Iron Maiden - A Matter Of Life And Death

[Wireworm5]

Metal album of the year.

That is until the new Pain Of Salvation comes out.

But really, the new Maiden is pretty damn good. Maybe the proggiest I've ever heard from them.

I picked up this album yesterday and gave it a spin. The recording was good, better than previous albums I have. There were a couple of pretty good rockers but nothing that stood out for me as being exceptional. Overall I was dissappointed and would not call this 'Album of the Year', Sorry.

Rating 3 out of 5

[progfan]

I've only played it once all the way through so far. It's a very long CD at 72 minutes and each song averages 7 minutes. Even for a progrock fan like myself, it feels a little like an endurance test. I mean, when you listen to IM, you want to bang your head!! But at times, like "Brighter Than a Thousand Suns", their almost playing more like Fates Warning than IM with all those time changes. Don't get me wrong, I'm liking what I'm hearing overall, it just seems that after a cursory listen, the arrangements are kind of overdone. I definitely plan on spending more time on it before passing judgement though.