Calling all Gen ‘Exbangers! Holy Smoke: Iron Maiden in the ‘90s is the follow-up to Where Eagles Dare: Iron Maiden in the ‘80s with matching design and style, same tipped-in sections of colour photography, every song examined deeply and all that. You’ve all been very kind in making my recent books like this on Sabbath and Priest sell pretty damn good, so this one is very much a style match to those too.

Finally I get to do the Maiden story… relaxed, fully involved, include all the detail, lots of facts and trivia but no holding back on opinion as well. There will likely be a third one to bring us up to present day, but I haven’t even started (doing Mercyful Fate next instead).

As the back cover sez…

Heavy metal in the 1990s was a forbidden art, relegated to the sidelines to watch grunge and alternative, ridiculed and denigrated and nearly drummed out of existence. But grinding through the decade, both Iron Maiden and Bruce Dickinson as a solo artist clenched their collective British dentistry and persevered, not that commercial and critical accolades were forthcoming on all fronts.

Holy Smoke: Iron Maiden in the ‘90s is the story of both those solitudes, to be specific, the typical Popoff deep dish analysis of the complete catalogues, namely No Prayer for the Dying, Fear of the Dark, The X Factor and Virtual XI, but also Tattooed Millionaire, Balls to Picasso, Skunkworks, Accident of Birth and The Chemical Wedding.

The live albums get a look-in as well, as does, right at the end, the inspiring return of Bruce Dickinson to the band. Along the way there’s lots of Blaze Bayley and cursory glances into what Paul Di’Anno and Adrian Smith are up to during this accursed decade.

All told, the hope is that the reader will come away with a new appreciation of these records. And even if impressions of the Maiden side of the equation aren’t particularly improved, surely large swaths of the Bruce catalogue will please anew—seriously, revisit this material and you will very likely come away impressed. Here’s the most detailed and respectful analysis of those records ever put to print to help you on your way.

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Martin Popoff
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Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M4K 2Z2