IRON MAIDEN manager Rod Smallwood has issued the following update:

"We would like to make you guys aware of a very interesting book, Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam, which has recently been published by Mark LeVine. It describes in great detail what is happening with Metal in the Muslim world, giving us the background and describing the difficulties, often highly dangerous, encountered by Metal fans and bands there and also what it means to them. If you are at all interested in Metal and its cultural significance to fans in unexpected areas of the planet it is well worth checking this out. (Details of how to purchase it are at the bottom of this introduction).

We first became aware of the burgeoning impact of Metal on the Islamic countries when Maiden played the excellent Desert Rock Festival in 2007 in Dubai. The night we played was sold out for the first time with some 15,000 Metal and Maiden fans, but this was not an audience of ex-pat Metal fans from the West who happened to be there, this was a largely an Arab audience who travelled in from throughout the Middle East and further afield -- of course from the United Arab Emirates but also from Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Oman, Palestine, Turkey, Saudi, Lebanon, Kuwait, India, Armenia, Moldovia along with some fans from Canada, Japan, South America, South Africa, USA, UK, Sweden, Finland, Holland and probably many more ....amazing!!!! It was a real melting pot of many nations. The reaction was intense and there was a real feeling that the concert was so very significant to many of those who had travelled long distances to be there and who had never had the chance to see the band before.

However, even considering this, we didn't fully realize at the time the importance of the event to Metal fans there and it was not until a year later, meeting Mark LeVine and becoming acquainted with this recently published book that we began to understand the extent and importance of what was happening with Metal in the Muslim countries. Mark is a musician, author and professor of Middle Eastern history at UC Irvine and he contacted me a couple of weeks prior to our shows at Irvine Meadows, California on May 30 and 31 this year. He told us about his book and himself and asked if he could interview Bruce and myself for some documentary footage about the book. Impressed by his credentials and fascinated by what he was saying, we readily agreed and met up prior to the show on May 31. We chatted at length and he explained the growth and importance of Metal to many people in the Islamic countries. It quickly became clear how helpful this could be at a time of general misunderstandings between the Islam and the West and that any bridge could further a better mutual understanding and links between the cultures. Metal is very communal and can provide a basis of contact between people, but it was also staggering to learn from the book and from Mark what fans and musicians have to go through in some of these countries just to have the freedom to listen to and to play the music they prefer. This is currently being brought home most effectively with the current documentary "Heavy Metal in Baghdad" about the Iraqi band Acrassicauda and what they have to go through on a daily basis just to rehearse.

Rather than try to give you more of an insight into what is happening with Metal in these regions myself, let Mark tell some of this fascinating story..."

Go to this location for LeVine's commentary (scroll down).

Go to Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk to purchase the book.