Brand-new double album shows unbroken razor-sharp creative flair with Samurai Eddie unleashed by video premiere!Parlophone Records proudly announces the release of IRON MAIDEN’s 17th studio album ‘Senjutsu’ on September 3, their first in six years. It was recorded in Paris with long-time producer Kevin Shirley and co-produced by Steve Harris.
This was preceded on Thursday, July 15, by the highly acclaimed animated video for the first single ‘The Writing On The Wall’, produced by BlinkInk based on a concept by Bruce Dickinson with two former Pixar executives. This follows a month-long teaser campaign and a worldwide 'treasure hunt' for information on the title and concept of the track.
For ‘Senjutsu’ - loosely translated “tactics and strategy” - the band once again made use of the services of Mark Wilkinson to create the spectacular cover artwork with a samurai theme based on an idea by Steve Harris. With a playing time of just under 82 minutes, ‘Senjutsu’, like the previous album ‘The Book Of Souls’, is a double CD / triple vinyl album.
Steve says: “We decided to record again at the Guillaume Tell Studio in France because the place just has such a relaxed vibe. The setup there suits our needs perfectly; the building used to be a cinema and has a very high ceiling, which makes for a fantastic acoustic sound result. We recorded this album in the same way as ‘The Book Of Souls’, so that we write a song, practice it, and record it right away with it all fresh in our minds. There are some very complex songs on this album that took a lot of hard work from us to get their sound the way we wanted it, so the process has been quite a challenge at times, but Kevin is very good at it, the essence of the band and I think it was worth the effort! I'm very proud of the result and can’t wait for the fans to hear it.”
Lead singer Bruce Dickinson further explains: “We are all really excited about this album. We recorded it at the beginning of 2019 during a break from the “Legacy Tour” in order to be able to tour as much as possible and still have a long lead time for the release in order to prepare a good artwork and something special as a video. Of course, the pandemic has delayed things even further - so much on planning ahead, or should we say ‘strategies’!? The songs are very diverse, and some of them are quite long. Plus there are a song or two that do quite different from our normal style, and I think Maiden fans will be surprised - positively, I hope!”
Tracklist
01. Senjutsu (8:20) – Smith/Harris
02. Stratego (4:59) – Gers/Harris
03. The Writing On The Wall (6:13) – Smith/Dickinson
04. Lost In A Lost World (9:31) – Harris
05. Days Of Future Past (4:03) – Smith/Dickinson
06. The Time Machine (7:09) – Gers/Harris
07. Darkest Hour (7:20) – Smith/Dickinson
08. Death Of The Celts (10:20) – Harris
09. The Parchment (12:39) – Harris
10. Hell On Earth (11:19) – Harris
‘Senjutsu’ will be released in the following formats and will be available for pre-order starting Wednesday, July 21:
- Standard 2CD digipak
- Deluxe 2CD book style
- Deluxe heavy weight 180 g triple vinyl, black
- Special edition triple vinyl, silver and black marbled (selected dealers)
- Special edition triple vinyl, red and black marbled (selected dealers)
- Super deluxe boxset with CD, Blu-ray and exclusive memorabilia
- Digital album (streaming and download)
- Lenticular Sleeve 2CD digipak (EMP Exclusive in GSA & Europe)
Iron Maiden in a nutshell
IRON MAIDEN stand for over 100 million albums sold, more than 2000 live shows in 63 countries, millions of fans worldwide and 16 top-class studio albums, the last of which was 2015 ‘The Book Of Souls’, their very first double studio album and also the most successful was chartered - with a #1 entry in more than 43 countries. Over the past few years, the band has expanded their legacy to include a few other fields that piqued their particular interest: Their own award-winning Trooper beer cracked the 30 million mark with worldwide sales, making it widely recognized as the UK’s most successful international launch beers for the past 20 years - in partnership with Cheshire’s Robinsons family brewery.
There is also a mobile game called ‘Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast’ - a free fantasy / action RPG in which players can fight the legions of darkness across time and space in the role of the iconic band mascot Eddie. In the summer of 2022, the band will resume the last section of their “Legacy Of The Beast” tour, which IRON MAIDEN has taken around the world since it began in 2018, where they played in front of almost 2 million fans.
Promo picture by John McMurtrie
Source: Press Release
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