IRON MAIDEN Announces German, Dutch, French Tour Dates

British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN have confirmed the following European shows as part of "The Final Frontier World Tour 2011":

May 28 - Frankfurt, Germany @ Festhalle
May 29 - Oberhausen, Germany @ Kopi Arena
May 31 - Munich, Germany @ Olympiahalle
Jun. 02 - Hamburg, Germany @ O2 World
Jun. 03 - Berlin, Germany @ O2 World
Jun. 07 - Stuttgart, Germany @ Schleyerhalle
Jun. 08 - Arnhem, The Netherlands @ Gerledome
Jun. 27 - Paris, France @ Bercy

The German, Dutch and French shows follow on from the band's recently announced "Around The World In 66 Days" tour in Ed Force One, and denote the start of the European — and final — leg of "The Final Frontier World Tour 2011", culminating with a series of arena dates around the U.K. which ends at the London O2 Arena in August. More shows around Europe are still to be announced.

There will be an exclusive first ticket pre-sale for IRON MAIDEN fan-club members next week, before tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, November 26 (The Netherlands) and Saturday, November 27 (Germany and France).

IRON MAIDEN's latest album, "The Final Frontier" (EMI),sold 63,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to enter The Billboard 200 chart at position No. 4.

IRON MAIDEN's previous album, 2006's "A Matter Of Life And Death", opened with 56,000 units to land at No. 9. This was a notable increase from the 40,000 first-week tally registered by its predecessor, 2003's "Dance of Death" (which debuted at No. 18 on The Billboard 200 chart),and that of "Brave New World", which moved 38,000 copies in June 2000 to land at No. 39 on The Billboard 200 chart.

"The Final Frontier" was IRON MAIDEN's fourth U.K. No. 1 album. The band previously topped the chart in 1982 with "The Number of the Beast", in 1988 with "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" and in 1992 with "Fear of the Dark".

"The Final Frontier" was released in North America on August 17 via Universal Music Enterprises (UMe). The effort was made available in a unique limited-edition collectors' "Mission Edition" CD case and features access to extra bonus content, including the director's cut of a video for the edited version of the opening song on the album, entitled "Satellite 15... The Final Frontier"; band "Mission Debrief" interview footage; wallpapers; photos; and the exclusive game "Mission II : Rescue & Revenge". MAIDEN is also for the first time making the album available as an iTunes LP with bonus content as well as the traditional digital format. There is also a limited-edition double picture disc.

The band reunited with long-time MAIDEN producer Kevin "Caveman" Shirley in early 2010 at Compass Point Studios, Nassau to record the album and then moved to The Cave Studios in Malibu, California to finish the recording and do the mixing. Compass Point Studio is very familiar to the band, it was where they recorded the "Piece Of Mind" (1983),"Powerslave" (1984) and "Somewhere In Time" (1986) albums.