Producer Kevin Shirley has confirmed that he has finished mixing the new Iron Maiden album, "The Final Frontier," at his studio for a late summer release. The CD was recorded at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas with Shirley.
Shirley previously worked on the band's last three albums — 2000's "Brave New World," 2003's "Dance of Death" and 2006's "A Matter of Life and Death."
The next Iron Maiden album will be the band's fifteenth studio record, and they face a challenge to follow up "A Matter of Life and Death," which received good reviews in the press.
Speaking at last year's premiere of the band's documentary film "Iron Maiden: Flight 666," guitarist Adrian Smith stated, "There's always a bit of pressure to follow up the last album. In a way, it's good, because it motivates you.
We never get complacent; we always try our best for our own sake as much as anything else. As far as pressure for another album, we just do what we do — we've been doing it long enough now; we know what we're doing. [laughs]"
Iron Maiden guitarist Janick Gers revealed to BBC News in November that the band was on its way "to Paris for three weeks to work on some new stuff." He added, "The most important thing for a band is to create new music, otherwise you're not valid — you become a parody."
Iron Maiden will begin their North American tour with very special guests Dream Theater in Dallas, Texas, on June 9th and finish in Washington D.C. on July 20th, making it Maiden's most extensive North American tour in many years.
Following these shows in USA and Canada, "The Final Frontier World Tour" will travel back to Europe for a few selected major festival and stadium shows with the band planning to continue to many other countries in 2011.
