Dogmatic

If someone ever told you that Iron Maiden would release a classic slab of music in the year 2006, you would probably laugh in their face. And yet, Maiden’s latest opus ‘A Matter of Life & Death’ is as close to being a masterpiece as is humanly possible. In fact, this album is probably the band’s best work since the glory days of the mid-eighties and the ‘Powerslave’ era. Speaking of which, I got to see the band on their second tour of Australia in 1985 on the aforementioned ‘Powerslave’ tour. That was truly a magic day for this young metalhead as I got to spend the day with the guys as they were shooting a promo for music show Countdown. (I still have Nicko McBrain’s sweat-band and drum-sticks from that day and a slab of signed goodies that I treasure to this day! But that’s another story and another era all-together!) When the band reformed with vocalist Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith back in 2000, they released the brilliant ‘Brave New World’ album. They followed this up with the disappointing ‘Dance of Death’ album so I didn’t have high hopes for this new CD. Boy, was I wrong! This is really an incredible return to form by Maiden - particularly the second half of this album which is as majestic as it is astounding. Dickinson’s vocals are as amazing as ever and the melodic overtones that these guys manage to inject into their music is second to none. The intro to ‘The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg’ is so brilliantly dark and sombre and has ‘vintage’ Maiden stamped all over it. Same goes for my fave track on the album ‘Lord of Light’ in which Dickinson just blitzes on. Classic stuff.