The band was firing on all cylinders after their roaring comeback in 1999
On this day 20 years ago, Iron Maiden released A Matter of Life and Death.
Iron Maiden entered a particularly ambitious phase of their career when their 14th studio album was released. It was their third since Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith returned to the band in 1999, and when the time came to begin work on A Matter of Life and Death, the group was undoubtedly firing on all cylinders once again. The group began to put the record together in late 2005, following their Eddie Rips Up the World touring cycle, with the songs completed and rehearsed after the Christmas break. Maiden then entered London’s Sarm West Studios with longtime producer Kevin Shirley and bassist Steve Harris serving as co-producer. Remarkably, the entire writing-through-recording process moved quickly, with Shirley saying the band spent roughly two months in the studio.
Rather than assembling performances through extensive digital editing, Iron Maiden recorded the basic tracks largely live, playing together in the same room without click tracks or computer-assisted timing corrections. Many performances were captured in very few takes, helping give the album an unusually natural and immediate character. Harris also made the unconventional decision not to use the mastered version of the record, meaning listeners essentially heard Shirley’s original studio mixes without the additional compression, EQ and other processing commonly applied during mastering. Musically, A Matter of Life and Death pushed Maiden further toward the progressive tendencies that had increasingly defined their post-reunion work, with lengthy, elaborate compositions such as “Brighter Than a Thousand Suns,” “The Longest Day,” “For the Greater Good of God” and “The Legacy.” Although the band did not consider it a concept album, themes of war, religion, mortality and the human cost of conflict run heavily throughout the record.
Released internationally on August 28, 2006, A Matter of Life and Death received an overwhelmingly positive response from much of the rock and metal press, with critics particularly praising the band’s willingness to create a dark, challenging album rather than simply recreate the sound of its 1980s classics. Reviews frequently highlighted the record’s sprawling arrangements, atmospheric introductions, trademark harmonized guitars and Bruce Dickinson’s commanding vocals, while also noting that its 70-plus-minute running time and abundance of lengthy songs demanded more patience than a typical Maiden release. It was more elaborate and meandering than Dance of Death but ultimately rewarding, while other metal publications regarded the album as one of the strongest releases of Maiden’s reunion era.
Fan reaction was similarly enthusiastic, although the band made the unusually bold decision to perform the entire album from beginning to end on the supporting A Matter of Life and Death Tour, a move that divided some concertgoers who expected a more traditional greatest-hits-heavy set. Nevertheless, Maiden’s confidence in playing all ten new songs demonstrated just how strongly the musicians believed in the material, and tracks including “Different World,” “These Colours Don’t Run,” “The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg” and “For the Greater Good of God” quickly became favorites among many longtime fans.
Commercially, A Matter of Life and Death proved that Iron Maiden remained a major international force more than 25 years after releasing their debut album. It reached No. 4 on the UK Albums Chart and topped the UK Rock & Metal Albums Chart, while reaching No. 1 in major markets including Germany, Italy, Finland and Sweden. Most significantly, the album debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard 200 in the United States, reportedly selling roughly 56,000 copies during its opening week and giving Iron Maiden their first Top 10 album in America. It also reached No. 2 in Canada and No. 4 in India, while the band reported that more than one million copies had been shipped worldwide within the opening weeks of release.
Those numbers were particularly impressive for a veteran heavy metal act releasing an album dominated by seven-, eight- and nine-minute songs at a time when mainstream rock radio offered little support for music of that scale. Rather than relying solely on nostalgia, A Matter of Life and Death showed that Iron Maiden could still make commercially successful new music while becoming increasingly adventurous. In retrospect, the album stands as one of the defining records of the band’s post-2000 resurgence—a dark, progressive and uncompromising work that demonstrated Maiden could continue expanding its sound without abandoning the galloping rhythms, epic storytelling and twin- and triple-guitar harmonies that had made the band one of heavy metal’s most enduring institutions.
