Although these days it is delicate to resort to war metaphors, Iron Maiden returns to Barcelona this Friday turned into a war machine, managing the biggest ‘show’ it has ever presented in the city. After more than four decades of career, it is now when the British group leaves the pavilion behind and makes the leap to the stadium with a concert in which he attends his brand new ‘Senjutsu’ (Japanese title that alludes to ‘strategy’ and the ‘art of war’) and goes through a good number of metal hymns that, apparently, at this point question to several generations. We review the keys to his return.
The band undertook this ‘Legacy of the beast world tour’ (based on the video game of the same name) in 2018, conceiving it as a tour of its classics, although the appearance, last September, of ‘Senjutsu’ has slightly modified the repertoires introducing three themes of the new vintage, placed in a row as the start of the concert. The appointment at the Estadi Olímpic (six years after his last visit to Barcelona, at the Rock Fest) has been postponed due to the pandemic, in 2020 and 2021, and is the only one in Spain this year. The European itinerary, which has accommodated the suspensions of Moscow and kyiv, concludes on Sunday in Lisbon. At the Estadi, before Iron Maiden’s performance (8:50 p.m.) there will be portions of hard rock with the Australian band Airbourne (6:15 p.m.) and gothic-symphonic metal with the Dutch combo Within Temptation (7:20 p.m.).
An anti-commercial number one
His latest album, ‘Senjutsu’, is dense, intricate and filmy, with extra-long themes (up to 12 minutes), progressive metal developments (in line with his other 21st century works), and heroic lyrical undertones. The title track, with text by Steve Harris (bassist and historic discreet leader of the group), makes allusions to the “great wall”, which protects us from an intangible evil (“fight to the end, they can never possess us”), in a nod to the world of ‘Game of Thrones’. double album, theoretically anti-commercial, it has been number one in 24 countries (including Spain) and praised by outlets as far removed from heavy metal as ‘Pitchfork’, a ‘hipster’ bible (which gave it a 7.4 out of 10), breaking some schemes.
Iron Maiden has traditionally wrapped their concerts in montages related to the imagery of their current album (especially since that literally pharaonic ‘World slavery tour’ in 1984). And this time, matching the Japanese aesthetic of ‘Senjutsu’, the concert starts with the image of a oriental temple and paths pagodas rising at either end of the stage. Starting with the fourth theme, the venerable ‘Revelations’ (trip to the album ‘Piece of mind’, from 1983), that painting disappears and takes its place a gothic backdrop, with the majestic stained glass windows of a cathedral, which remains in the rest of the ‘show’. In ‘Flight of Icarus’, a winged figure bursts through flashes fired by Bruce Dickinson from a muzzle placed on his left sleeve. gag fest,
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One of the keys to the intergenerational success of Iron Maiden, as a rock band and attraction in the world of entertainment, is the figure of Eddie the Head, or simply Eddie, the cute-macabre mascot that illustrates the covers of their albums and who, after tour, she sneaks into concerts with unlimited outfits. After having seen him wrapped in bandages like a mummy, in ‘alien’ or Mayan Indian mode, Eddie now bursts in as a ten-foot-tall eastern paladin, between the guitar solos of the first theme, ‘Senjutsu’ (and not advanced the concert, as usual), scoring a showy fencing scene with that seasoned swordsman that is Dickinson. She appears again, as the backdrop, in the form of a horned beast, in the repechage of ‘Iron Maiden’, and with a coat in the gallop of ‘The trooper’, where she once again has it out with the singer. The samurai Eddie comes from afar, it must be said: we remember the cover of the live epé ‘Maiden Japan’ (1981).
Hymns that cross generations
Since, in 1999, the group recovered its classical formation (plus the retained Janick Gers, with what is three guitars on stage), its journey has been a triumphal walk. Its great capital, a truffled repertoire of hymns with the category of metal standards, including that ‘Run to the hills’ arranged in the encore section. Dickinson, with his voice apparently in good shape, now perhaps a little deeper, agrees to sing songs originally recorded by other singers, whether it was the original headliner Paul Di’Anno (case of ‘Iron Maiden’) or, perhaps more surprisingly, , that meritorious temporary substitute called Blaze Bayley (two songs from his nineties albums). Developed and radicalized metal in infinite ramifications, Iron Maiden’s historical catalog returns to Barcelona, facing its largest venue to date, looking like a popular rock songbook that many want to enjoy at least once.