‘Arry and his grinning charges, otherwise known as Iron Maiden, constitute one of the most inspiring second act success stories in heavy metal history.

In Empire of the Clouds: Iron Maiden in the ‘00s, Martin Popoff charts the re-rise of Maiden from a difficult 1990s, beginning with the return of both Adrian Smith and Bruce “Air Raid Siren” Dickinson to the band for 2000’s Brave New World.

At that time, this was an exciting story in the heavy metal world, but no one could predict how the band would fulfill the promise of the new six-man lineup over the years. Through the ensuing records—each more embraced than the last—namely Dance of Death, A Matter of Life and Death, The Final Frontier and The Book of Souls, Iron Maiden grew in stature by leaps and bounds, tearing into the fabric of wider pop culture consciousness and becoming arguably the best example of a band that belongs to the world coming from the hard rock realm or from any other.

Here we celebrate those records and the band’s world-beating tours, while along the way also touching upon the continuing solo career of Bruce Dickinson as well as Primal Rock Rebellion from Adrian and British Lion from Steve. All told, the hope is that the reader will come away with a new appreciation of the prodigious and high-quality output from Maiden and its extended family in the 2000s.

Toward that end, Popoff deconstructs this material to his usual standard, providing the best look at these records and bands in book form ever attempted. And if this is your first book on Maiden from Popoff, well, also available are Where Eagles Dare: Iron Maiden in the ‘80s and Holy Smoke: Iron Maiden in the ‘90s, the three together representing a trilogy, a three-headed Eddie, sure to fulfill all your literary needs on this New Wave of British Heavy Metal act gone legendary.

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