Iron Maiden: A Matter Of Life And Death : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

A Matter of Life and Death, Iron Maiden's fourteenth studio album, has all the traits of classic Maiden: multipart epics, time changes galore and the thick clank of Steve Harris' bass. There are some signs of wear -- the songs now march where they once galloped, and Bruce Dickinson's banshee wail can be slightly nasal, but there's still plenty of heft. The eight-and-a-half-minute "Brighter Than a Thousand Suns" could have gone on 1988's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. The only real departure from the past is "For the Greater Good of God," a somber meditation on Christ that sounds like an answer to the band's old anti-religion stance. Overall, it's a solid, unembarrassing latter-day record from one of metal's elite. Iron Maiden appear to be -- we dare say -- aging gracefully.