Iron Maiden’s New ‘Book of Souls’ LP Has ‘Almost Something for Everybody’

What's your favorite Iron Maiden song? No matter what your answer is, Maiden guitarist Janick Gers thinks the band's new double album, The Book of Souls, will satisfy.

Gers looked back on the making of the album during a recent interview with Glide Magazine, insisting that the band didn't set out to make a double LP — they're just so filled with ideas that they couldn't fit everything onto a single disc.

"We just brought so many ideas into the studio and they were all good ideas. Some of the songs weren’t that long when they came in but they ended up that long when we finished them. Everybody always brings in probably an hours worth of music. You might only want to use 15 minutes of it but you’ve got an hour of stuff that’s really good. It’s indicative of how creative everybody in the band is," he pointed out. "This band’s been going a long time and we never have to scrape around because there are always so many ideas to use – melodies, tunes, themes."

And even though Book of Souls' sprawling length might go against the tide of an era in which it sometimes feels like listeners have what Gers referred to as "the attention span of a gnat," he still feels like it was necessary to capture the group's current creative strength.

"I think this album proves that we’re still valid, the songs are powerful and edgy," he mused. "There’s all types of different songs on this album and there’s almost something for everybody – classically influenced, jazz influenced, rock and blues influenced – it’s all there and it’s just indicative of what the band’s about."

Book of Souls is due Sept. 4 with a first single, "Speed of Light," coming on Aug. 14 — and if Gers has it his way, that track will be the only thing people hear from the album before it arrives in stores. When talk turned to the current trend of streaming complete records before they're even out, he offered a decidedly old-school response.

"I like the idea of getting an album when it’s released," said Gers. "Is that passé now? I don’t know, but isn’t it good to wait for something and get it all at once? That whole Internet thing has kind of spoiled it a little bit because it’s nice to wait for something and get it all at once as opposed to bips and bops at a time."

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