IRON MAIDEN frontman Bruce Dickinson recently spoke to MTV.com about the making of the band's new album, "A Matter of Life and Death", due on September 5 via Sanctuary.

"We did the whole thing in just a shade under four months," said Dickinson. "We don't get together to make records that much anymore, so when we finally did, we were really excited, and that excitement turned into this really productive period."

The band started writing in late 2005, and right away the machine clicked. There was a complete absence of the types of arguments that used to hamstring the bandmembers.

"In the past we may have been a bit more uptight, but we're all just seriously relaxed and chill about things now, so we're able to work well together and not get worked up," Dickinson said. "Ideas were just buzzing through the air, and everybody was listening to each other and feeding off the energy."

The band, whose last U.S. jaunt was a controversial stint on the 2005 Ozzfest, will launch a comparatively brief North American tour that begins on October 4 in Hartford, Connecticut, and winds down October 21 in Irvine, California. Then the band will launch a lengthy European tour and may not return to North America before its next album.

"We have no interest in hitting dozens of cities in America, because let's be honest — there probably aren't enough IRON MAIDEN fans to justify an extensive tour on the scale we like to play," Dickinson said. "Do we think IRON MAIDEN could sell out a 20,000-seat arena in Iowa? Probably not. So we'll do these big shows on our terms indoors and then see what happens with the record."

Read more at MTV.com.