IRON MAIDEN’s “The Book Of Souls” tour landed in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Friday night (February 26th). Good quality fan-filmed footage from the BOK Centre can be seen below, posted Bravewords.com.
Iron Maidens’ setlist on the night was as follows:
“If Eternity Should Fail”
“Speed Of Light”
“Children Of The Damned”
“Tears Of A Clown”
“The Red And The Black”
“The Trooper”
“Powerslave”
“Death Or Glory”
“The Book Of Souls”
“Hallowed Be Thy Name”
“Fear Of The Dark”
“Iron Maiden”
Encore:
“The Number Of The Beast”
“Blood Brothers”
“Wasted Years”
Jimmy Kay and Alan Dixon from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to former Iron Maiden Vocalist Blaze Bayley about his new, first of three albums (concept trilogy) and his upcoming tour.
When asked about the story behind the new concept album ‘Infinite Entanglement’
“I think this is a really big story, so I started thinking about it like Dune and Lord of the Rings and if I was going to do something like that then it will be done in three albums. This is album is part one of a trilogy. And the story is told across three albums.”
“To keep it very simple it’s about a man who does not know if he is human, It’s set 100 years in the future and he is on a spaceship and it’s how he deals with the fact that he will be one of the first people ever to live for 1000 years because of the advances in technology. And the question, is he human or not? And the story expands from there. Everything is not what it seems and he has been chosen for the mission. It’s a mystery, horror set in space and this is part 1.”
One his thoughts about writing a concept album
“I really wanted to do something like War of the Worlds style and Operation Mindcrime. I wanted it so as a listener you can enjoy each song without knowing the story but if you want to look at the sleeve notes, if you wanted to get deeper into it, you can see the connection. I would like something that I can listen to 100 times. I want to create that Holy Diver, the Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell, the Iron Maiden The Number of the beast, I want to create one of those classics and each time I create an album that’s what I want to do.”
On his release date for the second and third albums
“We have half of the of album for two written and we have some of the music and one of the songs for number three. As we go along on tour and I am writing the rest of the story, then we will come up with the rest of the songs.”
On his plans to release this story in a book format
“I’m planning a book, its will be with album three, the book will come out but it will be a limited edition just for the fans.”
IRON MAIDEN‘s brand new ‘Ed Force One’ 747 arrived in Cardiff, Wales late last night, Thursday 17th February, ahead of the much anticipated “The Book Of Souls” world tour. The band stated on their official website:
“The new and improved (and much bigger) Ed Force One landed in Cardiff a couple of hours ago, and isn’t she a beauty!! More pics tomorrow when it’s daylight…”
The Boeing 747-400 Jumbo Jet is almost twice the size and over three times the weight of the Boeing 757 used on previous tours. Check out some photos:
More details on the new 747 can be read here. For all tour dates which begin on 24th February in Florida, visit this location.
This year’s National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) event took place in Anaheim, California from January 21st – 24th. Metal Shock Finland freelancers Sandy and Bobby HQ Storm attended, providing coverage for us.
Who better to catch up with than one of the best drummers in the business, IRON MAIDEN‘s Nicko McBrain! Nicko discusses his reunion with Sonor Drums as well as the band’s latest album “The Book Of Souls” and even his Rock n Roll Ribs restaurant. A couple of excerpts from Nicko‘s chat with Sandy can be read below and the full interview is available on the video:
On his new drum kit to be revealed, Nicko enthused:
“There’s something very very special that they’ve done for me on this drum kit, which I can’t really tell you about cos it’s gonna be revealed at the first show. It’s an absolute splendid, spectacular drum set and I think it’s probably gonna top the Somewhere In Time kit and that’s thirty years ago.”
Talking about “The Book Of Souls”, Nicko stated:
“Every album we’ve made is the best album we’ve ever made. If not in people’s interpretation of the music, it was in terms of the way we made it and the bond that we had after all these years. We had the best fun in William Tell Studios in Paris – we wrote in the studio, which is the first time we’ve ever actually done it. The whole album was written in the studio.”
Ironmaidenlegacy.com introduce IRON MAIDEN: LEGACY OF THE BEAST. An epic free-to-play mobile role playing game, set in the expansive Iron Maiden universe. The game will be available this summer. The makers describe the game as follows:
“Battle as Eddie in his many guises across worlds inspired by the rich lore and music of Iron Maiden – one of the most iconic and influential bands of all time.
A mysterious force has shattered Eddie’s soul and scattered the shards. Travel through time and space collecting the pieces as you encounter a cast of dramatic and engaging characters.
A powerful soundtrack enhances gameplay, using songs spanning Iron Maiden’s entire career, including previously unheard live recordings adapted for the game by engineer Tony Newton under the close scrutiny of Steve Harris.”
As it is our tradition to announce our “Top Metal” each year, we, Metal Shock Finland’s staff, met up again and voted for our favourite albums of 2015. There is a list of the Top 5 Metal Albums which you can see below, however I should mention that we believe that almost all the metal albums which were released this year were great, except for a few disappointing ones. Check out our list and share yours with us. We wish you all a wonderful and metal new year!
1
IRON MAIDEN
Album: The Book of Souls
Record Label: Parlophone
Release Date: 4 September 2015
2
SAXON
Album: Battering Ram
Record Label: UDR Music
Release Date: 16 October 2015
3
HELLOWEEN
Album: My God Given Right
Record Label: Nuclear Blast
Release Date: May 29 2015
4
Gus G.
Album: Brand New Revolution
Record Label: Century Media Records
Release Date: 24 July 2015
5
AMORPHIS
Album: Under The Red Cloud
Record Label: Nuclear Blast
Release Date: 4 September 2015
THE ROCK ALCHEMIST – Italian Rock Band from Turin with a strong sonic identity that blends modern rock with progressive, hard, alternative, and pop elements!
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 