Iron Maiden have premiered their new video for the opening track of the upcoming album The Final Frontier, to be released next month. The clip for "Satellite 15... The Final Frontier" is actually pretty cool, so check it at this location.

The video was produced by award-winning production company Darkside Animation Films. Darkside's creative team includes animators who've created effects for feature films including "Lost in Space", "Gladiator" and "Black Hawk Down". The script was written by the director of BBC Radio's "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy", and the live action was co-ordinated and directed by Nick Scott Studios.

As well as working round the clock to turn out over three months of animation in eight weeks flat, the Darkside team developed entirely new technology to bring to life as never before Iron Maiden's mascot, Eddie, in his new alien incarnation. A total of 141 shots combined live action with integrated CGI as well as full 3D animation, resulting in a complete running time of five minutes - that's over seven thousand frames, taking up to half an hour to render each frame!

Intriguingly, some of the integral footage was shot at Rendlesham Forest in Southern England, which is associated with The Rendlesham Forest Incident due to a series of reported sightings of unexplained lights and alleged landing of a craft of unknown origin.

More news about the new album here.

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Source:	ironmaiden.com
Band profile:	Iron Maiden

The release date for Iron Maiden's new studio album The Final Frontier is now confirmed for Monday 16th August. The new album features artwork illustrated by Melvyn Grant and, to mark the occasion, the band have made special arrangements for one new album track "El Dorado" to be made available Worldwide as a FREE digital download MP3 with immediate effect. Click here for your free download (US fans, go here).

Singer Bruce Dickinson explains: "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 (all dates here) 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.

Bruce comments: "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 over 80 million album sales during this period.

The Final Frontier cover art] tracklist:

01. Satellite 15... The Final Frontier
02. El Dorado
03. Mother Of Mercy
04. Coming Home
05. The Alchemist
06. Isle Of Avalon
07. Starblind
08. The Talisman
09. The Man Who Would Be King
10. When The Wild Wind Blows

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Source:	ironmaiden.com
Band profile:	Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden are delighted to confirm they will perform at this year's Québec City Summer Festival.

This is the 43rd year for the Festival, which began in 1968 by showcasing local artists, and has since evolved into an annual major attraction featuring the cream of International talent across all genres of music. The Festival runs July 8 - 18 with an amazing 300 shows spanning 11 days, making it Canada's biggest outdoor artistic event. Maiden, who last week won a Juno award for their documentary DVD Flight 666, will be headlining the Festival's Bell Stage - Plains Of Abraham on Friday July 9, their first appearance in Quebec City in four years. The show forms part of the first leg of Maiden's Final Frontier World Tour which kicks off in America in Dallas June 9th and moves into Canada late June for a series of dates there before heading back into the US, then on into Europe.

Noteworthy dates of the festival include:

July 9th - featuring Iron Maiden and Dream Theater

July 15th - featuring Rush

July 18th - featuring Rammstein and Apocalyptica

All ticket info and full lin-up on http://www.infofestival.com.

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Source:	ironmaiden.com
Band profile:	Iron Maiden
Event:	Québec City Summer Festival

Screaming orgasm time for the North American metalheads, ladies and gents.

Iron Maiden are pleased to announce that their forthcoming new studio album will be called The Final Frontier, and is expected be released late summer of this year.

The announcement comes with news of a North American Tour with very special guests Dream Theater to open in Dallas, Texas, on 9th June and finish in Washington D.C. on 20th July, making it Maiden's most extensive North American tour in many years. Also Coheed & Cambria are rumored to be on this tour - Ed.]

Following these shows in USA and Canada The Final Frontier World Tour will travel back to Europe for a few selected major festival and stadium shows with the band planning to continue to many other countries in 2011 (full currently confirmed dates below).

The full Live Nation press release for the North American Tour is posted here.

The Final Frontier 2010 North American Tour

Jun. 09 - Dallas, TX - Superpages.com Center
Jun. 11 - Houston, TX - Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Jun. 12 - San Antonio, TX - AT&T Center
Jun. 14 - Denver, CO - Comfort Dental Amphitheatre
Jun. 16 - Albuquerque, NM - The Pavilion
Jun. 17 - Phoenix, AZ - Cricket Wireless Pavilion
Jun. 19 - San Bernardino, CA - San Manuel Amphitheatre
Jun. 20 - Concord, CA - Sleep Train Pavilion
Jun. 22 - Auburn, WA - White River Amphitheatre
Jun. 24 - Vancouver, BC - GM Place
Jun. 26 - Edmonton, AB - Rexall Place
Jun. 29 - Saskatoon, SK - Credit Union Center
Jun. 30 - Winnipeg, MB - MTS Center (no Dream Theater)
Jul. 03 - Toronto, ON - Molson Amphitheatre
Jul. 07 - Montreal, QC - Bell Centre
Jul. 11 - Holmdel, NJ - PNC
Jul. 12 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden
Jul. 14 - Pittsburgh, PA - First Niagra Pavilion
Jul. 15 - Cleveland, OH - Blossom Music Center
Jul. 17 - Detroit, MI - DTE Energy Music Theatre
Jul. 18 - Chicago, IL - First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
Jul. 20 - Washington DC - Jiffy Lube Live

The Final Frontier 2010 European Tour

Jul. 30 - UK, Knebworth - Sonisphere Festival
Aug. 05 - GER, Wacken - Wacken Open Air 2010
Aug. 07 - SWE, Stockholm - Sonisphere Festival
Aug. 08 - FIN, Pori - Sonisphere Festival
Aug. 11 - NOR, Bergen

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Source:	ironmaiden.com
Band profile:	Iron Maiden
Event:	Iron Maiden: The Final Frontier 2010 N. American Tour

British heavy rock legends, Iron Maiden, in association with Banger Productions, EMI Records, Universal (USA) and Arts Alliance Media, announce that they will be releasing a feature length documentary film into cinemas worldwide on April 21st 2009.

As you may know from Rod's tour diaries, Iron Maiden have been working on a feature length documentary. Entitled "Iron Maiden: Flight 666", the movie follows the band on the first leg of their Somewhere Back In Time World Tour in February and March of 2008 as they experienced the most ambitious and adventurous tour in rock history, and will be released in April 2009 in association with EMI Records and Universal in the USA.

The Maiden tour plan was something that had never been attempted before on such a grand scale. Circumnavigating the globe, the band flew in a specially customised Boeing 757 airliner with their crew and 12 tons of music and stage equipment on board, playing 23 sold out stadium and arena shows in 13 countries in just 45 days, travelling 70,000km and performing to almost half a million fans.

The band were accompanied everywhere by award-winning documentary makers Banger Productions from Toronto in Canada, who have received international critical acclaim for their previous movies "Metal, A Headbangers Journey" and recently "Global Metal". Filmmakers Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn and their team bring an intimate behind the scenes view of this remarkable journey, with a close look at the logistics involved and following Team Maiden in the cockpit, on the plane and on and offstage, getting to the heart of this global adventure of a band that has very rarely even let cameras backstage before.

Shot in High Definition and with superb 5.1 surround sound, mixed by the bands producer Kevin "Caveman" Shirley, Flight 666 brings to the screen all the drama, excitement and hysteria that followed the band around the world every time "Ed Force One" touched down in a new country. The film documents the intensity of the punishing show schedules, the struggle with the time zones, the pressures of ensuring that every performance matched the energy of the many thousands of ecstatic and expectant fans from many cultural backgrounds, unusual angles from the spectacular shows... and of course the fun had on the way!.

Iron Maiden: Flight 666 is an honest and revealing portrait of one of the worlds most successful rock bands and a must-see for all Maiden fans.

A special international "Iron Maiden" day is being planned for 21st April with simultaneous showings of "Iron Maiden: Flight 666" in selected Digital cinemas around the world - we will of course bring you more information on this nearer the time.

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Source:	ironmaiden.com
Band profile:	Iron Maiden

US metallers Machine Head have posted a music video online for their cover of Iron Maiden's "Hallowed Be Thy Name".

The video was directed once again by Mike Sloat and is now available at this location.

The band adds: "Originally appearing on Kerrang's "Maiden Heaven" tribute CD, the song is now being released as a bonus track on "The Blackening" Special Edition, which was released on October 28 via Roadrunner Records!"

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Source:	blog.myspace.com
Band profile:	Machine Head

Eddie the Head, the demoniacal mascot of the British heavy metal group Iron Maiden, has made his way into the debating chamber of a Spanish town hall. Eddie's cadaverous face appears regularly at council meetings in the town of Villava, in Navarre, as part of a war of political symbols between local parties.

Basque separatist councillors insist on hanging the Basque flag on their desks during debates, upsetting other politicians at the town hall. Most dislike the idea of the Navarre region being treated as part of the Basque country.

The Socialists have responded by hanging an Iron Maiden flag on their desks. The Socialist leader, José Luis Uriz, said: "The Iron Maiden flag means a lot to me. If I have to put up with their flag, they'll have to put up with Eddie's face."

The conservative Navarrese People's Union party has joined the protest. Its councillors now hang the flag of the local La Liga football club, Osasuna, from their desks.

Source:	guardian.co.uk
Band profile:	Iron Maiden

As posted on the band's website, Iron Maiden will be releasing yet another "Best Of" CD:

"As you guys will have read from our press release, 'the best of' is to help introduce new friends into the world of Maiden. We are not trying to sell this to the legions of our well valued Maiden supporters who probably already have these 'tracks' (and no doubt the entire collection of albums!).

From the amount of tickets sold there are a lot of people coming to our shows this year who won't have seen us before, so this is intended for them as an introduction, similar to previous ones of this nature. As with 'Edward the Great' we will arrange for the front and back cd artwork to be available for you to print free nearer the release date so, if you want, you can have them for your collections."

New fans can download the entire album without charge from http://www.ironmaiden.com as a high-quality audio file (WMA) which is a typically powerful 320 kbps. Fans will then be able to listen to the entire album at their leisure three times before the download expires. The listener is then given a simple option to upgrade and purchase the album as a full traditional DRM-free download (so they can then copy or do as they like with the album)."

The compilation is entitled "Somewhere Back In Time" cover] with the following tracklist:

01. Churchill Speech
02. Aces High
03. 2 Minutes To Midnight
04. The Trooper
05. Wasted Years
06. Children Of The Damned
07. The Number Of The Beast
08. Run To The Hills
09. Phantom Of The Opera
10. The Evil That Men Do
11. Wrathchild
12. Can I Play With Madness
13. Powerslave
14. Hallowed Be Thy Name
15. Iron Maiden

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Source:	ironmaiden.com
Band profile:	Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden are very pleased to announce that Avenged Sevenfold will join them as special guests at Twickenham Stadium on July 5, Paris Bercy July 2 and 3 and a number of dates in Finland and Scandanavia (as listed below) on their "Somewhere Back In Time World Tour."

Following the mighty success of their recent album, "Avenged Sevenfold" (which charted at No 3 in Billboard in the USA and is close to gold in the UK), the band are currently on an extensive sold out UK tour and vocalist M. Shadows comments - "I've seen Maiden play countless times and am continually blown away, not just by their live show, but also by the great records they continue to make. We have learned much from Iron Maiden and are honored to be sharing the stage with some of the greatest icons in rock music."

Maiden Manager Rod Smallwood comments: "Its a tremendous time for Metal fans right now with some fantastic young bands making a real mark for themselves. Maiden are delighted to be bringing their fans one of the very best, Avenged Sevenfold, who will be joining them on a number of their European Summer shows. It all adds up to an even more memorable night out for the fans! We will now be considering who will play in the slot before Avenged at Twickenham."

For more information on Ax7 go to their website at http://www.avengedsevenfold.com.

The dates on which Ax7 special guest with Maiden are as follows:

JUNE
Fri 27 - ITA, Bologna Parco Nord Gods of Metal
Sun 29 - BEL, Dessel Graspop

JULY
Tue 1 - FRA, Paris Palais Omnisports de Bercy
Wed 2 - FRA, Paris Palais Omnisports de Bercy
Sat 5 - ENG, London Twickenham
Wed 16 - SWE, Stockholm Stadium
Fri 18 - FIN, Helsinki Olympic Stadium
Sat 19 - FIN, Tampere Ratina Stadium
Tue 22 - NOR, Trondheim Lerkendalstadium
Thu 24 - NOR, Oslo Valle Hovin
Sat 26 - SWE, Gothenburg Ullevi
Sun 27 - DEN, Horsens Gods Bane Pladsen

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Source:	ironmaiden.com
Band profile:	Iron Maiden

British heavy metal legends Iron Maiden announced they have renewed and extended their historic 28-year recording relationship with EMI for the world excluding USA.

Rod Smallwood commented: "We've had three tremendous decades working with EMI and have many friends there. Through many "regimes" EMI have always given us their full support and our relationship with their companies worldwide has always been excellent. We've got some great plans for 2008 and beyond, and I can't wait to get back on the road next year on a tour which appropriately celebrates the band's formative years. "

Tony Wadsworth added: "Since the early eighties Maiden has been a flagship band for EMI and we have enjoyed a fantastic long term relationship. Now that we can work with and support them in their broader music activities, our goal is to help build on the foundations already in place for an even more successful future."

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Source:	ironmaiden.com
Band profile:	Iron Maiden

This first leg of Iron Maiden's 'Somewhere Back In Time' World Tour will open in Mumbai India on Feb 1st, and continue through Australia, Japan, Los Angeles and Mexico, followed by the band's first ever concerts in Costa Rica and Columbia, and then on to Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Puerto Rica and New York, before finishing in Toronto, Canada, on March 16th. Over the 45 day period it is anticipated that Maiden will play to well over 400,000 fans in 21 cities in 10 countries, flying close to 50,000 miles in the specially refitted plane (full schedule below).

Comments Bruce Dickinson, "I have been flying commercial passenger jets for Astraeus Airlines for a few years now and we are commissioning an Astraeus Boeing 757. It will go in for overhaul, painting and conversion in November which will then give us time to ensure we have all the necessary safety documentation, especially with regard to fire safety. It also means it could possibly be flying commercial air routes decked out in Maiden colours for a couple of months before we start!

"Looking at the list of places we would like to play we have always had problems joining up the dots. With sea containers in various places it slows down the whole touring process, which is fine if you want a holiday but not if you want to play. It's great to see places but we don't want to sit around for a week waiting for gear to get from, say, Australia to South America, so this way we can get to more fans in more places en route in the same time period"

To tie in with forthcoming 2008 releases on DVD of the classic 'Live After Death' concert video (full details coming soon) this tour, aptly entitled 'Somewhere Back In Time', will revisit the band's history by focusing almost entirely on the 80's in both choice of songs played and the stage set, which will be based around the legendary Egyptian Production of the 1984-85 'Powerslave Tour'. This will arguably be the most elaborate and spectacular show the band have ever presented, and will include some key elements of their Somewhere In Time tour of 1986/7, such as the Cyborg Eddie.

Steve Harris comments "l always loved the Powerslave show which I think was arguably our most spectacular ever, so taking it out again is really going to be a lot of fun. Taking our own 757 really makes it a lot more flexible for us and we intend to ram into the specially constructed cargo holds as much of the show as we possibly can. The schedule we have been able to put together due to this flexibility l think is very exciting, taking us to some places we haven't been in a long while like Australia and some we have never been to like Columbia and Costa Rica. It is always refreshing going to new places and we hear the fans there are incredible! It's a lot of flying but will be well worth it.

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Source:	ironmaiden.com
Band profile:	Iron Maiden
Event:	Iron Maiden: Somewhere Back In Time World Tour

As posted on the band's website, Iron Maiden announce their most ambitious and extraordinary touring plans ever -- and are very pleased to announce that this will include Australia for the first time in 15 years!

The 'Somewhere Back In Time' World Tour 2008 will be in three sections, starting in February and March 2008 with the first leg encompassing major concerts in 20 selected cities on five continents in seven weeks including India, Japan, North America, Central and South America, and, of course, Australia, opening in Perth on Feb 4 and continuing through Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane:

Somewhere Back In Time, AUSTRALIA 2008

February :-
Monday 4th, Burswood Dome, Perth
Wednesday 6th, Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
Saturday 9th, Acer Arena, Sydney
Tuesday 12th, Entertainment Centre, Brisbane

The tour then continues with more concerts in North America in late May and June before finishing with a third leg in July and August encompassing major stadiums and festivals all over Europe. During the tour the band is expected to play to well over one and a half million fans and travel close to 100,000 miles.

For further comments by the band, click here.

UPDATED:
According to a posting on the Iron Maiden fan site MaidenFans.com, Iron Maiden will headline the "metal day" at the Rock In Rio festival in Madrid and Lisbon as part of its recently announced "Somewhere Back in Time Tour 2008". Apparently those are the only shows the band will play in Spain and Portugal.

In other news, it has reportedly been announced that Iron Maiden will play a mega-concert at the Universitario de Caracas stadium in Caracas, Venezuela as part of its 2008 world tour.

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Source:	ironmaiden.com
Band profile:	Iron Maiden
Event:	Iron Maiden: Somewhere Back In Time World Tour

Iron Maiden have confirmed their first and only German appearance of 2008 will be at Wacken Open Air Festival.

From the official site:

"We are proud to announce that Iron Maiden will play their only German show of 2008 at Wacken Open Air. The pre sale has just begun.
Nationwide ticket hotline 0049 0 4627 18 38 38. Or visit http://www.wacken.com"

Also Kreator has been confirmed already, as can be read in the latest Dutch news article.

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Source:	ironmaiden.com
Band profile:	Iron Maiden
Event:	Wacken Open Air 2008

As a grand finale to their festival/stadium summer tour, Iron Maiden will perform a special one-off performance at London's Brixton Academy on Sunday 24th June in aid of The Clive Burr MS Trust fund.

Brixton Academy holds just 4,800 and tickets for this intimate performance will go on sale to members of the Iron Maiden fan club at 9am on Friday 25th May. The box office will open to the general public a week later on Friday 1st June.

This will be Iron Maiden's final UK appearance for at least a year, and will be the last time they will perform this years special set list of songs from their No 1 International album 'A Matter Of Life and Death' and the album 'The Number of the Beast'. The show will be the last chance to see the spectacular stage production that the band have been performing with around the world, including Eddie and his tank up close for the last time. Special guests will be Lauren Harris and eight piece Indian Rock act Parikrama, who came to the band's attention when they supported Maiden in Bangalore in March, and will be the first time an Indian rock band have toured the UK.

The Clive Burr MS Trust Fund was founded in 2001 when it was learnt that original Iron Maiden drummer Clive Burr, who performed on their first three albums, Iron Maiden, Killers and The Number of the Beast, was suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. Through previous Iron Maiden performances at Brixton Academy and Hammersmith Apollo, and some amazing fund raising efforts of the fans, the trust has improved the quality of life with financial support to Clive and other MS sufferers.

Reflecting on the forthcoming show Bruce Dickinson commented:
"We added this final date to help continue the great work that the Clive Burr MS Fund has done. We've had an amazing time on this tour so far and the summer shows are shaping up to be something quite special in their own right. It promises to be a fun and special way to celebrate the end of the tour with all our friends who have supported us and Clive over the years."

Advance ticket information has already been sent to all online Iron Maiden Fan club members. Ticket master are kindly donating a proportion of their booking charges to the fund.

Source:	ironmaiden.com
Band profile:	Iron Maiden

The following message was taken from the ofiicial Iron Maiden website:

Always keen to take Metal to new places, Maiden will for the first time ever play in India, on the spectacular grounds of Bangalore's Palace on Saturday 17th March, marking the first time a major metal band has ever played in the subcontinent.

Iron Maiden's new album, 'A Matter Of Life And Death' reached No 2 in the Indian album charts after debuting at No 4, which is believed to be the highest chart position in India ever for any rock act. Maiden will be the first to bring in a full massive western style stage production - air freighting in almost 20 tons of backline equipment and their huge stage Production for this one show.

Another new territory for the band to visit is Dubai in the United Arab Emirates where they will headline the Desert Rock Festival on Friday 9th March. This is the 4th Desert Rock Festival and is an event which has grown steadily in stature and Iron Maiden will be the biggest act to headline the festival to date. It is expected to be the most succcessful yet. Maiden's new album was Top 5 in Arabia.

Dates announced so far are as below. Further headline shows will be released first on their website www.ironmaiden.com with full show details and ticket links.

March 2007
Fri 9th - Dubai Desert Rock Festival, UAE
Sun 11th - Hellinikon Basketball Arena, Athens, Greece
Wed 14th - Belgrade, Serbia
Sat 17th - Bangalore, Bangalore Palace, India

June 2007
Wed 6th - Ostrava Banik Football Stadium, Ostrava, Czech Republic
Fri 8th - Sudweststadion , Ludwigshafen, Germany
Sun 10th - Download Festival , Donington Park, England
Thu 14th - Heineken Jammin Festival, Venice, Italy
Sat 16th - Fields of Rock Festival, Zwolle, Holland
Sun 17th - MSV Stadium, Duisburg, Germany
Wed 20th - Olympic Stadium, Rome, Italy
Sat 23rd - Graspop Festival, Dessel, Belgium

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Source:	ironmaiden.com
Band profile:	Iron Maiden
Event:	Desert Rock Festival