Description

Japane press with OBI-strip The Book Of Souls is the bands 16th studio album since their eponymous debut in 1980 charted at #4 in the UK, in a career achieving sales of over 90 million albums worldwide. Their previous album, 2010’s The Final Frontier was Maiden’s most successful chart-wise to date, reaching Number One in 28 countries and was their highest chart debut in the U.S reaching #4 in the Billboard 200. At 11 tracks and 92 minutes, The Book of Souls clocks in as Iron Maiden’s first-ever double album. They took a different approach too, writing many of the songs while in the studio, with only three songs penned by only a single member. Dickinson’s two contributions, If Eternity Should Fail and Empire of the Clouds (the longest track the band has ever recorded), bookend the record, while Steve Harris is the sole composer of The Red and the Black, which is presumably inspired in some way by Stendahl’s 19th century novel. It was recorded in Paris with their longstanding producer Kevin Caveman Shirley in late 2014, with the finishing touches added earlier this year. However, the band decided to delay its release so that vocalist Bruce Dickinson, who was recently given the all-clear from a tumour, would have time to recuperate sufficiently to join in the preparations for the album’s launch. Steve comments, We approached this album in a different way to how we’ve recorded previously. A lot of the songs were actually written while we were there in the studio and we rehearsed and recorded them straight away while they were still fresh, and I think that immediacy really shows in the songs, they have almost a live feel to them, I think. I’m very proud of The Book Of Souls, we all are, and we can’t wait for our fans to hear it. Bruce continues, We’re really excited about The Book Of Souls and had a fantastic time creating it. We started working on the album in late summer 2014 and recorded it at Guillame Tell Studios in Paris, where we’d done the Brave New World album back in 2000 so the studio holds special memories for all of us. We were delighted to discover the same magical vibe is still alive and very much kicking there! So we immediately felt at home and the ideas just started flowing. By the time we’d finished we all agreed that each track was such an integral part of the whole body of work that if it needed to be a double album, then double its going to be! Track listing: 1. If Eternity Should Fail 2. Speed Of Light 3. The Great Unknown 4. The Red And The Black 5. When The River Runs Deep 6. The Book Of Souls 7. Death Or Glory 8. Shadows Of The Valley 9. Tears Of A Clown 10. The Man Of Sorrows 11. Empire Of The Clouds