Iron Maiden "The Book of Souls"

The sixteenth studio album from the English heavy metal band Iron Maiden, called "The Book of Souls", was released on 4 September 2015. This album is their first double album and their longest to date, with a total runtime of 92 minutes and 11 seconds. The release of the album and its supporting tour were delayed so that vocalist Bruce Dickinson could recover from the removal of a cancerous tumour in early 2015. This album was also their first to be released on Parlophone since the end of their 30-year relationship with EMI Records.

The album was produced by long-time Iron Maiden collaborator Kevin Shirley, and was recorded at Guillaume Tell Studios in Paris from September to December 2014. The band wrote and recorded many tracks in the studio, resulting in a live feel to the album. The album's first single, "Speed of Light", was released as a music video on 14 August and as a digital download and CD single exclusively to Best Buy. The album contains the band's longest song to date, "Empire of the Clouds", at 18 minutes in length.

The album was a critical and commercial success, reaching number one on the album charts in 24 countries. It earned the band their fifth UK No. 1, matching their previous successes with "The Number of the Beast" (1982), "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" (1988), "Fear of the Dark" (1992), and "The Final Frontier" (2010). In the US, it matched the success of "The Final Frontier" on the Billboard 200, reaching No. 4 until it was surpassed by "Senjutsu" in 2021 at No. 3. At the time of its release, "The Book of Souls" marked the longest gap between studio releases in the band's entire career at five years, following "The Final Frontier."