France's MetalXS has posted footage from the Iron Maiden listening session for the band's new album, The Book Of Souls, whick took place in Paris on August 26th. The session was hosted by Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson:

IRON MAIDEN: Listening session in Paris with Bruce from METAL XS on Vimeo.

Iron Maiden, whose new studio album The Book Of Souls, their first for 5 years, will be released worldwide next week on September 4th, are taking touring to a new level using a Boeing 747-400 Jumbo Jet (aka Queen Of The Skies) for their World Tour next year. Vocalist Bruce Dickinson is currently in training for his licence to fly the massive four engine jet, which is almost twice the size and over three times the weight of the Boeing 757 used on previous tours in 2008/9/11 (see the comparison grid below of the Evolution of Ed Force One). The new Ed Force One will take the band, crew and over 12 tons of equipment more than 55,000 miles (88,500km) around the planet with concerts in six of the seven continents (Australasia, Asia, North and South America, Africa and Europe) with The Book Of Souls World Tour 2016 expected to visit around 35 countries.

Details of the precise schedule are currently being finalized and we will commence announcements of specific dates for the different territories in a few weeks’ time. However we can reveal that The Book Of Souls World Tour will open in the US in late February with Ed Force One flying in for three shows before, in early March, heading into Central America visiting Mexico, followed by a much anticipated first ever concert in El Salvador and a return to Costa Rica. Ed Force One then proceeds into South America for concerts in Argentina, Chile and a number of shows in Brazil before flying back to the US at the end of March for ten more cities covering the US and, of course, Canada in the first two weeks of April.

A long awaited return to Japan follows later in April, and then the band are delighted to be playing their first ever shows in China before heading to New Zealand and Australia for a comprehensive tour during the first half of May. Shows in South Africa, Maiden’s first visit there with Bruce, will be the last port of call before Ed Force One heads to Europe for a very extensive tour starting in late May and finishing in early August. This will the first time Ed Force One has ever been used on any European Tour dates (other than Bruce’s Fan Club trips to shows) and will provide transport there for at least for the first few weeks.

Bruce Dickinson comments: “When the opportunity arose from my friends at Air Atlanta Icelandic to lease a 747 for The Book Of Souls World Tour, of course we jumped at the chance, who wouldn’t? The greatest benefit of travelling in a 747 is that because of its colossal size and freight capacity we can carry our stage production and all our stage equipment and desks in the cargo hold without having to make any of the immense structural modifications needed to do this on the previous 757, the extent of which fans will have noted on the Flight 666 DVD. Although in reality we cannot carry much more gear the savings in complexity, time and cost make using the 747 even more practical. All we will need to do is “paint” it and move a few seats around, with the added advantage that there is much more room for band and crew – our Krew can almost get a row of seats each to catch up on sleep on the flights! Furthermore, it is marginally faster 0.85 MACH and the range of around 7000NM (13,000 km) is much greater which means we will not have to make the refuelling stops we needed to with the 757.

“However, even though we have worked out the logistics of taking a plane of that immense size out on tour, I still have to learn to fly it before we can go anywhere! So, I’m currently doing my training to qualify as a pilot and Captain on a Boeing 747. I’m doing this at Cardiff Aviation, my aircraft maintenance facility in Wales, where we recently took possession of a rather splendid 747 simulator which I can’t wait to get practising on!

“We’re all really excited at the thought of bringing our brand new tour to fans who have never seen us play live before, and of course re-visiting all our old friends again too. You can rest assured we are all working hard to put together a spectacular show for our fans.”

The 747 is the world’s most recognizable airliner on account of its distinctive hump. With its impressive dimensions of 70.7m (232ft) length, 19.4m (63.6ft) height and a jaw-dropping wing span of 64.4m (211ft) this double-decker aircraft has a range of 13,450km (7,262nm).

Final dates, venues and ticket on sale times, along with full details of what Maiden fans can expect from The Book Of Souls World Tour, will be announced by territory starting in a few weeks’ time. As usual, where feasible, Iron Maiden Fan Club members will have exclusive access to purchase tickets before they go on general sale. Also, wherever possible, the Fan Club will again be running the First To The Barrier draw for privileged, early access to the venue to secure the best standing positions by or close to the barrier.

“Tears Of A Clown”, a track on Iron Maiden’s upcoming new album, The Book Of Souls, is dedicated to late comedian Robin Williams.

Speaking with Italy’s Corriere Della Sera frontman Bruce Dickinson explained, “My favourite song is one I didn’t write. It’s “Tears Of A Clown”, which talks about Robin Williams. I ask myself how could he be so depressed when he always seemed to be so happy.”

Robin Williams committed suicide in August 2014 after struggles with depression and addiction.

Iron Maiden’s recently released new video for "Speed Of Light" racked up over 3.2 million views in just three days, and is now pushing the 4 million mark. Written by guitarist Adrian Smith and vocalist Bruce Dickinson, "Speed Of Light" is taken from their new double album The Book Of Souls, due for global release on September 4th through BMG in North America. New behind-the-scenes footage on the video can be seen below.

The video was produced and directed by Llexi Leon with animation and visual effects by The Brewery Production Company. A huge Iron Maiden fan, this is Llexi Leon’s first music video. Creator of the cult comic book series Eternal Descent – an IP that digitally animated a cast list of metal and hard rock luminaries, Leon has further expanded into the video gaming industry. He chose to collaborate with The Brewery who’s previous film credits include 2010’s punk-rock inspired Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll with Andy Serkis, 2012’s music festival themed Spike Island with Emilia Clarke & more recently were providing VFX for the Sky Atlantic biopic on Ian Fleming.

The video is an homage to four decades of video gaming juxta-posed alongside Iron Maiden’s 40 years of incredible visual canon centring on their talisman, Eddie, as he travels through space and time to complete his Herculean task.

Behind-the-scenes footage:

“Speed Of Light” video:

The Book Of Souls will be released globally on September 4th through Parlophone Records (Sanctuary Copyrights/BMG in the US). It was recorded in Paris with their longstanding producer Kevin “Caveman” Shirley in late 2014, with the finishing touches added earlier this year. However, the band decided to delay its release so that vocalist Bruce Dickinson, who was recently given the all-clear from a tumour, would have time to recuperate sufficiently to join in the preparations for the album’s launch.

The stunning cover art was created by Mark Wilkinson who has worked with the band previously, and because this 11 track album has a total running time of 92 minutes, it is Iron Maiden’s first ever double studio album. There’s a broader split on the song-writing compared to previous Maiden records, with bassist and founder member Steve Harris contributing to seven of the tracks; six of them with Maiden’s guitarists and one sole composition. This is also the first time since 1984’s Powerslave that an Iron Maiden studio album also features two tracks written solely by Bruce Dickinson, one of which is the longest song Maiden has ever recorded! And also two Dickinson/Smith collaborations.

Steve comments: “We approached this album in a different way to how we’ve recorded previously. A lot of the songs were actually written while we were there in the studio and we rehearsed and recorded them straight away while they were still fresh, and I think that immediacy really shows in the songs, they have almost a live feel to them I think. I’m very proud of The Book Of Souls, we all are, and we can’t wait for our fans to hear it, and especially to take it out on the road next year!”

Bruce continues: “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 Guillame 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 its going to be!”

The Book Of Souls tracklisiting:

Disc 1
“If Eternity Should Fail“ (Dickinson) 8:28
“Speed Of Light“ (Smith/ Dickinson) 5:01
“The Great Unknown“ (Smith/ Harris) 6:37
“The Red And The Black“ (Harris) 13:33
“When The River Runs Deep“ (Smith/ Harris) 5:52
“The Book Of Souls“ (Gers/ Harris) 10:27

Disc 2
“Death Or Glory“ (Smith/ Dickinson) 5:13
“Shadows Of The Valley“ (Gers/ Harris) 7:32
“Tears Of A Clown“ (Smith/ Harris) 4:59
“The Man Of Sorrows“ (Murray/ Harris) 6:28
“Empire Of The Clouds“ (Dickinson) 18:01

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)

The Book Of Souls is the band’s 16th studio album since their eponymous debut in 1980 charted at #4 in the UK, in a career achieving sales of over 90 million albums worldwide. Their previous album, 2010’s The Final Frontier was Maiden’s most successful chart-wise to date, reaching #1 in 28 countries and was their highest chart debut in the U.S reaching #4 in the Billboard 200.

Due to Bruce’s illness the band had to delay touring plans but promise to be out on the road again early next year, giving time for Bruce to make a full physical recovery to be ready for the rigours of Maiden live performances.

Trooper Beer and iHartRadio will present an intimate playback party for The Book of Souls, on Thursday, September 3rd from 3:30 to 5:30 PM, and from 9 to 11 PM at Rock N Roll Ribs, the barbecue restaurant owned by drummer Nicko McBrain in Coral Springs, Florida. There will be two playback parties, the first at 3:30 PM, the second at 9 PM.

Check out BraveWords’ report from Iron Maiden’s Trooper Beer tasting event in Tampa, Florida at this location.