“Cold fusion of fury”

Iron Maiden’s 2006 album A Matter Of Life And Death proved that the British metal veterans were still an act to be reckoned with, delivering some of their most vital and creative material for years. No track illustrated this better than album highlight Brighter Than A Thousand Suns. Making great use of a churningly tense and ominous time signature, it’s one of Maiden’s proggiest and heaviest songs. Frontman Bruce Dickinson goes all Van Der Graaf Generator with dark, coded lyrics that depict the dawn of the nuclear age (and the influence is made crystal clear with a lyrical nod to the VDGG track Whatever Would Robert Have Said?) Musically there’s a Rush-like feel with the band twisting and turning through a range of moody, tricky sections. And Dickinson responds to the song’s dynamic shifts with a vocal performance that builds in intensity in a breathtaking and explosive way. Brighter Than A Thousand Suns is a track that is stylistically uncharacteristic for the band but, in terms of theatrics and excitement, has all the spirit of Maiden at their most classic.