Early years (1975–1978) , located in Maryland Point,
Stratford, was where Iron Maiden played some of their first shows in 1976. The building was officially named "The Birthplace of Iron Maiden". Bassist
Steve Harris formed Iron Maiden in 1975, a few months before Christmas. Harris attributed the band's name to a film adaptation of
The Man in the Iron Mask from the novel by
Alexandre Dumas, as the title reminded him of the
iron maiden torture device. They originally used the name Ash Mountain, but most of the band members preferred the name Iron Maiden. After months of rehearsal, Iron Maiden made their debut at St. Nicks Hall in Poplar on 1 May 1976, before taking up a semi-residency at the
Cart and Horses Pub in
Maryland,
Stratford. The original line-up was short-lived, with vocalist
Paul Mario Day being the first to go as, according to Harris, he lacked "energy or charisma on stage". He was replaced by Dennis Wilcock, a
Kiss fan who used makeup and fake blood during live performances and had earlier played with Harris and Doug Sampson in the band Smiler. Wilcock's friend, guitarist
Dave Murray, was invited to join, much to the dismay of the band's guitarists Dave Sullivan and Terry Rance. Their frustration led Harris to temporarily disband Iron Maiden in 1976, though the group reformed soon after with Murray as the sole guitarist. Harris and Murray remain the band's longest-serving members and have performed on all of their releases. and
Steve Harris in
2008. Harris and Murray are the only members to have performed on all of the band's albums. Iron Maiden recruited another guitarist in 1977, Bob Sawyer, who was sacked for embarrassing the band on stage by pretending to play guitar with his teeth. Tension ensued again, causing a rift between Murray and Wilcock, who convinced Harris to fire Murray, as well as original drummer Ron Matthews. A new line-up was put together, including future
Cutting Crew member
Tony Moore on keyboards, Terry Wapram on guitar and drummer
Barry Purkis (better known today as Thunderstick). After a single gig with the band in January 1978, Moore was asked to leave as Harris decided keyboards did not suit the band's sound. Dave Murray rejoined in late March 1978, and when Terry Wapram disapproved he was sacked. A few weeks later, Dennis Wilcock decided to leave Iron Maiden to form his own band, V1, with Wapram, and drummer Barry Purkis also left. Former Smiler drummer Doug Sampson was at Dennis' and Thunderstick's last gig, and joined the band afterwards. Harris, Murray and Sampson spent the summer and autumn of 1978 rehearsing while they searched for a singer to complete the band's new line-up. A chance meeting at the Red Lion, a pub in
Leytonstone, in November 1978 evolved into a successful audition for vocalist
Paul Di'Anno. Steve Harris said, "There's sort of a quality in Paul's voice, a raspiness in his voice, or whatever you want to call it, that just gave it this great edge". At this time, Murray would typically act as their sole guitarist, with Harris commenting, "Davey was so good he could do a lot of it on his own. The plan was always to get a second guitarist in, but finding one that could match Davey was really difficult".
Record contract and early releases (1978–1981) On New Year's Eve, 1978, Iron Maiden recorded a four-song demo at Spaceward Studios in Cambridge. Hoping the recording would help them secure more gigs, the band gave a copy to
Neal Kay, who, at the time, was managing a heavy metal club called "Bandwagon Heavy Metal Soundhouse". After hearing the tape, Kay began playing the demo regularly at the Bandwagon, and one of the songs, "Prowler", eventually went to number 1 in the Soundhouse charts, which were published weekly in
Sounds magazine. A copy was also acquired by
Rod Smallwood, who soon became the band's manager. As Iron Maiden's popularity increased, they released the demo on their own record label as
The Soundhouse Tapes, named after the club. Featuring only three tracks (one song, "Strange World", was excluded as the band were unsatisfied with its production), all 5,000 copies sold out within weeks. and Steve Harris supporting
Judas Priest on their
British Steel Tour, 1980 In December 1979, the band secured a major record deal with
EMI and asked Dave Murray's childhood friend,
Adrian Smith of
Urchin, to join the group as their second guitarist. Busy with his own band, Smith declined and
Dennis Stratton was hired instead. Shortly after,
Doug Sampson left due to health issues and was replaced by ex-
Samson drummer
Clive Burr at Stratton's suggestion on 26 December 1979. Iron Maiden's first appearance on an EMI album was on the
Metal for Muthas compilation (released on 15 February 1980) with two early versions of "
Sanctuary" and "Wrathchild". The release led to a
tour including several other bands linked with the
new wave of British heavy metal movement. Iron Maiden released their
self-titled debut album in 1980, which debuted at number 4 in the
UK Albums Chart. In addition to the title track, the album included other early favourites such as "
Running Free", "Transylvania", "Phantom of the Opera" and "
Sanctuary" – which was not on the original UK release, but appeared on the US version and subsequent remasters. The band embarked on a
headline tour of the UK, before opening for
Kiss on their 1980
Unmasked Tour's European leg as well as supporting Judas Priest on
select dates. After the Kiss tour, Dennis Stratton was dismissed from the band as a result of creative and personal differences, and was replaced by Smith in October 1980. In December, the band played at the
Rainbow Theatre in London, where their first live video was filmed.
Live at the Rainbow was released in May 1981, and "Iron Maiden" and "Wrathchild" from this video received heavy rotation on
MTV during its first hours on the air as the first metal videos ever. 1981 In 1981, Iron Maiden released their second studio album,
Killers. Although many tracks were written prior to their debut release, it had two new songs: "Prodigal Son" and "Murders in the Rue Morgue" (the latter's title was taken from the
short story by
Edgar Allan Poe). Unsatisfied with the production on their debut album, the band hired veteran producer
Martin Birch, who would continue to work with Iron Maiden until his retirement in 1992. The record was followed by the band's first
world tour with their debut performance in the United States opening for Judas Priest at the
Aladdin Theatre in
Paradise, Nevada.
Killers marked the band's USA album charts debut, reaching number 78 on the
Billboard 200, and they booked 132 shows to promote the album, including their first concert in
Belgrade,
Yugoslavia. During the summer, Iron Maiden played several festivals in Europe, including at the Golden Summernights 1981 festivals at
Zeppelinfeld in
Nuremberg in front of 100,000 people.
Success (1981–1985) By 1981,
Paul Di'Anno was demonstrating increasingly erratic behaviour, particularly due to his drug usage, about which Di'Anno comments, "It wasn't just that I was snorting a bit of coke, though; I was just going for it non-stop, 24 hours a day, every day ... the band had commitments piling up that went on for months, years, and I just couldn't see my way to the end of it. I knew I'd never last the whole tour. It was too much". Di'Anno was dismissed following the Killer World Tour with the band already having selected his replacement. After a meeting with Rod Smallwood at the
Reading Festival,
Bruce Dickinson, formerly of
Samson, auditioned for Iron Maiden in September 1981 and was immediately hired. The following month, Dickinson went out on the road with the band on a small headlining tour in Italy and a one-off show at the Rainbow Theatre in the UK. For the last show, and in anticipation of their forthcoming album, the band played "Children of the Damned" and "22 Acacia Avenue", introducing fans to their new material. In 1982, Iron Maiden released their third studio album,
The Number of the Beast, which became the band's first number 1 record on the UK Albums Chart, was a Top 10 hit in many other countries, and reached number 33 on the
Billboard 200. At the time, Dickinson was in the midst of legal difficulties with Samson's management and was not permitted to add his name to any of the songwriting credits, although he still made what he described as a "moral contribution" to "Children of the Damned", "The Prisoner", and "
Run to the Hills". The band embarked on a world tour, dubbed The Beast on the Road, with shows in North America, Japan, Australia and Europe, including a headline appearance for 40,000 people at the
Reading Festival. Iron Maiden played 188 shows in 10 months. The Beast on the Road's US leg proved controversial when an American conservative political lobbying group claimed Iron Maiden were
Satanic because of the new album's title track and "demonic" cover art, and a group of Christian
activists destroyed Iron Maiden records in protest. Dickinson later said the band treated this as "silliness" and the demonstrations in fact gave them "loads of publicity".
The Number of the Beast sold 2.5 million copies in its first year, 14 million by 2010, and 20 million by 2022. was Iron Maiden's drummer from 1982. In December 1982, drummer
Clive Burr was fired from the band and replaced by
Nicko McBrain, who previously played for
Trust. Although Harris said the dismissal took place because his live performances were affected by offstage activities, Burr later claimed he was unfairly ousted from the band. The band then recorded the first of three consecutive albums at
Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas. In 1983, they released their fourth studio album,
Piece of Mind, which reached the number 3 spot in the UK and number 14 on the
Billboard 200.
Piece of Mind features the singles "
The Trooper" and "
Flight of Icarus", the latter being one of the band's few songs to gain substantial airplay in the US. Iron Maiden played 147 concerts in Europe and North America as a part of the World Piece Tour. This was also their first major North American tour as headliners, selling out
Madison Square Garden with a crowd of 20,000. After the success of
Piece of Mind and its supporting tour, the band released their fifth studio album,
Powerslave, on 9 September 1984. The album features the singles "
2 Minutes to Midnight" and "
Aces High", the title track, and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (based on
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem
Rime of the Ancient Mariner).
Powerslave was another chart success, reaching number 12 on the
Billboard 200 and eventually number 1 in the UK. The band's fifth studio album sold over 4 million copies in its first year after the premiere. The tour following the album, called
World Slavery Tour, was the band's largest to date with 193 shows in 28 countries over 13 months, playing to an estimated 3,500,000 people. Many shows were played back to back in the same city, such as in Long Beach, California, where the band played four consecutive concerts at
Long Beach Arena for a combined audience of 54,000 fans. Iron Maiden also made their debut appearance in South America, where they co-headlined the
Rock in Rio festival with
Queen for an audience estimated at 350,000–500,000 people. The tour started in August 1984 with five shows in Poland. Iron Maiden were the first Western artists to bring full-scale production behind the
Iron Curtain. The band's third official video, entitled
Behind the Iron Curtain, was released in October 1984. The World Slavery Tour documentary brought footage of the band touring Eastern Europe in 1984, performing shows in the countries visited,
Behind the Iron Curtain was the first documentary ever published by a Western artist that showed them touring the countries of
Eastern Bloc. The documentary movie was broadcast by
MTV and local TV stations around the world. The tour was physically gruelling for the band, who demanded six months off when it ended (although this was later reduced to four months). This was the first substantial touring break in the group's history, including the cancellation of a proposed supporting tour for the new live album, with Bruce Dickinson threatening to quit unless the tour ended. In October 1985, Iron Maiden released the double live album and home video,
Live After Death. A critical and commercial success, it peaked at number 19 on the
Billboard 200 and number 2 in the UK. The album was recorded at
Long Beach Arena and also features additional tracks from four nights at London's
Hammersmith Apollo.
Experimentation (1986–1989) Returning from their time off, the band added different musical elements to their 1986 studio album,
Somewhere in Time. These focused on
synthesised bass and guitars to add textures and layers to the sound. The release performed well across the world, particularly the single "
Wasted Years", but included no writing credits from Dickinson, whose material was rejected by the rest of the band. The album was the band's biggest American chart success to date, reaching number 11 on the
Billboard 200 and number 2 in the UK charts. The
Somewhere on Tour was also a success. The band played 157 shows for over two and a half million fans, including eighty-one shows in North America. Once again, Iron Maiden visited Poland, Hungary and Yugoslavia to play for tens of thousands of fans in each country. The experimentation evident on
Somewhere in Time continued on their next album,
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, which was released in 1988. A
concept album recorded at
Musicland Studios in Munich and based on the 1987 novel
Seventh Son by
Orson Scott Card, it was the band's first record to include keyboards, which were performed by Harris and Smith. Dickinson's enthusiasm was also renewed as his ideas were accepted for this album. Another popular release, it became Iron Maiden's third album to hit number 1 in the UK charts and reached number 12 on the
Billboard 200. On 8 May 1988, Iron Maiden played a show at the legendary heavy metal venue
L'Amour in Brooklyn under the name "Charlotte and the Harlots". L'Amour was a regular hang-out for many band members and particularly Steve Harris, who knew DJ/Host/Booker Chuck Kaye. During the following
tour, the band headlined the
Monsters of Rock festival at
Donington Park on 20 August 1988, playing to the largest crowd in the festival's history (107,000). The tour concluded with several headline shows in the UK in November and December 1988, with the concerts at the
NEC Arena, Birmingham, recorded for a live video, entitled
Maiden England. The video debuted at top spots of worldwide music videos charts. In May, the group set out on a supporting tour, which saw them perform 103 shows to well over two million people worldwide over seven months. To recreate the album's keyboards onstage throughout the tour, the group recruited Michael Kenney, Steve Harris' bass technician; Kenney has served as the band's live keyboard player ever since, also performing on the band's four following albums.
Upheaval (1989–1994) During a break in 1989, guitarist Adrian Smith released a solo album with his band
ASAP, entitled
Silver and Gold. Vocalist Bruce Dickinson also began work on a solo album with former
Gillan guitarist
Janick Gers, releasing
Tattooed Millionaire in 1990, followed by a tour. At the same time, to mark the band's 10-year recording anniversary, Iron Maiden released a compilation collection,
The First Ten Years, a series of 10 CDs and double
12-inch singles. Between 24 February and 28 April 1990, the individual parts were released one by one, each containing two of Iron Maiden's singles, including the original
B-sides. Iron Maiden then began work on a new studio record. During the pre-production stages, Adrian Smith left the band due to differences with Steve Harris regarding the direction the band should be taking. Smith disagreed with the "stripped down" style they were leaning towards. Janick Gers, having worked on Dickinson's solo project, was chosen to replace Smith and became the band's first new member in seven years. The album
No Prayer for the Dying was released in October 1990. It contained the hit singles "
Holy Smoke" and "
Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter", the band's first – and, to date, only –
UK Singles Chart number 1, originally recorded by Dickinson's solo project for the soundtrack of
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. Iron Maiden's eighth studio album debuted at number 2 on the UK albums chart and number 17 on the
Billboard 200.
No Prayer for the Dying was a return to their musical roots, especially in the simplicity of composition. In total, Iron Maiden played for some two million fans on the No Prayer on the Road tour. After another break, the band recorded their next studio album,
Fear of the Dark, which was released in 1992. The title track became a regular part of the band's concert setlists. Achieving their fourth number 1 on the UK albums chart and number 12 on the
Billboard 200, the release also included the number 2 single "
Be Quick or Be Dead", the number 21 single "
From Here to Eternity", and the softer "
Wasting Love". The album featured the first songwriting by Gers, and no collaboration between Harris and Dickinson on songs. The
extensive worldwide tour that followed included their first-ever Latin American leg, although Christian organisations prevented Iron Maiden from performing in Chile and accused them of being "emissaries of satanic propaganda", and headlining the
Monsters of Rock festivals in seven European countries. Iron Maiden's second performance at
Donington Park, for a sold-out audience of 75,000, was filmed for the audio and video release
Live at Donington and featured a guest appearance by Adrian Smith, who joined the band to perform "Running Free". The tour also saw conflicts between Bruce Dickinson and rest of the band. In 1993, Dickinson left the band to pursue his solo career, but agreed to remain for a
farewell tour and two live albums (later re-released in
one package). The first,
A Real Live One, was released in March 1993 and featured songs from 1986 to 1992, and the second,
A Real Dead One, was released after Dickinson left the band and featured songs from 1980 to 1984. The tour did not go well, with Steve Harris claiming Dickinson would only perform properly for high-profile shows, and that at several concerts, he would only mumble into the microphone. Dickinson denied he was under-performing, saying it was impossible to "make like Mr. Happy Face if the vibe wasn't right", and that news of his exit from the band had prevented any chance of a good atmosphere during the tour. Dickinson played his farewell show with Iron Maiden on 28 August 1993. The show was filmed, broadcast by the
BBC,
MTV and released on video under the name
Raising Hell.
Difficulties (1994–1999) In 1994, the title track from the
Fear of the Dark album received a
Grammy Awards nomination for "Best Metal Performance", a first for Iron Maiden. The band listened to the thousands of tapes sent in by vocalists before convincing
Blaze Bayley, formerly of the band
Wolfsbane, who had supported Iron Maiden in 1990, to audition for them. Harris' preferred choice from the outset, Bayley had a different vocal style from his predecessor and ultimately received a mixed reception among fans. After a three-year hiatus – a record for the band at the time – Iron Maiden released their next studio album,
The X Factor. The band had their lowest chart position since 1981 for an album in the UK, debuting at number 8; however, the album went on to win "Album of the Year" awards in France, Spain and Germany. The record included the 11-minute epic "Sign of the Cross", the band's longest song since "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", as well as the singles "
Man on the Edge" (based on the film
Falling Down) and "
Lord of the Flies", based on the novel
Lord of the Flies. The release is notable for its "dark" tone, inspired by Steve Harris' divorce. The band toured for the rest of 1995 and 1996, playing their first shows in Israel and South Africa as well as Malta, Bulgaria and Romania in Europe, before concluding in the Americas. The biggest show of the whole tour was a headline appearance for 60,000 people at the
Monsters of Rock festival in
São Paulo, Brazil.
The X Factor sold 1.3 million copies, the lowest sales result since 1981. After the tour, Iron Maiden released a compilation album,
Best of the Beast. The band's first compilation, it included a new single, "
Virus", in which the lyrics attack critics who had recently written off the band. In 1998, Iron Maiden released
Virtual XI, whose chart scores were the band's lowest to date. The album peaked at number 16 in the UK, the band's lowest for a new studio record. At the same time, Steve Harris assisted in remastering the band's entire discography, up to and including
Live at Donington. Bayley's tenure in Iron Maiden ended in January 1999 when he was asked to leave during a band meeting. The dismissal took place due to issues Bayley had experienced with his voice during the
Virtual XI World Tour, although Janick Gers said this was partly the band's fault for forcing him to perform songs pitched outside the natural range of his voice.
Reunion and renewed success (1999–2005) The band entered into talks with Dickinson, who agreed to rejoin during a meeting in Brighton in January 1999, along with guitarist Adrian Smith, who was telephoned a few hours later. With Gers remaining, Iron Maiden now had a three-guitar line-up (nicknamed "The Three Amigos"), and embarked on a hugely successful reunion tour. Dubbed The Ed Hunter Tour, it tied in with the band's newly released greatest hits collection,
Ed Hunter, whose track listing was decided by a poll on the group's website, and also contained a computer game starring
Eddie, the band's mascot. Not satisfied with the results from Harris' Barnyard Studios, located on his property in Essex, which had been used for the last four Iron Maiden studio albums, the band recorded the new release,
Brave New World, at Guillaume Tell Studios in Paris, France in November 1999 with producer
Kevin Shirley. Iron Maiden continued to find inspiration in movies and books, as shown in songs like "
The Wicker Man" – based on the 1973 British cult film
The Wicker Man – and "Brave New World" – a title taken from the
Aldous Huxley novel
Brave New World. The album revisited the more progressive and melodic sound featured in some earlier recordings, along with elaborate song structures and keyboard orchestration. The album was a commercial and artistic success.
The reunion world tour that followed had over 100 dates (including 31 shows of the 1999 tour), and culminated on 19 January 2001 in a show at the
Rock in Rio festival in Brazil, where Iron Maiden played to an audience of over 250,000. While the performance was being produced for a CD and DVD release in March 2002, under the name
Rock in Rio, the band took a year off from touring, although they played three consecutive shows at
Brixton Academy to raise funds for former drummer
Clive Burr, who had recently announced that he had been diagnosed with
multiple sclerosis. The band performed two further concerts for Burr's MS Trust Fund charity in 2005, and 2007, before his death in 2013. During the 2000–2002 tour, Iron Maiden played 91 shows for over two million people in 33 countries. In addition to their touring success, the band was nominated twice for the annual
Grammy Awards and received the International Achievement Award at the 2001
Ivor Novello Awards. In November 2001, a documentary movie about the making of
The Number of the Beast album was produced by
BBC as a part of the
Classic Album series. Following their summer 2003
Give Me Ed... 'Til I'm Dead Tour, with 57 shows in Europe and North America and headlining large festivals such as Roskilde, Heineken Jammin' Festival,
Rock am Ring and Rock im Park (combined attendance of 130,000) and the first
Download Festival held at
Donington Park; a successor to Monsters of Rock, Iron Maiden released
Dance of Death, their thirteenth studio album. It met with worldwide critical and commercial success, reaching number 2 on the UK Albums Chart and number 18 on the
Billboard 200. Produced by Kevin Shirley, now the band's regular producer, many critics felt this release reached the standard of their earlier efforts. Historical and literary references were present, with "Montségur" focussing on the
Cathar stronghold conquered in 1244, and "Paschendale" relating to
the First World War battle. During the
Dance of Death Tour 2003–04, which began in September 2003, Iron Maiden played 53 shows across Europe, North America, Latin America and Japan. The band's performance at
Westfalenhalle, in Dortmund, Germany, was recorded and released in August 2005 as a live album and DVD entitled
Death on the Road. In 2005, the band announced the
Eddie Rips Up the World Tour, which, tying in with their 2004 DVD entitled
The History of Iron Maiden – Part 1: The Early Days, only featured material from their first four albums. As part of this celebration of their earlier years, "The Number of the Beast" single was re-released and went straight to number 3 on the UK Chart. The tour featured many headlining stadium and festival dates, including a performance at
Ullevi Stadium in Sweden to an audience of almost 60,000. This concert was also broadcast live on satellite television across Europe to approximately 60 million viewers. The band completed the tour by headlining the
Reading and Leeds Festivals on 26–28 August, and the
RDS Stadium in Ireland on 31 August.
Continued success and expanded tours (2005–2014) At the end of 2005, Iron Maiden began work on
A Matter of Life and Death, their fourteenth studio album, which was released in autumn 2006. War and religion are recurring themes in the lyrics and the cover artwork. The release was a critical and commercial success, marking the band's first top ten on the
Billboard 200 and debuting at number one in the album charts of 13 countries. The
supporting tour saw mixed critical reception, but included the band's first performance in Dubai at the
Dubai Desert Rock Festival for 25,000 people, followed by a concert in
Bangalore Palace Grounds, the first of any heavy metal band in India. The band then played a string of European dates, including an appearance at
Download Festival, their fourth headline performance at
Donington Park, to approximately 80,000 people. On 5 September 2007, the band announced their
Somewhere Back in Time World Tour, tying in with the DVD release of their
Live After Death album. The setlist for the tour consisted of songs from the 1980s. They played their first concerts in Costa Rica and Colombia and their first shows in Australia and Puerto Rico since 1992. The tour led to the release of a new compilation album, entitled
Somewhere Back in Time, which included a selection of tracks from their 1980 eponymous debut to 1988's
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, as well as several live versions from
Live After Death. In 2008–09 in Latin America the band played 27 concerts for about a million people in total, a record for a heavy rock performer. The tour continued with two legs in the US and Europe in the summer of 2008. The sole UK concert took place at
Twickenham Stadium, marking the first time the band would headline a stadium in their own country. The 2008 tour was the second highest-grossing tour of the year for a British artist. The final leg included the band's first appearances in Peru and Ecuador, as well as their return to Venezuela and New Zealand after 17 years. The band also played another show in India at the
Rock in India festival to a crowd of 20,000. At their concert in São Paulo on 15 March, Dickinson announced on stage that it was the largest non-festival show of their career, with an overall attendance of 100,000 people. The final leg ended in Florida on 2 April after which the band took a break. Overall, the tour reportedly had an attendance of over two and a half million people worldwide over both years. At the
2009 Brit Awards, Iron Maiden won the award for best British live act. On 20 January 2009, the band announced they were planning to release a full-length documentary film in select cinemas on 21 April 2009. Entitled
Iron Maiden: Flight 666, it documented the first part of the Somewhere Back in Time World Tour (between February and March 2008).
Flight 666 was co-produced by Banger Productions and was distributed in cinemas by Arts Alliance Media and
EMI, with D&E Entertainment sub-distributing in the US. The film went on to have a Blu-ray, DVD, and CD release in May and June, topping the music DVD charts in 25 countries. In most of them the release went Gold, Platinum or Multi-Platinum. The band had begun composing new material and booked studio time in early 2010 with
Kevin Shirley producing, and
The Final Frontier was announced on 4 March and featured three singles "The Final Frontier", "El Dorado" and "Coming Home", as well as epic, progressive opuses "Isle of Avalon", "The Talisman" and "When The Wild Wind Blows". The album, the band's fifteenth, was released on 16 August to critical acclaim. It was also the band's greatest commercial success to that point, reaching number 1 in twenty-eight countries worldwide, including a debut at number 4 on
Billboard 200. The album's
supporting tour saw the band perform 101 shows across the globe to an estimated audience of over two and a half million, including their first visits to Singapore, Indonesia, and South Korea. "
El Dorado" won the
Best Metal Performance award at the
2011 Grammy Awards, the band's first win after two previous nominations. On 15 March, a new compilation to accompany 2009's
Somewhere Back in Time was announced. The double disc set covers the period 1990–2010 (the band's most recent eight studio albums). In 2012, the band announced a new live album and DVD release entitled
En Vivo!, based on footage from the Chile concert. The DVD topped the music video charts around the world. In addition to the concert footage, the video release includes an 88-minute tour documentary, entitled
Behind the Beast, containing interviews with the band and their crew. In December 2012, one song from the release ("Blood Brothers") was nominated for a
Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance at the
2013 Grammy Awards. On 15 February, the band announced their third retrospective
Maiden England World Tour 2012–14, which was based around the video
Maiden England. The tour commenced in North America in the summer of 2012 and was followed by further dates in 2013 and 2014, and included the band's fifth headline performance at
Donington Park with 100,000 fans in attendance. Iron Maiden closed the tour in July 2014 at
Sonisphere Festival,
Knebworth, having undertaken 100 shows in 32 countries before an estimated audience of more than 2.7 million people.
Latest albums and tours (2015–present) in May 2017 The band's 2015 album,
The Book of Souls, was released on 4 September. The band's first original studio album not to be issued by EMI outside North America, following
Parlophone's acquisition by
Warner Music Group in 2013, it was a critical and commercial success, becoming the band's fifth UK number 1 album and hit number 4 on
Billboard 200 in the US. The new release reached the number one position in the album charts of 43 countries. The new record was recorded at Guillaume Tell Studios in late summer 2014; its closing song, "
Empire of the Clouds", penned by Dickinson, surpassed "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (from 1984's
Powerslave) as Iron Maiden's longest song, at 18 minutes in length. , 2022 In February 2016, the band embarked on
The Book of Souls World Tour, with shows in 35 countries across six continents, including their first performances in China, El Salvador, and Lithuania. It was the band's biggest album tour since 1996. In total, Iron Maiden played 117 shows on six continents for well over two and a half million people. The band then launched the
Legacy of the Beast World Tour in Europe in 2018, with North and South American shows following in 2019. The tour was inspired by the band's new mobile game and comic series released in 2017, entitled
Legacy of the Beast. The tour was received very positively by fans and critics, spanning up to three years with 140 shows, performing to over 3.5 million fans. The
COVID-19 pandemic forced the rescheduling of nearly one million tickets from 2020, first to 2021, and then to 2022. A live double album from the Legacy of the Beast World Tour called
Nights of the Dead was recorded during three sold-out concerts in
Mexico City's
Palacio de los Deportes for a combined audience of over 70,000 people. On 19 July 2021, Iron Maiden announced that their seventeenth studio album,
Senjutsu, would be released on 3 September 2021.
Senjutsu eventually reached the top of the best-seller lists in 27 countries, but it was the band's first album in fifteen years not to reach number one on the
UK charts, although it did top the
UK Rock & Metal Singles and Albums Charts. In total,
Senjutsu reached the top three in 55 countries and the top five in 63 countries. The band started their 25th global tour,
The Future Past World Tour, with a concert in Ljubljana in May 2023. Throughout the 2023–24 world tour, Iron Maiden performed 81 shows for almost two million fans. Following the conclusion of the tour in São Paulo in December 2024, McBrain retired from touring, but remained a member of Iron Maiden who would be involved with studio projects.
British Lion drummer Simon Dawson was announced as his touring replacement. The band began its 26th global tour,
Run for Your Lives World Tour, in May 2025, to celebrate the band's 50th anniversary and is focused on the band's first nine studio albums. Over a million tickets were sold for the first thirty-two shows for the European leg in 2025, which was later extended in 2026. After an
EddFest festival on 11 July 2026, a celebration of the band's 50th anniversary, and the South American shows later in the year, the band are set to take a break from touring until at least 2028. ==Image and legacy==