I've been in a Maiden mood today, and the thought occurred to me that we're probably a little over a year away from the next (and most likely final) Iron Maiden album.
So I thought about what sort of direction the band will most likely take on the next album and what sort of influence the Maiden England tour will probably have on them when they're writing the new songs (much like how the Somewhere Back In Time tour appears to have influenced the band while making
The Final Frontier) and also the idea of who would be a great replacement for Kevin Shirley as the producer on the next album. Granted, the latter is probably not going to happen, but hey I can dream.
- Influence: At this point, I sincerely doubt we'll see the band regress from the progressive metal/rock direction they've developed into. On top of that, they've played a lot of SSoaSS on this tour (for obvious reasons). However, they also played a couple of early 90's songs and some of the earlier Maiden material too (such as Phantom). I have a feeling it'll be as musically 'colorful' as TFF was, but perhaps a bit more raw sounding or simply heavier/darker.
- If They Miraculously Replace Shirley: Get Alan Parsons or someone of his caliber. Please. Since this will probably be the last Maiden album, I'd like for it have a far better sounding production than the likes of DoD or TFF. With the direction I
think they'll probably go, they need to ditch the 'live in studio' sound and go for top notch production.