Eight songs written for the new Maiden album

[Spiff]

They're going to the studio in a couple of weeks... but the album won't be out until next year? Hmm.

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=132833

On Friday, January 1, IRON MAIDEN drummer Nicko McBrain told Eddie Trunk — co-host of the VH1 Classic television program "That Metal Show" who has a long-running radio show, "Friday Night Rocks", on New York's Q104.3 FM — that the band will enter the studio in a couple weeks to start work on a new CD. According to Trunk, Nicko "said there was about eight songs written so far so the band would probably need to come up with a few more new songs while recording. [He added that] the material was a little different than past albums and they were taking their time with the recording schedule." McBrain also stated that the "new CD probably won't come out until 2011," according to Trunk.

IRON MAIDEN guitarist Janick Gers revealed to BBC News in November that the band was on its way "to Paris for three weeks to work on some new stuff." He added, "The most important thing for a band is to create new music, otherwise you're not valid — you become a parody."

IRON MAIDEN will headline this year's edition of the U.K.'s Sonisphere festival, which will be held Saturday, July 31, 2010 and Sunday, August 1, 2010 at Knebworth.

MAIDEN became the first outfit in history to travel round the world in a customized jet during their "Somewhere Back in Time" tour, as detailed in award-winning movie "Flight 666".

The Boeing 757 carried musicians, crew, gear and guests with singer Bruce Dickinson, a qualified airline pilot, at the controls.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Hmm. Stating that the material is quite different from the last few albums is interesting. I hope they continue to be progressive an interesting as they have been doing.

Still tossing up whether I should be thinking about seeing them this year or not, especially being that I have no idea what sort of setlist they would play. I would kick myself if I didn't go and they pulled out some rare favourites, but it is perhaps likely that they would play a pretty standard best of set anyway. Hmm.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

I made the mistake of reading some of the comments bellow this on Blabbermouth. Fuck people are stupid.

 

[Mark]

Yeah, Blabbermouth is something.

I honestly don't see the album not coming out until 2011 -- any other time they've done pre-album summer festivals, the album's come out ~ Oct/Nov giving them 2 months of touring before Xmas, then 3-4 months after Xmas... but who knows?

 

[Goreripper]

I guess we're going to be hearing about Bruce flying them in their own jet for about as long as we heard about him being called "Air-Raid Siren".

 

[Priest of Evil]

Hmm. Stating that the material is quite different from the last few albums is interesting. I hope they continue to be progressive an interesting as they have been doing.

Yeah i picked up on that but if they go back to the original Maiden sound that could be cool too!

 

[Bucko]

I guess we're going to be hearing about Bruce flying them in their own jet for about as long as we heard about him being called "Air-Raid Siren".

really ????

 

[salty]

"The most important thing for a band is to create new music, otherwise you're not valid — you become a parody."

But then you must go out and play the same setlist for 200 years.

 

[Southy]

But that's entertainment, not parody......?? See what I did there? well did ya?

 

[Goreripper]

"The most important thing for a band is to create new music, otherwise you're not valid — you become a parody."

But then you must go out and play the same setlist for 200 years.

I thinking that when I read it.

 

[Mark]

Indeed.

Are there any other bands that play exactly the same setlist for an entire tour, and consider themselves (and are considered by others) a serious group?

Love the Maiden, but shit - mix it up! Said as much to one of their team once and was fobbed off with a piss-poor excuse, so I don't think the band even recognise it as being an issue.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Silly buggers. They did change the set for the last leg of the Somewhere Back In Time tour, which makes me wish I had have gone to NZ to catch them again. Also, they did bust out a couple of unexpected songs for it, so they could do something great with these festivals this year, but who knows really.

As much as people piss on Metallica, fuck they know how to run their ship as a premier live band.

 

[Spiff]

I honestly don't know why Maiden doesn't change their setlist. Some acts, like Dream Theater and Bruce Springsteen never play the same set. I dunno... maybe Steve just knows what works and wants to stick with that. There must be a reason.

 

[phlogiston]

I think their shows are pretty well choreographed, so they like to be where they're meant to be at whatever point in the song.

I mean, watch Flight 666 again where they're talking about the lighting design and whatnot. I expect the same sort of effort would be put into the explosives and everything, so if Bruce isn't there at that point in the song then he's gonna get a rocket up the clacker.

When it's a band that just gets up there an plays the instruments I can understand changing stuff around, but when there's as much stage planning as goes into a Maiden gig I can understand them not wanting to muck with it too much.

 

[Mark]

But surely they can have designated set pieces - i.e., songs they're going to play every night - that have the flash and bang and glitter etc, and then mix in a bunch of different stuff around it? I don't expect them to go all Pearl Jam and have plain stage shows, but if the 'tallica can do it then surely Maiden can?

 

[TinMan666]

i kinda agree with you guys, that they should mix it up a bit more. But lets not forget what would happen the second they dropped Trooper, Run To The Hills etc... it'd be a major fkn sookfest on the internet. Also lets not forget they pretty much always do at least 6 songs from the new album. So I guess the thought process is "6 news one, plus all the essential old ones".

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Yeah, with a long list of "fan favourites", they would have a tough time getting away with a set with less popular stuff being played in favour of The Trooper, NOTB, Run To The Hills, etc. Still, would be great to see!

Phlog is probably on to something, but I agree with Mark, surely there can be some middle ground in there, where they keep much of their set choreographed, and leave space to breathe and mix it up as well. Perhaps after going out and playing all of the last album start to finish in favour of the usual formula, they are ready to try something different again.

 

[Mark]

I could understand the argument of not wanting to miss the classic tracks about 10 years ago, but now with the interwebs being all connectified and suchlike, we can see video of them doing the entire setlist, but we also easily see what setlist they play for each show. The one thing about seeing Metallica this past tour was seeing the old classics they were dragging out, and knowing that there would be at least 2 or 3 songs on the setlist we wouldn't be sure about. Only a couple of songs, but that bit of excitement when they kick into something you weren't sure they would play was pretty cool.

Unlike Maiden, where we can basically say "Ok, after this song, Bruce is going to do a bit of a rant, then it's that song, and so on".

 

[Spiff]

But then a lot of the fans don't follow the band on the interweb. Witness the people at the two gigs we went to on the AMOLAD tour who didn't know what to think when they played the entire album plus five classics.

 

[Mark]

Then that's their risk. But to get pissed off if a band with 30 years worth of material doesn't play a particular song is stupid. I don't get pissed off when they don't play Wasted Years or Evil That Men Do