Iron Maiden
The Book of Souls
2 CD Deluxe Edition | MP3 | 3 LP Vinyl
BMG Recorded Music
Release date: September 4, 2015

Very few things in the world surprise or excite a jaded old metalhead like myself. Iron Maiden releasing their best album in at least 23 years is an obvious exception. There, I said it right in the opening! There is no point beating around the bush on this one: The Book of Souls, in addition to being Maiden’s first-ever double studio album is easily their best effort since 1992’s Fear of the Dark. Don’t get me wrong, there have been plenty of great tracks among the band’s six studio albums that were released during that 23-year period, but not a single one of those records maintained the quality throughout that is so richly on display with The Book of Souls.

Here it is folks: “The Speed of Light,” the first single from Iron Maiden‘s upcoming double album The Book of Souls. Take a listen here below, and also check out the official video for the song, which contains visual throwbacks to previous album covers.

The album is Maiden’s sixteenth studio effort and their first in 5 years. It will be available worldwide on September 4th in the following formats:

* 2CD deluxe hardbound book limited edition
* 2CD standard edition
* Triple heavyweight black vinyl
* High res audio (24-bit Mastered for iTunes and non-Mastered for iTunes)
* Standard res audio (16 bit/ 44.1 kHz)

It’s been a long 5 year wait for Iron Maiden fans. The band’s last studio album, The Final Frontier, was released in 2010. In the interim, the band has been very busy with a litany of projects. They toured the globe on a massive world tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of their landmark album Seventh Son of A Seventh Son, launched their own Trooper brand of beer, bassist and principal songwriter Steve Harris recorded and toured for a solo record, and singer Bruce Dickinson started an airline!

Always the most literate of the 1980s-era metal bands, British metal masters Iron Maiden often tapped historical events and the great works of literature for subject matter when writing songs. For their 1984 opus Powerslave, the band looked to 18th century poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s epic work “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and penned a 14-minute song of the same name. The song condenses the tale down, but hits on most of the high points of the story. Singer Bruce Dickinson sums it up best in his usual intro to the song when they perform it live: “This is what NOT to do if a bird shits on you.”

Check out Iron Maiden performing “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” live in concert here below.

Clive Burr, who was the original drummer for the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden, has passed away at the age of 56 from complications from Multiple Sclerosis. His former band members report that the drummer died peacefully in his sleep at home on March 12, 2013.

Burr joined the legendary group in 1979. Iron Maiden was and remains to this day one of the more high profile bands of the New Wave of British Metal during the late 1970s. Burr had lent his drum talents to the first three Iron Maiden albums, which are still regarded by Maiden fans around the world as some of the band’s best musical achievements: the self-titled Iron Maiden debut album, Killers, and The Number of the Beast. Those first two albums also sported the original singer Paul Di’Anno, who was later replaced by the soaring high-pitched vocalist Bruce Dickinson. By the time of The Number of the Beast, the band was on the crest of achieving worldwide success and legendary status as a Heavy Metal unit.