Iron Maiden will release their highly anticipated 17th studio album, Senjutsu , in September of this year. The album is another collaboration between the band and producer Kevin Shirley , a constant presence in their discography since Brave New World (2000).
In two decades of working alongside Maiden, the pressure from the public has always been constant. "Well, I've learned to be thick-skinned when it comes to dealing with some Iron Maiden fans," he said in an interview with Metal Hammer in a special edition about Senjutsu .
The reason for this stance isn't ordinary criticism of anyone's work, but rather more extreme attitudes coming from some of the band's fans. "When I started working with them, I received emails full of bitterness and even death threats because I wasn't Martin Birch ," he revealed. "So you just have to let it go, without paying attention."
Iron Maiden's partnership with Birch yielded the band's greatest albums between the 1980s and 1990s, from Killers to Fear of the Dark . The producer also produced legendary albums by Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Whitesnake , and Rainbow before passing away at the age of 71 in 2020 .
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