IRON MAIDEN will release their 14th studio album in September via EMI and Kerrang!/BW&BK scribe Dom Lawson was among the first to hear the new material.
Titled A Matter Of Life And Death, the album was recorded at Sarm West Studios in London with producer Kevin Shirley, who also worked on the last two Maiden albums, 2000’s Brave New World and 2003’s Dance Of Death.
Clocking in at a colossal 72 minutes, the album boasts ten tracks, all but three of which are over 6 minutes in length. The album will be preceded by a single, ‘The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg’, which will be released in mid August.
Dom reports that this is easily the strongest album Iron Maiden have produced since their ‘80s heyday. It is also by far the heaviest thing the band have ever recorded. Full of experimentation and unexpected detours into intense and atmospheric territory, it’s a complex and powerful set of songs that touch upon some dark subjects, most notably the horrors of war, the impact of religious fundamentalism and the threat of nuclear destruction.
The full tracklisting for A Matter Of Life And Death is as follows: ‘Different World’, ‘These Colours Don’t Run’, ‘Brighter Than A Thousand Suns’, ‘The Pilgrim’, ‘The Longest Day’, ‘Out Of The Shadows’, ‘The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg’, ‘For The Greater Good Of God’, ‘Lord Of Light’, ‘The Legacy’.
Dom spoke to frontman Bruce Dickinson and bassist/founder member Steve Harris about the new songs and how Iron Maiden have special plans
for their forthcoming European tour that kicks off on November 9th in Denmark and hits the UK in December.
“At the moment we’re thinking about playing the whole album live, back-to-back,” Dickinson reveals. “When you’ve got an album this good, it’s really important that you do something bold. If we can go out and do a whole album of brand new material, I think that we can give ourselves a pat on the back. Everyone will have heard the album upfront, and the songs will really come to life. I think it could be extraordinary.”
“Brave New World and Dance Of Death were both good records,” he continues. “But they weren’t anywhere near as good as this one! This one is Dance Of Death without the effort. This whole album feels effortless. It’s like driving a big gas-guzzling motor car. You just put your foot down and there’s limitless power under the bonnet.”
“Yeah, it’s been unbelievable,” agrees Steve Harris. “We booked the studio for three months, and we finished the whole thing in two! I think the preparation was good. We didn’t have the rows we usually have! (laughs) We really focused on each song and it was a very positive experience.”
Among the highlights of the new album are the opening track, ‘Different World’. The shortest song on the album at a mere four minutes, it’s a
classic, storming Maiden opener with an instantly memorable chorus and soaring guitar harmonies.
“It wasn’t intentional when we sat down and wrote it, but as soon as it was finished we thought ‘Thin Lizzy!’” laughs Steve Harris. “It’s a tribute to them, in a way. Obviously it sounds like Maiden, but it just conjured up that Thin Lizzy vibe.”
The second track on the album, ‘These Colours Don’t Run’, is a brooding, dramatic rumination on the plight of being a soldier in a war zone and
sets the tone for the dark epics that follow it.
“That song was an effort to put a human face on people who go out and fight wars,” says Dickinson. “They call it ‘peacekeeping’, but these people put themselves in harm’s way, and whether or not you agree with the reasons why they’re doing it, they’re just doing their job. Some of the new songs are quite angry. It’s just the times we’re living in. We’ve got global fundamentalism, state-sponsored terrorism, dirty bombs, global warming and everything else. I think this is our response to all of that.”
‘Brighter Than A Thousand Suns’ is arguably the heaviest track on the new album, and one with heavy subject matter to match.
“It’s about the atomic bomb,” says Dickinson. “The scientist that saw the first bomb go off said it was brighter than a thousand suns. The idea that human beings could bring about their own total destruction totally changed the way people thought.”
Finally, the first single from the new album, ‘The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg’, is an intricate seven-minute epic that starts with a creepy, ominous intro before erupting into a crushing, almost Led Zeppelin-esque riff and a powerful, emotive chorus. More obtuse lyrically than most of the album, it’s a curious, challenging choice for a single.
“It’s very different for us,” admits Harris. “It’s very riffy. The intro has an almost nursery rhyme eeriness. Sometimes you try to create a mood and sometimes it’s just <>. Everyone’s going to ask who Benjamin Breeg is, but you’ll just have to find out for yourself!”
Understandably, Steve Harris is extremely proud of the new record, particularly since it seems likely to be hailed as one of Maiden’s best. The band are currently as popular as they’ve ever been, so does he think Maiden can keep going indefinitely?
“Five years ago we were thinking about possibly retiring at this point, but now we’re at this stage there’s no way! Why should we?” he grins. “I don’t know why, but I always had it in my head that we’d do fifteen studio albums, so we’ve got at least one more to go!”
(Thanks: Kerrang!)
