Heavy metal legends Iron Maiden revealed earlier this year that they were holding off on releasing a new album while Bruce Dickinson dealt with a cancerous tumor. But Dickinson has received treatment and got the “all clear” from doctors, and now fans can get ready for Maiden's new album, “The Book of Souls”, coming on September 4.

The group revealed the news via their website. For the album, they teamed up with longtime producer Kevin 'Caveman' Shirley and finished off the disc late last year. They called upon Mark Wilkinson to create the artwork for their first double-disc album featuring 11 tracks with a running time of 92 minutes.

Bassist/founder Steve Harris contributed songwriting on seven of the tracks, while the band's guitarists took the lead on six of the songs. This also marks the first time since 1984′s “Powerslave” that Bruce Dickinson solely wrote two tracks on the album, and one of those songs – “Empire of the Clouds” -- is the longest Maiden track ever recorded, clocking over 18 minutes.

Harris says, “We approached this album in a different way to how we've recorded previously. A lot of the songs were actually written while we were there in the studio and we rehearsed and recorded them straight away while they were still fresh, and I think that immediacy really shows in the songs, they have almost a live feel to them, I think. I'm very proud of 'The Book of Souls', we all are, and we can't wait for our fans to hear it, and especially to take it out on the road next year!”

Dickinson continues, “We're really excited about The Book of Souls and had a fantastic time creating it. We started working on the album in late summer 2014 and recorded it at Guillame Tell Studios in Paris, where we'd done the 'Brave New World' album back in 2000 -- so the studio holds special memories for all of us. By the time we'd finished we all agreed that each track was such an integral part of the whole body of work that if it needed to be a double album, then double its going to be!”

The album will be available in two-disc deluxe hardbound book limited edition, two-disc standard edition, triple heavyweight black vinyl, High-res audio and Standard-res audio editions.

Source: Loudwire