Iron Maiden - A Matter Of Life And Death (+DVD) (CD 2006)

I was a huge Maiden fan back in the 80's and although these days I don't listen to much metal I still think albums like Powerslave, Killers and Number Of The Beast are difficult to beat, indeed Live After Death remains one of my favourite live albums of all time. I was probably not alone in finding that once Adrian Smith left and Janik Gerrs joined Maiden's output stopped being to my taste and I went from buying every album and single and never missing a gig to not really being interested at all. Well the good news if you have similar tastes to me is that A Matter Of Life And Death is Maiden well and truly back on form. From the blistering opening of Different World through to the end of the excellent Legacy this album doesn't (in my opinion) have a dud track. These Colour's Don't Run is particularly good and I found that after one listen I was humming many of the tunes days later. The album is full of the trademark Maiden time changes and harmony lead lines and the melodies are really good and strong without coming over a bit twee and camp. I've had the album kicking around on my phone for months now and I'm not even considering changing it for something else and the CD has only now made (a probably brief) trip from my car's CD player to the glove compartment.

As far as the limited edition with the DVD for the extra cash if you can get it then do. The Making Of section is great (admittedly I do record music so I am probably more interested in this than most) and the band come over really well explaining what they did and why they did it. The video of Benjamin Breeg is okay but not quite to my taste but Different World done live in the studio more than makes up for it.

If you were disappointed with recent Iron Maiden outings then give this one a try and I think you'll find that they're back with a bang.