Simon Rushworth
If you haven’t done so already then now’s the time to download the brand new Iron Maiden track El Dorado – for free via the band’s official website.
Bruce Dickinson and the boys have announced full details of their 15th studio album with The Final Frontier due for release on August 16.
And as a taster for what promises to be another mighty metal beast you’d be mad to miss out on a cracking new tune. Dickinson said: “El Dorado is a preview of the forthcoming studio album. As we will be including it in the set of our Final Frontier World Tour we thought it would be great to thank all our fans and get them into The Final Frontier mood by giving them this song up front of the tour and album release.”
The band reunited with long-time Maiden producer Kevin “Caveman” Shirley in early 2010 at Compass Point Studios, Nassau to record the album and then moved to LA to finish the recording and do the mixing.
Compass Point Studio is very familiar to the band – it was where they recorded the Piece Of Mind (’83), Powerslave (’84) and Somewhere In Time (’86) albums.
And Dickinson added: “The studio had the same vibe and it was EXACTLY as it had been in 1983 nothing had changed! Even down to the broken shutter in the corner…same carpet….everything…it was really quite spooky.
“But we felt very relaxed in such a familiar and well-trodden environment and I think this shows in the playing and the atmosphere of the album”
Thirty years on from their eponymous debut album in April 1980, The Final Frontier will be Maiden’s 15th studio album, making a remarkable average of a new album every two years for 30 years and totalling more than 80 million album sales during this period.
The full tracklisting for the album (total running time 76:35) is:
THE FINAL FRONTIER
1. Satellite 15…..The Final Frontier 8:40
2. El Dorado 6:49
3. Mother Of Mercy 5:20
4. Coming Home 5:52
5. The Alchemist 4:29
6. Isle Of Avalon 9:06
7. Starblind 7:48
8. The Talisman 9:03
9. The Man Who Would Be King 8:28
10. When The Wild Wind Blows 10:59
The Final Frontier World Tour begins in Dallas on June 9th with 25 shows in major cities across the USA and Canada, playing to an expected 350,000 fans or more. Following this the tour will ship over to Europe starting in Dublin on July 30 and playing a few selected major festivals and stadiums, finishing in Valencia, Spain, on Aug 21 and including a concert in Transylvania.
Bass player and founder member Steve Harris added: “We’re hugely excited about this tour. I think the fans will really like the brand new stage production and lights and we will also be debuting one of the new album tracks El Dorado.
“Our Texan fans will be the very first people anywhere to hear it live so it will be interesting to see their reaction and how it goes down with the crowd on the night! Eddie has changed a bit for this tour but is possibly the most outrageous one to date…I can’t say too much about him as don’t want to spoil the surprise but I guarantee he will scare the hell out of you !”
The full list of dates for the first leg of the tour are:
JUNE
Wed 9 US Dallas, TX Superpages.Com Center
Fri 11 US Houston, TX Cynthia Mitchell Pavilion Woodlands
Sat 12 US San Antonio TX AT&T Center
Mon 14 US Denver CO Comfort Dental Amphitheatre
Wed 16 US Albuquerque The Pavilion
Thu 17 US Phoenix AZ Cricket Wireless Pavilion
Sat 19 US San Bernardino CA, San Manuel Amphitheatre
Sun 20 US Concord CA, Sleep Train Pavilion
Tue 22 US Auburn WA, White River Amphitheater
Thu 24 CAN Vancouver BC, GM Place
Sat 26 CAN Edmonton AB Rexall Place
Sun 27 CAN Calgary, AB Saddledome
Tue 29 CAN Saskatoon SK Credit Union Centre
Wed 30 CAN Winnipeg MB, MTS Center
JULY
Sat 3 CAN Toronto, ON Molson Amphitheatre
Tues 6 CAN Ottawa, ON, Cisco Blues Festival
Wed 7 CAN Montreal QC Bell Centre
Fri 9 CAN Quebec, QC Summer Festival
Sun 11 US Holmdel NJ, PNC
Mon 12 US New York NY, Madison Square Garden
Wed 14 US Pittsburgh PA First Niagara Pavilion
Thu 15 US Cleveland OH, Blossom Music Center
Sat 17 US Detroit MI, DTE Music Theatre
Sun 18 US Chicago IL, First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
Tue 20 US Washington DC, Jiffy Lube Live
Fri 30 IRELAND, Dublin, The O2
AUG
Sun 1 UK Knebworth, Sonisphere Festival,
Thu 5 GERMANY Wacken Festival
Sat 7 SWEDEN Stockholm Stora Skuggan Sonisphere Festival
Sun 8 FINLAND Pori Kirjurinluoto Sonisphere Festival
Wed 11 NORWAY Bergenhus Festning Koengen
Sat 14 HUNGARY Sziget Festival
Sun 15 TRANSYLVANIA Cluj, Polux Mall
Tue 17 ITALY Villa Manin Codroipe, Nr Udine
Thu 19 BELGIUM Pukkelpop Festival
Sat 21 SPAIN Valencia Auditorio Marina Sur