Steve Harris: The Book of Souls Will Feature an Eighteen-Minute “Masterpiece” That’s “Totally Different” from Other Iron Maiden Songs

Well, this is interesting: Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris has told Kerrang! that the band’s new album, The Book of Souls, will feature a song called “Empire of the Clouds,” which is eighteen minutes long, and was written by vocalist Bruce Dickinson. Says Harris of the track:

“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.”

Maiden have some other tracks with epic run times, like “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (13:34) and “When the Wind Blows” (11:02), but eighteen minutes, if I’m not mistaken, will make “Empire of the Clouds” the band’s longest song yet. Hopefully Harris hasn’t overhyped it… honestly, my favorite Maiden songs tend to be the ones on the short n’ sweet side, but it’s hard not to be intrigued by the promise of something so different from Maiden’s other material.

The Book of Souls is out September 4.

[via Classic Rock]

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