Heavy-Metal legends Iron Maiden has announced their 17th studio album ‘Senjutsu’ via Parlophone Records, the band’s first in six years. This will be a double album that will run to just under 82 minutes and is set for release on September 3rd.
The band recorded the album in Paris with longstanding producer Kevin Shirley and was co-produced by Steve Harris. Titled ‘Senjutsu’ roughly translated from the Japanese for “tactics and strategy,” the record will be packaged in a similar style to their previous album ‘The Book Of Souls’, as a double CD/Triple vinyl album (pictured below).
This latest project will follow on from their new single ‘The Writing On The Wall’ which was released on Thursday, July 15 with a music video that received much acclaim for its animated style.
The band’s co-producer Steve Harris stated that “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.”
He then went on to say “There are 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.”
Iron maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson then also added “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 are 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!”
The record will be released on a multitude of formats from a standard 2CD Digipak or Special Edition Coloured Vinyl to a Super Deluxe Boxset. All these formats will be available to pre-order from tomorrow Wednesday, July 21.
Iron Maiden, ‘Senjutsu’ Tracklist
1. Senjutsu
2. Stratego
3. The Writing on the Wall
4. Lost in a Lost World
5. Days of Future Past
6. The Time Machine
7. Darkest Hour
8. Death of the Celts
9. The Parchment
10. Hell on Earth
