Iron Maiden go retro gaming with Speed of Light video

I have loved Iron Maiden ever since I bought ‘Live After Death’ and saw them on their ‘Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour’ at Sheffield City Hall. This year has seen frontman and all-round can-do-anything type, Bruce Dickinson, fight off cancer and now Maiden have released their first single from new multi-disc album ‘The Book of Souls’, the video of which is grounded in retro gaming.

‘Speed of Light’ is the lead single from ‘The Book of Souls’ and heavy metal legends Iron Maiden premiered the video last week. I’ve watched it a number of times and thought that the gaming element at least was worth sharing with you lot 🙂

Written by guitarist Adrian Smith and vocalist Bruce Dickinson, ‘Speed of Light’ can be seen for free on both www.ironmaiden.com, TIDAL, and the band’s YouTube channel. Maiden fans can download the ‘Speed Of Light’ track when they pre-order ‘The Book Of Souls’ on iTunes. It can also be streamed on TIDAL, Spotify and Apple Music.

The video was produced and directed by Llexi Leon with animation and visual effects by The Brewery Production Company.

A huge Iron Maiden fan, this is Llexi Leon’s first music video. Creator and multi-instrumentalist behind the cult comic book series Eternal Descent – a digitally animated virtual band that features a cast of metal and hard rock luminaries – Leon has further expanded into the video gaming industry.

Leon chose to collaborate with The Brewery who’s previous film credits include 2010’s Ian Dury and The Blockheads biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll with Andy Serkis, 2012’s music festival themed Spike Island with Emilia Clarke and, more recently, The Brewery was providing VFX for the Sky Atlantic 4-part drama about Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang and Bond creator Ian Fleming.

The ‘Speed of Light’ pays homage to four decades of video gaming juxtaposed against Iron Maiden’s 40 years of incredible visual canon centering on their undead helmsman Eddie as he travels through space and time to complete his Herculean task. The video has already seen more than four million views on YouTube!
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The Book Of Souls is Iron Maiden’s 16th studio album and was recorded in Guillame Tell Studios in Paris with longstanding producer Kevin Shirley.

Pre-order ‘The Book of Souls’ in either 2CD Limited Deluxe Hardbound Book Edition, Double CD or Triple Heavy Weight Black Vinyl LP.

Here’s a behind the scenes look of the video:
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\m/ Up The Irons! \m/