Guesting on The Eddie Trunk Podcast, Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson discussed the band's new album, Senjutsu, tour plans, and he revealed one of his favourite Maiden songs to perform live.

Dickinson: "One of the songs I really enjoyed doing... and in fact, because in lockdown, I was just trying to improve my Iron Maiden pinball score, and, of course, we've got some really cool tracks on the pinball machine, including 'Rime Of The Ancient Mariner' which we haven't done for ages. And I just love doing that song. The storytelling element of it is genius, and then the breakdown, the moody bit, then into 'The curse it lives on in their eyes' bit - it gives me goosebumps just listening to it. And I'm thinking, 'Wow, we're going to do that again one day, that's just awesome.' So stuff like that. 

I'd love to do one or two rarities, I'd love to do 'The Prisoner' again, 'Stranger In A Strange Land' stuff like that. I like things that have a little bit of groove to them."

Check out the interview here.

Iron Maiden's Senjutsu album was released on September 3rd via BMG, and is available to order/save at IronMaiden.com

For Senjutsu - loosely translated as ‘tactics & strategy,’ the band once again enlisted the services of Mark Wilkinson to create the spectacular Samurai themed cover artwork, based on an idea by Steve Harris. With a running time of a little under 82 minutes, Senjutsu, like their previous record The Book Of Souls, will be a double CD/Triple vinyl album.

Steve says: “We chose to record at Guillaume Tell Studio in France again as the place has such a relaxed vibe. The setup there is perfect for our needs; the building used to be a cinema and has a really high ceiling so there’s a great acoustic sound. We recorded this album in the same way we did The Book Of Souls in that we’d write a song, rehearse it and then put it down together straight away while it was all fresh in our minds. There’s some very complex songs on this album which took a lot of hard work to get them exactly as we wanted them to sound, so the process was at times very challenging, but Kevin is great at capturing 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 fans to hear it.”

Bruce continues: “We’re all really excited about this album. We recorded it back in early 2019 during a break in the Legacy tour so we could maximize our touring yet still have a long set up period before release to prepare great album art and something special as a video. Of course the pandemic delayed things more - so much for the best laid plans – or should that be ‘strategies’!?  The songs are very varied, and some of them are quite long. There’s also one or two songs which sound pretty different to our usual style, and I think Maiden fans will be surprised -  in a good way, I hope!"

Senjutsu is available in the following formats:

- Standard 2CD Digipak
- Deluxe 2CD Book Format
- Deluxe heavyweight 180G Triple Black Vinyl
- Special Edition Triple Silver And Black Marble Vinyl
- Special Edition Triple Red and Black Marble Vinyl
- Super Deluxe Boxset featuring CD, Blu Ray and Exclusive Memorabilia
- Digital album [streaming and download]

Tracklisting:

"Senjutsu" (8:20) - Smith/Harris
"Stratego" (4:59) - Gers/Harris
"The Writing On The Wall" (6:13) - Smith/Dickinson
"Lost In A Lost World" (9:31) - Harris
"Days Of Future Past" (4:03) - Smith/Dickinson
"The Time Machine" (7:09) - Gers/Harris
"Darkest Hour" (7:20) - Smith/Dickinson
"Death Of The Celts" (10:20) - Harris
"The Parchment" (12:39) - Harris
"Hell On Earth" (11:19) - Harris

"Stratego" video:

"Senjutsu" visualizer:

"The Writing On The Wall" video: