Iron Maiden BandEssay Preview: Iron Maiden BandReport this essayA band meeting was held in January 1999, in which Bayley was asked to leave Iron Maiden[99] due to issues with his voice during the Virtual XI World Tour,[100] although Janick Gers has since stated that this was partly the bands fault for forcing him to perform songs which were beyond his natural register.[101] At that point, Rod Smallwood had been trying to convince Steve Harris to consider inviting Bruce Dickinson back into the band.[102] Although Harris admits that he “wasnt really into it” at first, he then thought, “Well, if the change happens, who should we get? The thing is, we know Bruce and we know what hes capable of, and you think, Well, better the devil you know. I mean, we got on well professionally for, like, eleven years, and so after I thought about it, I didnt really have a problem with it.”[102]
The band entered into talks with Dickinson, who agreed to rejoin during a meeting in Brighton,[103] along with guitarist Adrian Smith, who was telephoned a few hours later.[104] With Gers, Smiths replacement, remaining, Iron Maiden now had a three-guitar line-up and embarked on a hugely successful reunion tour.[105] Dubbed The Ed Hunter Tour, it tied in with the bands newly released greatest hits collection, Ed Hunter, which also contained a computer game of the same name starring the bands mascot.
One of Dickinsons primary concerns on rejoining the group “was whether we would in fact be making a real state-of-the-art record and not just a comeback album,”[102] which eventually took the form of 2000s Brave New World.[106] Having disliked the results from Harris personal studio, Barnyard Studios located on his property in Essex,[107] which had been used for the last four Iron Maiden studio albums, the band recorded the new release at Guillaume Tell Studios, Paris in November 1999 with producer Kevin Shirley.[106] Thematic influences continued with “The Wicker Man” – based on the 1973 British cult film of the same name – and “Brave New World” – title taken from the Aldous Huxley novel of the same name.[108] The album furthered the more progressive and melodic sound present in some earlier recordings, with elaborate song structures and keyboard orchestration.[108]
The world tour that followed consisted of well over 100 dates and culminated on 19 January 2001 in a show at the Rock in Rio festival in Brazil, where Iron Maiden played to an audience of around 250,000.[109][110][111][112] While the performance was being produced for a CD and DVD release in March 2002, under the name Rock in Rio,[113] the band took a year out from touring, during which they played three consecutive shows at Brixton Academy in aid of former drummer Clive Burr, who had recently announced that he had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.[114]
[edit]Dance of Death and A Matter of Life and Death (2003-2007)Main articles: Dance of Death (album) and A Matter of Life and Death (album)Following their Give Me Ed Til Im Dead Tour in the summer of 2003, Iron Maiden released Dance of Death, their thirteenth studio album, which was met by worldwide critical and commercial success.[115] Produced by Kevin Shirley, now the bands regular producer, many critics also felt that this release matched up to their earlier efforts, such as Killers, Piece of Mind and The Number of the Beast.[116] As usual, historical and literary references were present, with “Montségur” in particular being about the Cathar stronghold conquered in 1244,[117] and “Paschendale” relating to the significant battle which took place during The First World War.[118]