IRON MAIDEN, The Final Frontier Release News and Free MP3

MUSIC NEWS - IRON MAIDEN has today announced that their highly anticipated new studio album
THE FINAL FRONTIER (their 15th studio release) is confirmed for a Tuesday, August 17 release. And, the new album artwork has just been unveiled (shown at right) and was illustrated by Melvyn Grant. To mark the occasion, the band is offering up one new album track 'EL DORADO' via their website as a FREE digital download MP3 (for your email address), click here.

Singer Bruce Dickinson tels us: "'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 (which opens in Dallas on 9th June - full itinerary below) 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."

Iron Maiden reunited with long-time Maiden producer Kevin "Caveman" Shirley in early 2010 at Compass Point Studios, Nassau Bahamas 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 recently said: "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"

The full tracklisting for the album (total running time 76:35) is:

THE FINAL FRONTIER

1. Satellite 15.....The Final Frontier 8:40

2. El Dorado 6:49

3. Mother Of Mercy 5:20

4. Coming Home 5:52

5. The Alchemist 4:29

6. Isle Of Avalon 9:06

7. Starblind 7:48

8. The Talisman 9:03

9. The Man Who Would Be King 8:28

10. When The Wild Wind Blows 10:59

The Final Frontier World Tour starts up in Dallas, TX on June 9th with 25 shows in major cities across the USA and Canada, playing to an expected 350,000 fans or more. Following this the tour will ship over to Europe starting in Dublin on July 30 and playing a few selected major festivals and stadiums, finishing in Valencia, Spain, on Aug 21 and including a concert in Transylvania.

Says bass player and founder member Steve Harris: "We're hugely excited about this tour. I think the fans will really like the brand new stage production and lights and we will also be debuting one of the new album
tracks, 'El Dorado'. Our Texan fans will be the very first people anywhere to hear it live, so it will be interesting to see their reaction and how it goes down with the crowd on the night! Eddie has changed a bit for this tour but is possibly the most outrageous one to date...I can't say too much about him as don't want to spoil the surprise but I guarantee he will scare the hell out of you !"

IRON MAIDEN Summer 2010 FINAL FRONTIER Tour Itinerary (first leg):

JUNE

9 Dallas, TX Superpages.Com Center
11       Houston, TX Cynthia Mitchell Pavilion Woodlands
12   San Antonio TX AT&T Center
14 Denver CO Comfort Dental Amphitheatre
16   Albuquerque, NM The Pavilion
17 Phoenix AZ Cricket Wireless Pavilion
19 San Bernardino CA, San Manuel Amphitheatre
20 Concord CA, Sleep Train Pavilion
22 Auburn WA, White River Amphitheater
24   Vancouver BC, GM Place
26 Edmonton AB Rexall Place
27 Calgary, AB Saddledome
29 Saskatoon SK Credit Union Centre
30 Winnipeg MB, MTS Center

JULY
3    Toronto, ON Molson Amphitheatre
6    Ottawa, ON, Cisco Blues Festival
7    Montreal QC Bell Centre
9    Quebec, QC Summer Festival
11 Holmdel NJ, PNC
12 New York City NY, Madison Square Garden
14 Pittsburgh PA First Niagara Pavilion
15 Cleveland OH, Blossom Music Center
17 Detroit MI, DTE Music Theatre
18 Chicago IL, First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
20 Washington DC, Jiffy Lube Live
30 IRELAND, Dublin, The O2
AUGUST
1 UK Knebworth, Sonisphere Festival,
5 GERMANY Wacken Festival
7 SWEDEN Stockholm Stora Skuggan Sonisphere Festival
8 FINLAND Pori Kirjurinluoto Sonisphere Festival
11 NORWAY Bergenhus Festning Koengen

14 HUNGARY Sziget Festival
15 TRANSYLVANIA Cluj, Polux Mall
17 ITALY Villa Manin Codroipe, Nr Udine
19 BELGIUM Pukkelpop Festival
21 SPAIN Valencia Auditorio Marina Sur