Iron Maiden: A Matter of Life and Death

Iron Maiden’s been around for a while now, and they’ve seen more ups and downs and changes than most other bands (with the constant exception of Jethro Tull) can claim. With the sheer weight of their past behind them, it becomes increasingly hard to approach each new release with real objectivity. Die-hard loyalists hail each new effort as an unmitigated masterpiece, fans of various specific eras in the band’s career continue to moan that they’ve simply lost it and, I imagine, there are a whole spectrum of reactions in between.

I’m not entirely certain what to make of Maiden’s 14th studio album, myself. Each new release after Bruce Dickinson’s return to the fold has been greeted by someone or the other as ‘their best since Seventh Son’, and while it’s true that they’ve put the days of lukewarm, often unenthusiastic albums like ‘No Prayer For The Dying’ or ‘Virtual XI’ behind them, there’s a certain ponderousness that seems to have settled over the sextet.

Consider the fact that, at 72 minutes, this is Maiden’s longest studio album, with an average song-length of about seven minutes. While their increasing focus on lengthy instrumental passages and tempo changes is often labeled progressive, I see it is a sort of bloated apotheosis of the epic feel that was already firmly in place more than a quarter-century ago, with the song “Phantom of the Opera”. The galloping bass lines, twinned guitar melodies and building tempos were something fresh and exciting back then – today they sound just a little formulaic with me. Certainly, there’s a darker and more introspective sound to the music -– something which has been the case since ‘The X Factor’, and a greater use of contrasting clean and heavy parts. But ultimately -– and this is not all a bad thing – Iron Maiden, and specifically Steve Harris have established a signature “Maiden vocabulary” of motifs and styles to draw from. That’s the case for many veteran acts, metal or not, and what remains to be seen, providing you like the “vocabulary” (I’d have to say I do) is how well the band plays about with its stocks-in-trade on any given outing.

Die-hard loyalists hail each new effort as an unmitigated masterpiece, fans of various specific eras in the band’s career continue to moan that they’ve simply lost it and, I imagine, there are a whole spectrum of reactions in between.

By and large, I’d say the band does quite as well you’d expect them to, thank you very much. There’s the required fast-driving opener, “Different World”, which along with “These Colours Don’t Run” and “The Pilgrim” are among the relatively more concise and in-your-face numbers here, and they’re all pretty decent slabs of latter-era Maiden arena fodder. “The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg”, a unusual single choice, is pretty damn epic in the tradition of so many songs on ‘Piece Of Mind’, while “Brighter Than A Thousand Sons” and “Lord Of Light” keep things a bit fresh with forays into Mid-Eastern-type melodies and almost thrashy riffing.

It’s all solid fare -– well-conceived and quite competently executed. I personally feel Dickinson sounds fresher and more engaged on his solo efforts, but he’s still a more convincing Maiden frontman than that Bailey bloke was. While the three-guitar assault naturally has to make enough room at the bottom end for Harris’ trademark bass, the guitar sound is quite nicely thick and the individual styles of the three guitarists make for a little variety in the solos and interludes. There’s a lot more acoustic work on this album, although nothing as definitive as “The Journeyman” (’Dance of Death’). Maybe it’s my fault for being an inattentive listener, but while I liked all the individual instrumental interludes, they’re all quite of a piece -– you could almost shift parts in between some of the songs on this album without messing things up. On the other hand, more than any of their other recent albums, this one feels like “one from the heart”, with attempts at marketable singles kept to a minimum and the band exploring the musical dimensions they feel most drawn to at the moment, even if some of there are familiar territory. It’s one of their most consistent albums in a while — which means that it’s well-adapted to the sort of repeated listening you’ll need for it to really sink in.

Lyrically, the songs seem to revolve around themes of war, heroism, loyalty, sacrifice, life, death… those sorts of things. It’s especially hard to know what to make of many of the sentiments here in the light of current events, the known conservative tendencies of some band members and their past history of deploring the human consequences of war (”Afraid to Shoot Strangers”) while reveling in descriptions of martial valour (”Aces High”). It’s certainly a more nuanced and complex message than in the past, and this may be one of the most interesting things to explore in the album.