock) to "These Colours Don't Run" (rock with quite dynamic style) and then to the rest of tracks. I especially enjoy the triple guitar work the band offers here.

One track that can be considered as prog track is "For The Greater Good of God" (9:24). It reminds me really to "Rhime of The Ancient Mariner" of Powerslave album. The music flows wonderfully with Steve Harris bass guitar forms the basic rhythm section augmented with multi-layered guitar sounds. Steve is I think one of great bass players in rock music. Bruce Dickinson voice is powerful and pretty clear during the course of the song.

Overall, this is an excellent hard rock music album with some prog elements. Keep on rockin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW