NEW IRON MAIDEN!! BOOK OF SOULS!!
Yes.
Mike messaged me yesterday that there will indeed be a brand new Iron Maiden album, their 16th, later this year. OH MAN!
This isn’t just a new album release announcement. It’s an EVENT!
There were concerns that Bruce Dickinson’s recent battles with cancer would mean this may never happen, but happily he’s been given an all-clear and so here comes the record!
Album Title: Book Of Souls
Mark Your Calendar: September 4, 2015.
Super Awesome: It’ll be a 2CD double album!
The Track List:
CD1
01 If Eternity Should Fail
02 Speed Of Light
03 The Great Unknown
04 The Red And The Black
05 When The River Runs Deep
06 The Book Of Souls
CD2
01 Death Or Glory
02 Shadows Of The Valley
03 Tears Of A Clown*
04 The Man Of Sorrows
05 Empire Of Clouds
* By all reports this is not a cover of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. Shame, that. I’d love to hear what they’d do with it… 🙂
So. 11 tracks on 2CDs? Looks short, but the tracks are most likely to be epic in length, and we all love Maiden epics! Reports online list the album clocking in at 92 minutes (that averages out to just over 8 minutes per track)! BLISS! One track, The Empire Of Clouds, is 18 minutes long!
There’s no tour info listed yet, but I’ve gotta imagine it’ll happen. BRACE YOURSELVES!
There’ll be different versions released, including a 2CD version in hardbound book (limited edition), a regular 2CD set, “triple heavyweight” vinyl, 24-bit mastered and non-mastered for iTunes, and a standard 16-bit audio too.
I am so very very very excited about this. New Maiden music is such great news. I’ll be a first day buyer!
Look at this glorious cover art:
Maiden fans worldwide: REJOICE!!!
OK first of all, this is awesome.
Second of all since it’s a double CD, it’s double awesome!
Third of all, since it’s a triple LP, it’s triple awesome!
FOURTH of all, since it’s heavy vinyl on 3 LPS, it’s sextuple awesome!
FIFTH of all, since you can get the 3 LPs (heavy vinyl) WITH the two CDs…awww crap I don’t know, all I can say is DOUBLE MAIDEN with an 18 FUCKING MINUTE FUCKING SONG.
Like I had to text you I was so excited so there you go!!!!
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Haha I like your countdown! Yeah, this is really exciting news. I’m really happy for them. I hope this record kicks so much ass.
If anybody I know was gonna be all over this new announcement, it was gonna be YOU!
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I knew a new album was coming but I sure didn’t expect all the info to drop like that all at once! And I sure didn’t expect a double. But if any band ever in the history of metal needed to do a double, it’s Maiden. Let’s fuckin’ give’r boys.
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It’s happy times in Mikeyland, folks! Woooo! 🙂
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I really like the cover and title. I’m tempted.
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What’s not to tempt you? It’s MAIDEN! Haha it’s gonna be great, I just know it. Give ‘er!
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24 bit non mastered for itunes? for reals?
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So it says! Here’s right from the Maiden web page:
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)
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I musta missed dat bit. Wonder if the actual album is going to be non-mastered. Cuz I will definitely preorder that deluxe book edition.
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Yeah I’m tempted by the hardcover book, but it depends how it goes. If it’s silly expensive and/or extremely limited (it doesn’t say how limited it’d be), I’m cool with the regular 2CD. All the rest of my Maiden is regular CD so whatever. But the book would be neat! And knowing Maiden’s popularity, it could just as easily be “Limited” to 10 million copies! Ha!
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PUMPED FOR THIS!
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Oh my yes. ME TOO! Man, the hype between now and September is gonna be bonkers, but I can feel it in my bones that it’ll live up to expectations. You heard it here first! 🙂
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Yep let the hype machine take over! For the record I will buy this as a physical copy! No ITunes hahahaha….famous last words!
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Deke buys a physical copy! You heard it here first folks! 😉
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HAHAHAHA….
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Pumped the irons?
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Phillip FTW!
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Jeez not sure I could lift a triple-weight vinyl.
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The sheer adrenaline of having new Maiden in your hands will give you the extra lift you need!
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18 minutes. Wow! Nice that some bands do what is good, and not what is fashionable. Iron Maiden were most successful in the 1980s, but never had a 1980s sound, which even David Gilmour, Jethro Tull, Rush, and Joni Mitchell succumbed to.
I was reading a Rolling Stone article on Rush (should be easy to find) where the author recalled those ancient, almost mythical times when tracks were so long they could even stretch over two albums! And a great description of Geddy Lee (which might also appear to Mr Air-Raid Siren himself): “hitting notes that made Robert Plant sound like Leonard Cohen”.
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“Nice that some bands do what is good, and not what is fashionable.” I think you just summed up Maiden’s career! 🙂 An excellent point too, they just steamed ahead and kept to their vision and totally ruled while they did it.
There was an interview on Stephen Colbert with Rush (it’d be on the youtubes), and he asks them (I’m paraphrasing) “Have you ever played a song so long that you ended up influencing yourselves?” Haha.
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Thanks for the heads-up! I will be buying it.
“03 Tears Of A Clown*
* By all reports this is not a cover of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. Shame, that. I’d love to hear what they’d do with it… “
At first I misread this as “Death of a Clown”, the Dave Davies song. I bet Maiden could do a kinky version of that! Come to think of it, maybe this could be the funeral music when they finally get rid of Eddie. (As much as I like Maiden, it would be nice for them to get rid of their Beavis-and-Butthead image, of which Eddie is a major part.)
So, now something only I could bring you. German rock group Bap (who sing in Cologne dialect, which is not understandable to most people outside of Cologne, and probably not even to most people inside Cologne) covered the Davies number. I think I like this better than the original. It also features Klaus Heuser on lead guitar, who went by the stage name Major Healey (extra points if you recognize that without Googling).
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Thanks for that link! I’ll check it out.
Sorry, no extra points for me. The only Healey I know was Jeff.
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Really? And no-one else either? Didn’t you people watch reruns of 1960s sitcoms before getting into heavy metal? Major Healey is a character in I dream of Jeannie. His fellow astronaut, Major Nelson, was played by Larry Hagman, but you probably haven’t heard of him either.
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