Description

2017 re-issue on black vinyls with gatefold cover.

2003s Dance of Death marked the triumphant return of old-school Iron Maiden. Gone were the murky, over-produced set pieces that clogged 2000s Brave New World and in their place fell blistering slabs of Piece of Mind-era metal. That trend continues with their 14th full-length album, Matter of Life and Death, a more elaborate and meandering experience than Dance of Death, but a rewarding one for fans willing to indulge the groups occasional excess. At over 70 minutes, Matter of Life and Death is closer to 1988s woefully underrated Seventh Son of a Seventh Son than it is to Piece of Mind, but with far less keyboard tickling. Recorded live in the studio, epics like Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg, Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, and the brutal Longest Day — the whole record is a loosely-knit song cycle with war at its core — exhume prog rock complexity and discipline yet manage to bristle with the kind of small-club intensity usually reserved for acts half their age. At just over four minutes, opener Different World — a near twin of Dance of Deaths Wildest Dreams — is the only cut that screams single, but it’s also the most misplaced. On a record that positions beloved avatar Eddy on top of a tank with a machine gun leading a weary troop of skeletal soldiers to their doom, any act of brevity, no matter how expertly crafted, sticks out like a saxophone solo. The title is considered to be named after a British World War II film Matter of Life and Death.

Track listing:
1. Different Worlds
2. These Colours Don’t Run
3. Brighter Than a Thousand Suns
4. The Pilgrim
5. The Longest Day
6. Out of the Shadows
7. The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg
8. For the Greater Good of God
9. Lord of Light
10. The Legacy