Iron Maiden

Maiden continues to add progressive elements to their now utterly distinctive brand of metal. With most of the songs on A Matter of Life and Death topping six minutes, there is plenty of room to stretch out and layer one twin guitar odyssey onto another, like interlocking pieces of some fantasy metal puzzle. "Different World," the opener, sounds like classic-era Judas Priest, while "Brighter than a Thousand Suns" has an absolutely crushing chug. It's remarkable for a band to be putting out music of this caliber, this late in its career.

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 198... More >