Iron Maiden: Ed Force One Damaged in Collision, Band Unveils Record Store Day Release Art

Mornin’ neighbors!

We begin our week here at MetalSucks with two pieces of news which both involve Iron Maiden and the destruction of flying vehicles, but are otherwise unrelated.

IRON MAIDEN NEWS THE FIRST!!!

Ed Force One, the band’s private, Bruce Dickinson-piloted jet, is grounded for the time being. Don’t fret — there was no “Flight of Icarus”-style tragedy here. The band explains:

Obviously, as far as having your private jet get fucked up goes, this was the best possible scenario — no one was hurt, it wasn’t Dickinson’s fault, and it won’t cause any cancellations or postponements of shows for the band. Still, I’m sure the members of Maiden are less-than-thrilled — this can’t be cheap to fix. Hope those bros have insurance!

IRON MAIDEN NEWS THE SECOND!!!

Maiden will be one of the many fine metal bands to release something special for next month’s Record Store Day. Specifically: a limited edition 12” picture disc single for the eighteen-minute-long Book of Souls track, “Empire of the Clouds.” Coincidentally, this Dickinson-penned song is about the crash of the R101 airship in 1930, making it a spiritual successor to “Icarus” and oddly appropriate given Maiden’s current plane troubles.

ANYWAY, the picture disc’s B-side will feature an interview with Dickinson (who wrote the song) about the R101, and will feature “a replica of the actual newspaper story reporting on the fate” of the ship. Which will look like this:

So that’s pretty sweet!

Record Store Day is April 16 if you wanna nab a copy. You can get a rundown of some of that day’s other special releases — including ones from Metallica, Anthrax, and Death — here.