Iron Maiden Announces New Studio Album 'Senjutsu' Coming In September
By Andrew Magnotta @AndrewMagnotta
July 19, 2021
Iron Maiden returned last week with a new single and now the band has announced its 17th studio album, Senjutsu.
Due out September 3, Senjutsu is the band's first new album since 2015's Book of Souls. After spending the intervening years touring on the band's legacy, Maiden is eager to get back into an album cycle.
And there's plenty of new music to perform live when the band gets back at it next year. Senjutsu is reportedly a near-82-minute double-album, consisting of just 10 songs.
“We’re all really excited about this album," said frontman Bruce Dickinson. "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’!?"
Iron Maiden gave fans a taste of the new music last week, unveiling the single "The Writing on the Wall." Dickinson says the band waded into new territory with some of the new songs.
“The songs are very varied, and some of them are quite long," he said. "There’s 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!"
Bassist Steve Harris added that the band was in top form while making Senjutsu, recording even the most sophisticated parts live as a group.
“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," Harris recalled. "There’s 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 [Shirley, co-producer] is great at capturing the essence of the band and I think it was worth the effort!"