A Matter of Life and Death
EMI
As English as moaning and sunburn, Iron Maiden’s fourteenth studio album has been hailed as a return to form. Everything seems present and correct — Bruce Dickinson’s bellow, Steve Harris’s plectrum clicking on his bass strings, Nicko McBrain’s tom-tom rolls, the odd killer chorus (especially on the adapted football chant These Colours Don’t Run) and the inevitable lyrics about the Second World War and/or Satan.
STEVE JELBERT