In an interview with Australia’s “Everblack” podcast, Steve Harris was asked if there is any new music from IRON MAIDEN on the way. The MAIDEN bassist responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “No, not at the moment. There’s nothing in the works at the moment. But that’s not to say there won’t be.
“Bruce [Dickinson, IRON MAIDEN singer] has only just done his solo tour. So he spent quite a long time just doing that. So, I don’t know. Yeah. I mean, maybe we’ll find time to cram [a new album] in somewhere. You never know.”
Regarding his plans for the rest of the year, Steve said: “I’m on tour for the next four months [with IRON MAIDEN and side project BRITISH LION] up till Christmas. So I’m not really sure what we’re doing after that. I suppose we’ll probably take a break with MAIDEN for a little while. I’ve got no plans at the moment for anything with BRITISH LION early part of next year. But if something comes in, I find it difficult to turn stuff down. So, we’ll see.”
MAIDEN‘s latest album, “Senjutsu”, was released in September 2021 via BMG. The band’s first LP in six years was recorded in 2019 in Paris with longstanding producer Kevin Shirley and co-produced by 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.
In the U.S., “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.
According to Billboard, “Senjutsu” logged the second-largest week of 2021 for a hard rock album in both equivalent album units earned and in traditional album sales.
“Senjutsu” topped the charts in several European countries upon its release, including in Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland