Now that Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson has been given the all-clear from cancer, Iron Maiden are set to return with their long-promised double album. The Book of Souls will arrive on 4 September and will be their first-ever double album, with a running time of 92 minutes.
Split across two CDs or three vinyl LPs, the press release says “there’s a broader split on the songwriting compared to previous Maiden records.”
Dickinson said in a statement:
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 Guillaume 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 it’s going to be!
Although only 11 tracks long, a number of the songs on the double album clock in at over 10 minutes, such as The Red and the Black, which is 13 minutes, and the 18-minute album closer Empire of the Clouds.
Despite the new album, the band will not promote their record live until 2016. “Although Bruce is naturally eager to resume Maiden activities, it will take a while before he is completely back to full strength, as we explained previously,” Rod Smallwood said back in May. “Because of this, the band will not be touring or playing any shows until next year.”
The Book of Souls track list:
CD1:
If Eternity Should Fail
Speed of Light
The Great Unknown
The Red and the Black
When the River Runs Deep
The Book of Souls
CD 2:
Death or Glory
Shadows of the Valley
Tears of a Clown
The Man of Sorrows
Empire of the Clouds