The following story is courtesy of Theage.com.au:

The number of the beast has plummeted in recent trading. The book of Revelation's dreaded 666, mentioned by IRON MAIDEN circa 1982 among other respected sources, has been downgraded to 616 by Oxford University scholars citing the earliest known text from the third century.

Maiden meanwhile, rogue traders that they are, have recklessly recalibrated upwards. The number of this beast is 757. For it is the number of an aircraft. And from its belly shall rise up six heads, and 12 horns, and 60 slaves lugging 12 tonnes of pharaonic paraphernalia, and the mid '80s cyborg version of a zombie called Eddie.

"Expect lots of Egypt, lots of Powerslave," predicts singer Bruce Dickinson, the co-pilot of the passenger plane ghoulishly painted and customised for the band's 2008 world tour. "We'll be firing up all the engines and the Churchill speech and the whole deal from 'Aces High'."

To those ill-versed in Maiden lore, this is all probably as intelligible as an ancient Armenian text. But for the true believers who have spent the last 15 years scanning the skies while playing Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son backwards, it's the fulfilment of heavy metal prophecy.

"We can guarantee we're bringing a big show. We're bringing the whole pyramid stage, and basically everything from the '80s," cackles guitarist Dave Murray, the first to join bassist Steve Harris in the fledgling Iron Maiden of the mid '70s.

He could hardly have dreamt that the band's biggest years would be 30 years on. A Matter of Life and Death, the 14th album adorned with the undead face of band mascot Eddie the Head, hit No. 1 in 10 countries and the Top 10 in 18 more in 2006. The second-generation metal veterans went on to crush their remaining elders (BLACK SABBATH, DEEP PURPLE), their contemporaries (PRIEST, MOTÖRHEAD), and the hordes in their slipstream with a humungous world tour that broke METALLICA and GUNS N' ROSES' records at the Donington metal festival, and peaked with 250,000 headbangers in Rio.

"It's astounding really," Murray says with the air of an English squire. "We've never taken it for granted...our attitude has been to try and make the best album we can, then go out on tour, try and put on a big show, perform and play well, and just have fun and enjoy it."

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