NEW IRON MAIDEN SONG! FOR FREE!

Before we hand the MetalSucks reigns over to Kirk and Jamey for the day of their album release, we’ve got one hour left of June 7th… and I choose to use it to tell you that there’s a new Iron Maiden track available for free download via their official website! The site’s a bit overloaded with traffic at the moment and takes a little while to load, but it’s Iron fucking Maiden… and with a free track, a 30 second wait isn’t such a bad deal.

The free track, “El Dorado,” comes from the band’s forthcoming album The Final Frontier, set to be released on August 17th in the U.S. and the 16th in the rest of the world. Of the re-Bruce era of Maiden I loved loved loved Brave New World but couldn’t really get into either of the two albums released since then. I’m digging “El Dorado” — it’s got all the makings of a classic Maiden track, and at 7+ minutes it’s definitely an epic… but I can’t say I’m enthralled with it. The song’s not terribly catchy, and something weird is happening with the way the vocals are mixed. Still, it’s solid, and what’ve you got to lose by giving it a shot?

If you pre-order The Final Frontier in “high-quality mp3 format” (320kbps, I’d hope?) before June 21st you can get it for only $7.99. Kudos to Maiden for recognizing the fruitful potential of the Internet and embracing it, though I’d gather Maiden’s fanbase is primarily of the age that would prefer a physical copy. If I were Iron Maiden I’d be attempting to rake it in with super-duper-uper special deluxe vinyl limited edition hand-engraved gold-foiled Dave Murray’s shit-stained box sets… ’cause I know my fans would eat that shit up. But that’s just me.

Maiden will be on tour with Dream Theater this Summer. We’ll be there, dorking out to the max.

-VN