In a recent interview with Revolver magazine (web site), IRON MAIDEN frontman Bruce Dickinson spoke about some of his favorite songs off the band's new CD, "A Matter of Life and Death", which is scheduled for release in North America on September 5 via Sanctuary Records.

"These Colours Don't Run":

Bruce: "It's about what motivates soldiers and what they fight for. Some of them have a big flag tattooed on their ass and genuinely believe all the patriotic stuff, and they'll get their heads blown off for Uncle Sam. But I think most of them fight because if they didn't, their buddies would get killed.'

"The Longest Day":

Bruce: "It's about D-Day and the kind of ordeals that 18-year-old kids were put through to accomplish what they did that day. It's something that we're not exposed to now. Yes, there are people who go and do extraordinary things and wrestle hand to hand with Taliban guys in Tora Bora armed only with a knife. But we don't know how they do it because it's hidden. Most of these kids on D-Day were 18, and they had six months to be turned into these fighting machines. So the song is a musical version of 'Saving Private Ryan', in a sense."

"Brighter than a Thousand Suns":

Bruce: "I spent most of my adolenscence under the shadow of the atomic bomb. I was brought up in a generation that was led to believe that a claxon siren would go off, and you'd just have four minutes to kiss your ass goodbye. This generation has a different paranoia. Today, it's all about terrorism. We just thought we were going to get wiped off the face of the earth. So the song looks at how you reconcile building something as destructive as the bomb with sleeping at night."

"Lord of Light":

Bruce: "Just imagine there was a whole range of places between Heaven and Hell and that you got to pick, and that Lucifer is, in fact, the 'lord of light' downstairs, which is kind of what his name means. And all this stuff about the vengeful, eternal God wagging his finger and punishing you is all just a load of PR nonsense."

As previously reportedm IRON MAIDEN's official web site has been updated with what is believed to be a shortened version of the "Making of A Matter of Life and Death" documentary which will be avilable on the limited edition version of the "A Matter of Life and Death" album. Watch it at this location.

MTV2 will air "Iron Maiden Makes An Album" — a half-hour program where MTV goes behind the scenes of IRON MAIDEN's new collection, "A Matter of Life and Death" — on Saturday, August 26 at 11:30 p.m. EST. more information is available at www.vh1.com.

30-second audio samples of all 10 tracks that are set to appear on "A Matter of Life and Death" have been posted online at this location. (Please note that the samples of "Different World" and "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg" are the same [possibly due to a web site glitch]).

"A Matter of Life and Death" 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".