SO THAT’S NOT EDDIE ON THE COVER OF THE FINAL FRONTIER?

Last month I criticized Melvyn Grant’s art for the cover of the new Maiden album, The Final Frontier, and I stand by that criticism; I still feel that the purple and blue hues are too soothing, that all the rounded edges take the, uh, edge off the art, and that SME — that’s “Space Monster Eddie” — looks too much like a cartoon Predator.

But guess what? All those changes from Derek Riggs’ classic design were deliberate, and that’s not Eddie at all. Here’s what Grant recently told Examiner:

“Derek Riggs and his style of artwork never appealed to me, so naturally I wanted to change it and do my version of Eddie. But that was stopped by Maiden, who didn’t want me to stray too far from the original style, which obviously all of the band’s fans like. You get so used to something that it becomes your ‘thing,’ and you fall in love with that version of Eddie. I did try to change him a bit, in a way that suited me and made me happier with it. The latest version on THE FINAL FRONTIER is not Eddie, as such. I’m not going to say anything more on that, because I don’t know what Iron Maiden have got planned, so I’m not going to tread on any toes or mess up any surprises. Okay, I’ll tell you, he is actually an alien. The old Eddie might still come around.”

I won’t say that Grant is an idiot for saying that Riggs’ “style of artwork never appealed to me,” but I will say that it probably explains why I don’t like Grant’s design very much; we obviously have very, very different tastes. And, y’know. Grant and his style of artwork don’t appeal to me.

But on a much more serious note: does that make this the first Maiden ever to not feature some form of Eddie on the cover? Even the single for “Running Free” — Riggs’ fist collaboration with Maiden — kinda-sorta has Eddie:

As a human being, I understand that whether or not Eddie is on the cover of a Maiden album is about as irrelevant as irrelevant gets. But as  Maiden fan, I gotta say, I’m totally bummed. Eddie pushed aside because some dude doesn’t like Derek Riggs? Fuck is the world coming to?

-AR

[via BM]