13 THE BEAST HITS
THE ROAD AGAIN 2012–2016
For Iron Maiden, The Final Frontier tour was anything but—nothing short of death could stop The Beast (and even that’s questionable). In 2012, Maiden issued En Vivo! Such a release is either a testament to the band’s lengthy back catalog, their interest in further financial gain, or their fans’ hunger for even more live material—or possibly all three.
En Vivo! was recorded at the Estadio Nacional in Santiago, Chile. Produced by Kevin Shirley, En Vivo! showcases the band’s tremendous skill as a live outfit and shows how comfortably the new material sits beside ye olde favorites.
Reviews of En Vivo! were generally positive. The album received eight out of ten marks in Metal Hammer and four out of five in Kerrang!, though Classic Rock was a little more lukewarm, rewarding it with just six out of ten marks, arguing that the band will never top Live after Death. Regardless, Iron Maiden is still a tremendous live act.
“For any fan that caught Iron Maiden on the last tour,” Ian D. Hall wrote in The Spinx, “the set list will come as no surprise and from the onset it has to be said this is no Live after Death, but then again nothing really could ever capture that particular mood. En Vivo! though gives it a damn good go at emulating an album that still gets nods of approval when fans of heavy metal get together to discuss their favourite live albums of all time.”
Maiden England world tour, Sarnia, Ontario, July 14, 2012. Scott Legato/Getty Images
Nicko during a photo shoot for Rhythm Magazine, October 31, 2011, John Henry’s Rehearsal Studios, London. Joby Sessions/Rhythm Magazine via Getty Images
In recent years Maiden have caused controversy among fans who feel their setlists can sometimes be a bit leftfield, opting for a lot of new material over classics. En Vivo!, however, offers a good mix of old and new. Sure, the first disc leans heavily toward material from The Final Frontier, the title track from Dance of Death, and “The Wicker Man” from Brave New World, but disc two airs six songs from pre-1992’s Fear of the Dark, including “Hallowed Be Thy Name.”
In addition to the music release, a DVD release of En Vivo! was filmed by Banger Films, the acclaimed Canadian company behind Flight 666. Directed by Andy Matthews, the DVD includes an 88-minute documentary called Behind the Beast featuring interviews with the band and crew. Banger used 22 high-definition cameras and a flying OctoCam to film the event.
Matthews told Metal Hammer’s Dayal Patterson, “I wanted to give a first-hand idea of exactly what goes on behind the scenes to put on an Iron Maiden show. I had 24-hour access to all that happens, as it happened, and it was a great pleasure to convey all the hard work and fun that goes into it. There are so many fascinating logistics involved.”
“2012’s En Vivo! … finds Iron Maiden solidly straddling the line between both eras,” enthused AllMusic’s James Christopher Monger, “offering up equal servings of material both new and old, and integrating them seamlessly into each other, just they like they always do.”
As further confirmation of the album’s success, the track “Blood Brothers” was nominated for a 2013 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance.
The band hit the road again with the Maiden England world tour 2012–2014, which was based on the 1989 VHS tape of the same name filmed during the Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour in 1988. Accordingly, the setlist focused primarily on the 1988 opus Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. The band said it would be their third and final tour to concentrate on that era, following the 2005 Eddie Rips Up the World tour and 2008–2009’s Somewhere Back in Time world tour.
Drummer Nicko McBrain explained to the St. Louis Post Dispatch’s Kevin C. Johnson: “After [2010’s] The Final Frontier, we took a backseat to recording records and asked what can we do on tour. We put our heads together and thought of the [1988] Seventh Son [of a Seventh Son] album. It’s a great album and a lot of kids into the band haven’t seen some of these songs live. So it was decided that we revisit that.”
The band announced their Maiden England world tour on February 15, 2012. It would include extensive European and North American legs, as well as a swing through Mexico and South America. Voyageur Press collection
Maiden England world tour, Sarnia, Ontario, July 14, 2012. Scott Legato/Getty Images
In March 2012, Maiden issued En Vivo!, a concert recorded at the Estadio Nacional in Santiago, Chile, in April of the previous year. Voyageur Press collection
Iron Maiden is one of the most successful and lucrative touring artists in the music industry. Going back to 1980’s Metal for Muthas Tour, the band has staged more than 20 tours and 2,000 gigs, a remarkable feat for a band that has had next to no help from the mainstream press and radio and that has always defied fickle conventions in terms of image and music.
This extends to the band’s unique approach to setlists. Maiden has never been a nostalgia band, but has nevertheless often enjoyed retrospective concerts. “We’re not scared of playing new stuff, but then it’s nice to also go back and play a few songs [like] ‘Seventh Son,’” Steve Harris told Kelli Skye Fadroski of The Orange County Register. “It was almost like playing a new song, rehearsing it again. It’s good because it keeps life sort of interesting and fresh, really, [and] we don’t like going out and playing the same old set all of the time.”
Speaking to Christopher Toh of Today Online, Janick Gers commented, “A couple of years ago, we only played the brand-new album then…. But there are a couple of songs which—people would lynch us if we didn’t play so we have to play those. We try to keep it interesting for ourselves and for the people coming to watch us. We’re not a parody band. We don’t just play the old stuff. We’re always trying to push the boundaries.”
The band already had an idea for the setlist before beginning rehearsals for the Maiden England world tour. Not only was it the first tour where the band did not play “Hallowed Be Thy Name,” it also marked the first tour since 1998 where they performed “Afraid to Shoot Strangers,” the first time since 1991 that they played “The Prisoner” onstage, and the first time since 1988 they played “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.”
“We haven’t changed the arrangements or anything like that,” Harris told Skye Fadroski. “The songs still stand up as being strong as they are, so we’re not changing them.”
The tour’s awesome stage design also harked back to the original Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour. “Well, we just thought it’d be fun to revisit that period in time,” Adrian Smith told Giorgio Mustica of The Aquarian. “It’s just great revisiting some of the songs we haven’t played for a long while. It keeps us fresh and it’s just, you know, we got a lot of new fans coming on board now, a lot of younger fans who probably never saw or were around when we did that tour.”
The tour kicked off in North America in the summer of 2012 and was the band’s most extensive U.S. tour.
“You have to keep yourself physically fit and together,” Gers explained to Toh. “You know, you hear a lot of bands cancelling a tour because of ‘nervous exhaustion,’ but what that means is that they’ve got so drunk they can’t do the gig any more…. I don’t drink during the day. I’m a night drinker. But you look after yourself. You have to be physically fit. It’s not a game. You can’t be ill. You’re travelling a lot, you’re eating different foods and no one’s going to look after you but you.”
The tour received rave write-ups.
The band inevitably reissued on DVD and CD the out-of-print VHS Maiden England It hit in March 2013. Voyageur Press collection
Zagreb, July 31, 2013. Croatian fans rejoice at Iron Maiden’s first show in their country since 2003. © Wenn US/Alamy
Mary Ouellette of Loudwire reviewed the Mansfield, Massachusetts, and Long Island, New York, shows on back-to-back nights: “New York’s Jones Beach Theater was buzzing with 15,000 maniacal fans. This time, Iron Maiden gave the performance of a lifetime from the very first note of ‘Moon-child.’ The band’s timing was flawless, as each member brandished their instruments like legends, and the flow of the show never hit a definitive peak as Maiden kept the unique energy of their performance at full-blast.”
The North American leg climaxed in Texas on August 18 and was followed by dates around the world in 2013 and 2014 and in March 2013 even found time to reissue the outof-print VHS Maiden England under the title Maiden England ’88 on DVD and CD.
Referring to the 2013 live shows, Gers told Toh, “Yeah, we’ve got all the gear. Eddie is coming along with us. Going to do new songs from the last album Final Frontier and some older songs for those who like the older stuff. So it’s a mix and match really, but a real Maiden extravaganza. But it’s great to break new ground as well. It’s great to play new places. Every gig is important. There’s no showboating.”
Also in March 2013, the band received news that their former drummer, Clive Burr, had passed away as a result of complications from multiple sclerosis. The illness had left Burr deeply in debt and the band had organized a series of benefit shows and helped establish a trust fund for him. In a release, Steve Harris commented, “This is terribly sad news. Clive was a very old friend of all of us. He was a wonderful person and an amazing drummer who made a valuable contribution to Maiden in the early days when we were starting out.”
Maiden England world tour, Berlin, June 18, 2012. © dpa picture alliance/Alamy
Maiden England world tour, Zagreb, Croatia, July 31, 2013. © Wenn US/Alamy
Maiden returned to the United States for shows in September and continued south for a six-date South American tour that included Brazil’s Rock in Rio festival and their first show ever in Paraguay. The dates concluded on October 2 in Santiago, Chile, where the band played in front of an audience of 60,105 fans at the Estadio Nacional and became the biggest foreign band to play in Chile (a total of 226,000 tickets sold for the seven shows the band has played there since 1996).
“Because we were banned in the ’90s, people have felt a very strong connection to us,” Dickinson told the Chilean paper La Tercera. “And we have always brought great shows with us and worked hard not to disappoint the audience.”
Beginning in May 2014, Maiden took the tour to Europe. They played a show-stealing performance as headliners at England’s legendary Donington Park on June 12, 2013, some 25 years after their first show at the venue during 1988’s Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour. The band celebrated the Donington show by arranging a Spitfire TE311 from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight to fly over the stage, followed by a World War I air display organized by frontman and pilot Bruce Dickinson.
Maiden England world tour ended on July 5, 2015, at the Sonisphere Festival in Knebworth, England, where an air spectacle like Donington’s was organized—Dickinson flew a German Fokker Dr. I in a dogfight tribute to honor of the 100th anniversary of World War I.
“Tonight is the final night of the seemingly endless Maiden England World Tour,” Keiron Brown of Clash Music said of the performance, “and it’s pretty much the same set we saw them do at Download last year, with a few tweaks (“Revelations” and “Sanctuary” are included, from debut LP Iron Maiden) and more Eddie action. But Maiden are such a spectacle that they’re always enjoyable.”
Maiden England world tour, Zagreb, Croatia, July 31, 2013. © Wenn US/Alamy
Despite numerous festival appearances, in 2014 Iron Maiden had no interest in playing what might arguably be the world’s most iconic festival. “Personally I have no interest in going to Glastonbury,” Dickinson told the Daily Star. “In the days when Glasto was an alternative festival it was quite interesting…. Now it’s the most bourgeois thing on the planet. Anywhere Gwyneth Paltrow goes and you can live in an air-conditioned yurt is not for me.”
Maiden England world tour was a huge success. In 100 shows over three years, they visited 32 countries and played to approximately two million fans. Financially, it was very lucrative. Billboard magazine tallied 58 shows in which the band grossed $69,243,543 in box office revenue. Pollstar, meanwhile, revealed in their 2012 poll of the Top 200 North American Tours that over 30 shows the band sold 285,866 tickets and grossed $16.1 million. And in 2013, according to their Top 100 worldwide tours poll, Maiden sold 705,250 tickets and grossed $46.8 million over 34 shows.
THE BOOK OF SOULS: 2015–2016
Iron Maiden is perhaps more popular now than ever before. They have had incredible success outside of their native Britain, especially in South America and parts of Europe and Asia where heavy metal continues to be the music of choice for many.
“We never plan anything,” Harris admitted to Musicouch in 2010. “We don’t write on the road. The beauty is that we never know what we’re going to do next. Last time, we didn’t sit down and say we were going to write a load of long songs. I like that spontaneity and we don’t have a direction. We just go where we feel like going at the time.”
Bruce Dickinson announced plans for the band’s 16th studio album as early as July 2013. There is still life in the old beast yet. In February 2015, Nicko McBrain confirmed that the album was completed with producer Kevin Shirley.
The Book of Souls was recorded from September to December in 2014 at Paris’s Guillaume Tell Studios, where Maiden produced 2000’s Brave New World.
“It’s something that most people don’t do now,” Dickinson said in an interview in New York as reported by Associated Press’ John Carucci. “It’s something we have never done. But we didn’t do it to prove a point. We did it because we ran out of space on one CD. We got to six songs and filled it up. I said, ‘Guys, either we stop now, or this is going to be two albums.’”
It is the band’s first double album harking back to Harris’ prog-rock inspirations of his youth. “Maiden were brought up on stuff like—Steve in particular—Genesis’ Supper’s Ready and stuff like that,” Dickinson explained to Spin’s Andy O’Connor. “And yes, I was a big Van der Graff Generator fan, so yeah we’re brought up on all that stuff as well as the Doors, Sabbath, Thin Lizzy and Jethro Tull. To us, it was all one type of music—there was no segmentation.”
The double album contains the band’s longest running song, “Empire of the Clouds,” penned by Dickinson and clocking in at 18 minutes. The track, based on the 1930 R101 airship crash that ended development of long-distance British airship routes, features Dickinson on piano for the first time.
“Bruce was working on it for ages,” Smith explained to Harry Sword of The Quietus, “all the way through the session. He was consumed by it.”
Citing the title track as one of his favorite Maiden tracks, Kevin Shirley said to Team Rock: “The album’s title track is about the ancient Mayans and is over ten minutes long. It begins with a majestic mid-tempo groove. Six minutes in and it explodes into a blistering horserace of a song! Bruce’s singing in the chorus has to be heard to be believed; I can’t squeak as high as that guy can sing in full voice! He truly is a freak of nature.”
It’s an ambitious album full of lyrical and musical ideas, and if it is their swan song, it is a fine way to bow out. Gers summed up the album to Glide Magazine: “It just ended up we had eleven songs in 92 minutes, which is quite too long for a single album. I think it’s good; we just come in and try different things, and we never restrict ourselves in terms of melodies and tunes. If it’s long it ends up long, and it’s as simple as that. If it feels right, that’s what it is. This album just dictates where we are right now in 2015. We’re not a band that looks backwards. And I think this album proves that we’re still valid; the songs are powerful and edgy. There’s all types of different songs on this album and there’s almost something for everybody—classically influenced, jazz influenced, rock and blues influenced—it’s all there and it’s just indicative of what the band’s about.”
Much of the writing and recording was completed in the studio to give the tracks a live feel. They were learning the songs as they were writing them.
Smith told Total Guitar’s Rob Laing, “I thought I’d try writing shorter songs, like ‘Two Minutes to Midnight’ [sic] and ‘Can I Play with Madness,’ with just Bruce and I. We haven’t done that since I’ve been back in the band [Smith rejoined Maiden with Dickinson in 1999]. Maybe with ‘Wickerman’ [sic] we did it [from 2000’s Brave New World]. So that was different. He came over before we started recording and we wrote ‘Speed of Light’ and ‘Death or Glory.’”
The album was more of a collaborative release than past releases as Harris—due to two bereavements that impacted his creativity—does not feature on the songwriting credits on every track. He co-wrote “Tears of a Clown” with Smith, a song about the 2014 suicide of actor/comedian Robin Williams.
Gers said to Harry Sword of The Quietus, “We all brought different things, a really broad spectrum of musical ideas—I don’t want us to become a parody of what we were.”
A release date was yet to be confirmed as Dickinson underwent treatment for a cancerous tumor found on his tongue. Dickinson’s cancer did not impact the recording of the album, as Harris explained to Kerrang!, “because there was no inkling of any of it. He’d finished all his vocal bits completely anyway, and then there were some other bits and pieces we were doing. Really, we didn’t know anything—he didn’t show any signs at all. I mean, his singing, when you hear it … he’s singing better than ever.” In May, Dickinson was given the all-clear and the band could resume activity.
Dickinson stated on the band’s website: “I’m a firm believer in trying to maintain a positive attitude, and the encouragement from the global Maiden family meant a great deal to me. Right now, I’m feeling extremely motivated and can’t wait to get back to business as usual, as soon as I can!”
The Book of Souls was confirmed for September release. The band released the music video for “Speed of Light,” directed by Llexi Leon, on August 14.
The Book of Souls received rave reviews and was Maiden’s fifth UK Number 1 album, and matched The Final Frontier in the USA hitting Number 4 on the Billboard 2000. The five-year gap between The Final Frontier and The Book of Souls is the longest between studio releases in the band’s lengthy career.
Billboard’s Richard Bienstock is enthused. “While it’s certainly outsized (and does crawl part way through disc two),” he said, “the rock outfit’s sixteenth studio album is surprisingly engaging overall. That eighteen-minute track, ‘Empire of the Clouds,’ is actually a highlight, retelling the tale of a 1930 crash of an R101 British airship in France. Vocalist Bruce Dickinson packs his lyrics with colorful characters as the music moves from an extended piano-and-strings intro into a majestic pomp-rock instrumental.”
Ray Van Horn Jr. of Blabbermouth raved, “When doing a double album, you’d best come hot all the way or don’t come at all. The Book of Souls not only comes hot, it can make a metalhead weep with joy a band this long in the game has it within themselves to want to not merely entertain but astonish their audience. Iron Maiden is still the greatest, period, the end.” Plans were announced for a 2015 world tour with visits to 35 countries including their first-ever shows in China and El Salvador. “To play China—I’ve never been to China in any capacity,” Dickinson told Spin’s Andy O’Connor. “We’ll see what kind of reception we get in China. The first time we played India we had a similar sort of vibe, kids besieging us everywhere. El Salvador I’m sure will be absolutely nuts.”
Later, Maiden England tour art revisited iconic imagery from tours and albums past. Voyageur Press collection
The band, however, decided to delay the tour until 2016 so Dickinson could recuperate after his cancer treatment. The tour commenced in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on February 24.
On the band’s website, Rod Smallwood stated, “We are of course all absolutely delighted that Bruce’s doctors have pronounced him free of cancer. Although Bruce is naturally eager to resume Maiden activities, it will take a while before he is completely back to full strength, as we explained previously. Because of this, the band will not be touring or playing any shows until next year. We know our fans will understand the situation and, like us, would prefer to wait until Bruce is back to his usual indefatigable levels of fitness before going out on the road.”
Dickinson was looking forward to hitting the road. “Hell would have to freeze over before you couldn’t get me on that stage,” he told The Observer’s Matt Munday. “Even if somebody else had to sing and all I could do is run around and wave my fucking arms. But I don’t think that’s going to be the case. I was having a good sing-song yesterday and thinking, ‘Ooh, that’s sounding pretty good, actually …’”
Ed Force One, Maiden’s customized Boeing 747-400 piloted by Dickinson, on the tarmac at Cardiff, Wales, prior to the Book of Souls world tour. The plane also carried the crew and twelve tons of equipment. © Phil Rees/Alamy
The band is set to travel in Ed Force One, their customized Boeing 747-400 jumbo jet piloted by Dickinson, naturally. The plane was also set to carry the crew and twelve tons of equipment, including a new stage set. “Whenever we do a new album, we always go out with a new stage show; that’s exciting in itself,” Harris told Kerrang!. “We always feel like every show is sacred these days anyway, and I suppose even more so now after the scare with what’s happened with Bruce. It makes everything more important to us.”
By 2016, Iron Maiden’s legacy was firmly cemented. Not only do they continue to create music and play to thousands of people around the world, but they are worshipped by dozens of other bands, from Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax to Annihilator, Pantera, Slipknot, Fozzy, Avenged Sevenfold, Marilyn Manson, In Flames, and Trivium.
“Years ago, someone asked, ‘What’s the secret of Maiden’s success?’ and I said that I wished it was complicated, but it’s just ‘Don’t let people down,’” Dickinson explained to Musicouch in 2010. “You can count on Maiden. Always try your best and always be honest and don’t let people down. People will forgive you a duff album if they know you weren’t taking the piss and you tried to make a good record. They’ll forgive you if the honesty and the intention are here. If you turn around and suddenly get rid of the whole Maiden sound and do something crass and commercial and it’s a duff album, revenge will be merciless and probably well deserved.” The story of Iron Maiden is a remarkable one that goes all the way from the East End of 1970s London to the greatest arenas and stadiums of the world. The business side of the band inspired other bands to create their own empires and brands. Yet what remains so alluring about Iron Maiden is not just their music but that they continue to be approachable—they’re mostly a bunch of down-to-earth working-class British lads.
It will be interesting to see where the band goes from here, as many assumed The Final Frontier would be their swansong. There’s no question that the world needs this band and so does heavy metal, the genre which Maiden have so enthusiastically promoted even during the dark days of the 1990s.
Gers spoke to Glide Magazine about the band’s plans: “Truthfully, every album we do I think might be the last. With The Final Frontier, we did quite a long tour … and who knows what’s going to happen? You could fall out, some people in the band might not enjoy it anymore, so you always think this might be the last tour. We’re a band that’s been around a long time now, and just looking at what’s happened to Bruce.
… That was a huge shock to everybody, so you never know when the last tour is.”
With The Book of Souls, Iron Maiden has proved that despite their age they still have something to say; the 2016 world tour not only set the band apart from their peers, but proved that they are metal’s most innovative band.
All hail Maiden!
Maiden England world tour, Brno, Czech Republic, June 8, 2014. © Vaclav Salek/CTK Photo//Alamy
2012
06.21 |
Charlotte, USA |
06.23 |
Atlanta, USA |
06.26 |
Mansfield, USA |
06.27 |
Wantagh, USA |
06.29 |
Camden, USA |
06.30 |
Bristow, USA |
07.02 |
Newark, USA |
07.04 |
Milwaukee, USA |
07.05 |
Tinley Park, USA |
07.07 |
Ottawa, CAN |
07.08 |
Quebec City, CAN |
07.11 |
Montreal, CAN |
07.13 |
Toronto, CAN |
07.14 |
Sarnia, CAN |
07.16 |
Corfu, USA |
07.18 |
Clarkston, USA |
07.19 |
Noblesville, USA |
07.21 |
Cadott, USA |
07.24 |
Winnipeg, CAN |
07.26 |
Calgary, CAN |
07.27 |
Edmonton, CAN |
07.29 |
Vancouver, CAN |
07.30 |
Auburn, USA |
08.01 |
West Valley City, USA |
08.03 |
Mountain View, USA |
08.04 |
Wheatland, USA |
08.06 |
Phoenix, USA |
08.09–10 |
Irvine, USA |
08.12 |
Albuquerque, USA |
08.13 |
Greenwood Village, USA |
08.15 |
San Antonio, USA |
08.17 |
Dallas, USA |
08.18 |
The Woodlands, USA |
2013
05.27 |
Bilbao, ESP |
05.29 |
Lisbon, POR |
05.31 |
Madrid, ESP |
06.01 |
Barcelona, ESP |
06.05 |
Paris, FRA |
06.08 |
Milan, ITA |
06.09 |
Amnéville, FRA |
06.11–12 |
Frankfurt, GER |
06.15 |
Donington, GBR |
06.18 |
Berlin, GER |
06.19 |
Hamburg, GER |
06.21 |
Graz, AUT |
06.22 |
Zurich, SUI |
06.25 |
Amsterdam, NED |
06.27 |
Piestany, SVK |
06.29 |
Singen-Aach, GER |
06.30 |
Dessel, BEL |
07.03 |
Lodz, POL |
07.04 |
Gdansk, POL |
07.06 |
Oberhausen, GER |
07.10 |
Malmo, SWE |
07.13 |
Stockholm, SWE |
07.16 |
St. Petersburg, RUS |
07.18 |
Moscow, RUS |
07.20 |
Helsinki, FIN |
07.24 |
Bucharest, ROU |
07.26 |
Istanbul, TUR |
07.29 |
Prague, CZE |
07.31 |
Zagreb, CRO |
07.3–4 |
London, GBR |
09.03 |
Raleigh, USA |
09.05 |
Nashville, USA |
09.07 |
Kansas City, USA |
09.08 |
Maryland Heights, USA |
09.10 |
Austin, USA |
09.12 |
Las Vegas, USA |
09.13 |
San Bernardino, USA |
09.17 |
Mexico City, MEX |
09.20 |
Sao Paulo, BRA |
09.22 |
Rio de Janeiro, BRA |
09.24 |
Curitiba, BRA |
09.27 |
Buenos Aires, ARG |
09.29 |
Asuncion, PAR |
10.02 |
Santiago, CHI |
2014
05.27 |
Barcelona, ESP |
05.29 |
Bilbao, ESP |
05.31 |
Nijmegen, NED |
06.01 |
Bologna, ITA |
06.03 |
Budapest, HUN |
06.05 |
Nurburg, GER |
06.08 |
Brno, CZE |
06.09 |
Nuremberg, GER |
06.11 |
Copenhagen, DEN |
06.13 |
Interlaken, SUI |
06.14 |
Nickelsdorf, AUT |
06.16 |
Sofia, BUL |
06.17 |
Belgrade, SER |
06.20 |
Clisson, FRA |
06.24 |
Poznan, POL |
06.26 |
Norrkoping, SWE |
06.28 |
Bergen, NOR |
07.01 |
Roeser, LUX |
07.03 |
Arras, FRA |
07.05 |
Knebworth, GBR |
2016
02.24 |
Sunrise, USA |
02.26 |
Tulsa, USA |
02.28 |
Las Vegas, USA |
03.01 |
Monterrey, MEX |
03.03–04 |
Mexico City, MEX |
03.06 |
San Salvador, ESA |
03.08 |
San Jose, CRC |
03.11 |
Santiago, CHI |
03.13 |
Cordoba, ARG |
03.15 |
Buenos Aires, ARG |
03.17 |
Rio de Janeiro, BRA |
03.19 |
Belo Horizonte, BRA |
03.22 |
Brasília, BRA |
03.24 |
Fortaleza, BRA |
03.26 |
Sao Paulo, BRA |
03.30 |
New York City, USA |
04.01 |
Montreal, CAN |
04.03 |
Toronto, CAN |
04.05 |
Auburn Hills, USA |
04.06 |
Chicago, USA |
04.08 |
Edmonton, CAN |
04.10 |
Vancouver, CAN |
04.11 |
Tacoma, USA |
04.13 |
Denver, USA |
04.15–16 |
Inglewood, USA |
04.20–21 |
Tokyo, JPN |
04.24 |
Beijing, CHN |
04.26 |
Shanghai, CHN |
04.29 |
Christchurch, NZL |
05.01 |
Auckland, NZL |
05.04 |
Brisbane, AUS |
05.06 |
Sydney, AUS |
05.09 |
Melbourne, AUS |
05.12 |
Adelaide, AUS |
05.14 |
Perth, AUS |
05.18 |
Cape Town, RSA |
05.21 |
Johannesburg, RSA |
05.27 |
Dortmund, GER |
05.29 |
Munich, GER |
05.31 |
Berlin, GER |
06.03 |
Lucerne, SUI |
06.05 |
Vienna, AUT |
06.08 |
Arnhem, NLD |
06.10 |
Paris, FRA |
06.12 |
Castle Donington, GBR |
06.15 |
Oslo, NOR |
06.17 |
Gothenburg, SWE |
06.19 |
Dessel, BEL |
06.21 |
Herning, DEN |
06.23 |
Kaunas, LTU |
06.25 |
Moscow, RUS |
06.29 |
Hameenlinna, FIN |
07.01 |
Sopron, HUN |
07.03 |
Wroclaw, POL |
07.05 |
Prague, CZE |
07.06 |
Zilina, SVK |
07.09 |
Viveiro, ESP |
07.11 |
Lisbon, POR |
07.13 |
Madrid, ESP |
07.14 |
Seville, ESP |
07.16 |
Barcelona, ESP |
07.22 |
Milan, ITA |
07.24 |
Rome, ITA |
07.26 |
Trieste, ITA |
07.27 |
Split, CRO |
07.02 |
Esch-sur-Alzette, LUX |
07.04 |
Wacken, GER |
Notes: On September 14, 2015, the band began confirming 2016 dates for the Book of Souls world tour.
