Iron Maiden - Today

In Autumn 2006, Iron Maiden released A Matter of Life and Death. While the album is not a concept album, war and religion are recurring themes in the lyrics throughout, as well as in the album's artwork.

A successful North American and European tour followed, during which they played the album in its entirety, a first for the band. The band have announced that a live album recorded from this tour will be released.

Iron Maiden recorded a live session at Abbey Road Studios for Live From Abbey Road in December 2006. Their performance was screened in an episode alongside sessions with Natasha Bedingfield and Gipsy Kings in March 2007 on Channel 4 (UK) and June 2007 on the Sundance Channel (USA).

In November 2006, Iron Maiden and manager Rod Smallwood announced that they were cutting off their 27 year old ties with Sanctuary Music and have started a new company named Phantom Music Management. However, no other significant changes were made.

In 2007, the band confirmed several major festival appearances worldwide for the year to form the second leg of the A Matter of Life and Death tour, , now dubbed "A Matter of the Beast" to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Number of the Beast album. The band announced plans to play 5 songs from A Matter of Life and Death and 5 from The Number of the Beast as part of their set but the band played only 4 songs from Number of the Beast. On the June 24th they ended the tour with a one-off performance at London's Brixton Academy in aid of The Clive Burr MS Trust fund.