Iron Maiden have revealed that their 17th studio album, Senjutsu, is out on September 3, via Parlophone Records. The album – their first in six years – was recorded in Paris with longstanding producer Kevin Shirley, and was co-produced by Steve Harris.

Last week, Iron Maiden shared the acclaimed animated video for the project's first single, 'The Writing On The Wall'. It followed a month-long teaser campaign for clues about the track title and concept.

For Senjutsu – loosely translated as "tactics and strategy", the band once again joined forces with Mark Wilkinson to create the Samurai-themed cover artwork – based on an idea by Steve Harris. With a running time of a little under 82 minutes, Senjutsu, like their previous album, The Book Of Souls, will be a double CD/triple vinyl album.

"We chose to record at Guillaume Tell Studio in France again as the place has such a relaxed vibe," says Steve. "The setup there is perfect for our needs; the building used to be a cinema and has a really high ceiling so there’s a great acoustic sound. We recorded this album in the same way we did The Book Of Souls in that we’d write a song, rehearse it and then put it down together straight away while it was all fresh in our minds. There’s some very complex songs on this album which took a lot of hard work to get them exactly as we wanted them to sound, so the process was at times very challenging, but Kevin is great at capturing the essence of the band and I think it was worth the effort! I’m very proud of the result and can’t wait for fans to hear it.”

“We’re all really excited about this album," adds lead singer Bruce Dickinson. "We recorded it back in early 2019 during a break in the Legacy tour so we could maximise our touring yet still have a long set up period before release to prepare great album art and something special as a video. Of course the pandemic delayed things more - so much for the best laid plans – or should that be ‘strategies’!? The songs are very varied, and some of them are quite long. There’s also one or two songs which sound pretty different to our usual style, and I think Maiden fans will be surprised – in a good way, I hope!"

Senjutsu will be available to pre-order from Wednesday, July 21.

Senjutsu will be released on:

Standard 2CD Digipak
Deluxe 2CD Book Format
Deluxe heavyweight 180G Triple Black Vinyl
Special edition Silver & Black / Red & Black Marble Vinyls (from selected retailers)
Super Deluxe Boxset
Digital (Stream & Download)#IronMaiden #Senjutsu #Album pic.twitter.com/zdKJl4dHhW

— Iron Maiden (@IronMaiden) July 19, 2021

Tracklist

1. Senjutsu (8:20) Smith/Harris
2. Stratego (4:59) Gers/Harris
3. The Writing On The Wall (6:13) Smith/Dickinson
4. Lost In A Lost World (9:31) Harris
5. Days Of Future Past (4:03) Smith/Dickinson
6. The Time Machine (7:09) Gers/Harris
7. Darkest Hour (7:20) Smith/Dickinson
8. Death Of The Celts (10:20) Harris
9. The Parchment (12:39) Harris
10. Hell On Earth (11:19) Harris