IRON MAIDEN Announces 2024 Australian Tour With KILLSWITCH ENGAGE

British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN have announced the 2024 Australian leg of "The Future Past" tour.

The upcoming trek, which will take place next September, will mark the band's first appearance Down Under since their "The Book Of Souls" tour in 2016 and 2017.

Joining MAIDEN on the six-date run as special guests will be KILLSWITCH ENGAGE.

"The Future Past" features previously unperformed songs from MAIDEN's most recent studio album, "Senjutsu", along with a focus on 1986's "Somewhere In Time" LP, plus other classic cuts.

MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris says: "We've really enjoyed playing all the shows on 'The Future Past' tour this year, and the reaction from our fans has been incredible. Being able to play some of these songs for the very first time has made the tour even more memorable and we can’t wait to continue it next year. We're all really excited to finally be able to return to Australia as we know our fans have waited so patiently for us over the past few years. It’s going to be great to get back there, especially with this new show. We promise you all, it'll be worth the wait!"

MAIDEN manager Rod Smallwood comments: "All our best-laid plans to bring the 'Legacy Of The Beast' tour to Australia were derailed by the shut-down of the live music industry during Covid but we assured everyone at the time that we would come back to Australia and, as our fans know, we always keep to our promises. So, as you would imagine, we're very much looking forward to bringing this amazing new show to the Southern hemisphere and giving our loyal Australian fans the best MAIDEN show we can. You can be assured it’s worth the wait. See you all in 2024!"

Tour dates:

Sep. 01 - RAC Arena, Perth, Australia
Sep. 04 - Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide, Sep. Australia
Sep. 06 - Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, Australia
Sep. 10 - Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane, Australia
Sep. 12 - Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney, Australia
Sep. 16 - Spark Arena, Auckland, New Zealand

Asked in a radio interview a number of years ago why IRON MAIDEN had never played "Alexander The Great" live, singer Bruce Dickinson answered, "Because Adrian [Smith, guitar] can't remember the guitar solo." While Dickinson may have been joking, he did go on to say that, when the song was originally written, they put the solo through a load of then-very-advanced music computer wizardry, and it just couldn't figure out the time signature.

"Senjutsu" came out in September 2021. It marked MAIDEN's second consecutive double album behind 2015's "The Book Of Souls" which is the longest MAIDEN album, with a running time of 92 minutes.

IRON MAIDEN's first album in six years, "Senjutsu" was recorded in 2019 in Paris with longstanding producer Kevin Shirley and co-produced by bassist Steve Harris. It features three tracks whose running time exceeds 10 minutes each.

For "Senjutsu" — loosely translated as "tactics and strategy" — the band once again enlisted the services of Mark Wilkinson to create the spectacular Samurai-themed cover artwork, based on an idea by Harris.

"Senjutsu" bowed at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, charting higher than even the band's early classics like "Powerslave" and "The Number Of The Beast". Nearly 90 percent of the LP's 64,000 equivalent album units earned came from pure album sales. The critically acclaimed double album debuted one place higher than 2015's "The Book Of Souls" and 2010's "The Final Frontier", which both peaked at No. 4.

"Senjutsu" was MAIDEN's 13th album to top in the Top 40 in the U.S.