By Robin Ianson
A Matter of Life and Death is the legendary Iron Maiden’s 14th studio album, and third since The Air Raid Siren. Although the band has shown a marked improvement since the return of Bruce Dickenson, any dreams that Maiden will ever produce another Number of the Beast are destined to remain fantasies.
First off, Life and Death is fucking epic. At 112 minutes, it is Iron Maiden’s longest album to date.
While classic Maiden signatures remain, including the famous galloping sound they helped pioneer, songs have been stretched out becoming longer and slower. Sadly, all this just adds up to is an album that’s too damn long. Tracks like “Brighter than a Thousand Suns” feel like they go on forever and don’t justify their length. Eventually, you just want it to burn in true fire of a thousand suns. In the end AMOLAD is as a decent album for the Iron Maiden of the 21st century if you can get past the self-indulgence.