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Album Details
- Artist: Iron Maiden
- Album: A Matter Of Life And Death
- Label: Sanctuary
- Year of Release: 2006
- ME Rating:
- Reviewed by: dscanland on 2006-10-18
RecommendIron Maiden raised my hopes tremendously with the rock solid Dance Of Death. Now I've listened to A Matter Of Life And Death about 5 times and still can't decide if I like it or not. Last time this happened was with the classic Powerslave album. It is still one of those albums I have an internal battle with. A Matter Of Life And Death is the third album with the return of the most successful lineup + Janick Gers (Adrian Smith included). With this in mind I was expecting something along the Powerslave line but nothing on this album was near as heavy as some of those songs ("Aces High", "Two Minutes To Midnight"). There isn't really a track that stands out though. Some of the finer moments are opener "Different World" or the epic "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg" but really, I can't see these songs standing up to the test of time like "Trooper" or any other Maiden track. Regardless, Life and Death is still quite a solid work showcasing some great musicianship. I think Harris and Smith need to work on some hooks and such for the next album in order to make another classic work. "For The Greater Good of God" is close but not quite there. This is still a decent album. Much better than any radio metal you might hear.
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on 2007-08-04 SolitaryMan Said:
First off, I am glad to agree with both this editorial review and Bastard's opinions on "Powerslave" (Bastard: there ARE maiden compilations out there...quite a few actually). As for the album at hand, "A Matter Of Life And Death", I am always left with a bad taste in my mouth. It's almost as if the band is questioning the knowledge of their fans; we all know Maiden can pen some great epic numbers. But a whole album full? It's just too much. Excellently written, produced and performed, all that keeps this album down is the overwhelming amount of material to sift through. Each song seems to drag, and even when they do break out, it only feels like they're doing so in the name of familiarity, at the expense of focus. It all threatens to teeter off the edge, and perhaps the excitement following the success of "Dance Of Death" and it's reincarnation of the band had some negative effects in the studio this time around. Whatever the problems were, they're too clearly defined to give this album anything but a "decent, but not up to par" rating.
Rating: 4/10
Review:
on 2007-07-18 Bastard Said:
well dennis, i have to agree with ya on this. except powerslave is THE maiden album that is THE best of maidens work. oh if only i could make a greatest hits cd for maiden...it would be so awesome. it'd most likely be a 2 disc set. this is definitely a good cd, really worth buying.
Rating: 6/10
