Iron Maiden praise 18-minute masterpiece!

IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris has praised the huge track Empire of the Clouds from their upcoming release The Book of Souls.

The 18-minue track was penned by frontman Bruce Dickinson and will be featured on IRON MAIDEN’s first-ever double album.

Harris told Kerrang: “I think it’s a masterpiece, actually – I think I can say that because I didn’t write it! It sounds like Maiden but it’s totally different from what we’ve done before.

Eighteen minutes sounds like a long time, but it’s actually such a journey that… well, it’s best just to leave people to listen to it and see what they think. But it’s very interesting. It’s certainly not boring.

I think you’ll see on this album that there’s a lot going on. There’s a hell of a lot to take in. I think there’ll be bits and pieces that will hit people initially but I think they’re going to need a few listens.”

The band announced in May that touring plans to support the album will not happen until 2016, in order to allow Dickinson to fully recuperate after his successful cancer treatment.

Harris states he’s already looking forward to playing again and that the shows will be more important to the band after Dickinson’s health concerns.