Text by: Vitor Melo and Pedro Mauro
In August 2010, Iron Maiden released their fifteenth studio album, The Final Frontier . With a space theme and produced by Kevin Shirley , the album further solidified the progressive sound the group had been developing since the late 1990s.
At 76 minutes long, it is Iron Maiden's third longest album, surpassed only by Senjutsu (2021) at 81 minutes and The Book of Souls (2015) at 92 minutes.
The cover, created by British artist Melvyn Grant , featured the iconic mascot Eddie in his most different version yet: a futuristic, monstrous, and practically unrecognizable creature, positioned in the middle of an alien field.
The album features epics like “The Talisman,” “The Man Who Would Be King,” and “When The Wild Wind Blows,” which is 11 minutes long and closes the album with a powerful reflection on paranoia, nuclear fear, and the end of civilization. Its apocalyptic atmosphere even caught attention outside the metal world: the song was used in the series The Walking Dead , more specifically in the episode “Morning Star” from the 10th season, in which the character Eugene sings excerpts of the song on the radio.
The main highlight was the single "El Dorado," which earned Iron Maiden their first Grammy Award . In 2011, the British sextet won in the "Best Metal Performance" category.
The tour included 6 shows performed in Brazil
To promote the album, Iron Maiden embarked on The Final Frontier World Tour , which lasted from 2010 to 2011 and covered the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia, and even the Middle East. The tour featured grandiose shows and impressive visual productions, with sets reminiscent of space and science fiction, complementing the album's theme.
In Brazil, the band performed 7 shows in March 2011 , in the cities of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Belém, Olinda, and Curitiba. In addition, the tour has an official recording, the album En Vivo!, which was recorded in April 2011 at the National Stadium of Chile in Santiago. Its worldwide release took place in March 2012.
Rumors suggest that 'The Final Frontier' will be Iron Maiden's last album
After the announcement of The Final Frontier, fans were uneasy as rumors surfaced that this would be Iron Maiden's last album.
MaidenFans forum a discussion arose citing an interview given to Aftonbladet in 2006, where Steve Harris supposedly commented that the band would only make 15 studio albums: "From the beginning, I said that Maiden would make 15 studio albums…". The link to the interview is broken, so it remains only a rumor.
On another note, in a 2023 interview with Classic Rock , Steve admitted that he always wanted to make 15 albums and commented in a slightly pessimistic tone about the band's future. “I always thought it would be cool to do fifteen albums—which we’ve already surpassed,” Harris replied. “From here on out it’s all downhill, isn’t it? [Laughs.] But each of us is still enjoying it—maybe more than ever—maybe because we know we’re nearing the end. We try not to think about it too much, but as long as everyone is still enjoying what we do, we’ll keep going as long as we can.”
Since the release of The Final Frontier , Iron Maiden has released the albums The Book of Souls (2015) and Senjutsu (2021).
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