Iron Maiden Announce First-Ever Performance in China

From Blabbermouth:

“British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN will make their highly anticipated first-ever visit to China in April on “The Book Of Souls” world tour, playing at Beijing LeSports Center on April 24 and Shanghai Mercedes-Benz Arena on April 26. Tickets go on sale from 2 p.m. on January 19 through ticketing hotline 400-610-3721, and online via Damai.cn.”

You probably don’t have to be told this, but it’s a big, big deal, not just in the metal world, but in the world of music and entertainment in general. China is, to put it mildly, picky about what foreign cultural items they allow admission into their country, and to the best of my knowledge, the other prominent metal bands that have played there have done so only once apiece: Metallica (who weren’t allowed to play “Master of Puppets”), Megadeth (who were heavily censored and had their set cut short), Lamb of God, Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold, The Ocean, and Guns N’ Roses (who somehow got away with playing the song “Chinese Democracy”). Sabbath, Priest, Slayer, Anthrax — these are just some of the prominent bands that have never made it over there. So, like I said: Maiden playing China is a big deal.

The next question, of course, is: will they be censored? Maiden obviously have plenty of songs about war. And according to Birth.Movies.Death, “that the ruling Communist Party does not allow [art] that promote cults or superstitions,” which may mean that any tracks pertaining to the supernatural (“Number of the Beast”) may be disallowed. Hell, the title track from Book of Souls could be forbidden!

I’m very curious to see how this plays out. We’ll find out in April, I s’pose.