Iron Maiden Goes to 12: Book of Souls World Tour Slays Beijing

Iconic British heavy metal act and the source of everything we know about ancient history, mid-20th century battleground tactics and strategy, and classic Romantic poetry, Iron Maiden blew the doors off Beijing last night with a two-hour show at Wukesong Arena, MasterCard Center, LeSports Center.

It was, in our professional estimation, all of the following things: Rad. Gnarly. Bitchin'. Totally sweet. Awesome. Sick. Killer. Kickass. Fuggin’ metal. Dude. You get the idea. 

The band played Beijing Sunday night as part of their “Book of Souls World Tour," performing behind their 2015 (double) album of the same name. The album, their 16th, finds the band at the top of the heap musically and critically; the release charted at the number one spot in 24 countries, and also tied their highest Billboard result at number 4, along with their most seminal releases: Number of the Beast, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Fear of the Dark, and The Final Frontier.   

At this point in Iron Maiden’s career, you’d be expecting a victory lap greatest hits tour or two before the band bows out into retirement, but they’ve got yet another hit album on their hands, and have launched a massive world tour to play it out. In true Maiden style, this tour comes replete with custom jumbo jet that the friggin’ singer is piloting himself, ornate and arcane Eddie backdrops that rotate with each song, and a massive, 60-meter, blow-up Satan stage prop. Oh, yes, that’s right.

Woe to you, oh earth and sea, for the Devil sends the beast with wrath: 

Iron Maiden sounds the same as they ever did. Maybe they made some pact with the devil – Oh! Wait! Of course they did! That’s totally it. Mystery solved. – but vocalist Bruce Dickinson has lost none of the power and range of his voice. Steve Harris still gallops and thunders on the bass, and the guitar section, which is three-deep these days, deftly trades off piercing legato riffs and solos between them like an absolute machine.  

And drummer Nico is still using the gong, so that’s pretty wicked.

The band is as good as they ever were. This is Andrew Lloyd Webber-core metal at its finest. 

Material-wise, this was definitely the Book of Souls world tour with the stage set, rotating backdrops, and props primarily inspired by the iconography of that release. The set-list leaned heavily on the new material, which is some of the most prog-iest stuff Maiden has ever done. “Speed of Light," “Death of Glory," “Tears of a Clown,” and the title track “The Book of Souls” marked the tone for the evening, which was really geared towards getting the new album on over to the fans, albeit punctuating it with The Hits. Dickinson took the time between songs to explain was the new stuff was about – i.e. “Book of Souls” is about “the possible fate of the Incas," which is, hey sure, a super Iron Maiden thing for a song to be about.  

Too bad he didn’t say:

“No one knows who they were ... or ... wot they were doing. But their legacy remains in the LIVING ROCK OF MACHU PICCHU!” 

For Maiden’s debut in China, they also treated us to a smattering of surprisingly chosen classics: “Hallowed Be Thy Name," “Children of the Damned," “Iron Maiden," and “Powerslave,” were dusted off, and, of course, they played the signature songs fans have come to expect: “Wasted Years," “Fear of the Dark," “The Number of the Beast,” and “The Trooper."

The first CD I ever owned was their 1983 album Piece of Mind, and it was impossible not to break out into a massive grin when Dickinson, between verses of “The Trooper," yelled out in his trademark operatic caterwaul, “Come on, Beijing! Let me hear you screeeeeeaaam!”  

The band made their China debut in Beijing, the seat of Chinese metal, and the audience turned out for it. The show was sold out with legions of long-haired hesher metal kids wearing the full range of dazzlingly crisp Iron Maiden T-shirts – at one point Dickinson looked out into the crowd and amusingly noted that half of their set list was composed of songs that came out before most of the audience had even been born – and there was also the requisite older, lifelong fan laowais that came out as well, with their own more faded Maiden tour shirts (and tattoos).  

Of course, as Dickinson notes in a particularly sparkling bit of mid-set banter: “We don’t do race. We don’t do gender. We just do music. Maiden is a world-wide family. We are Bloooooood Brottthhhherrrsss!” 

What else can we say. Maiden. They delivered. In a rough few years for Beijing live music – who’s still smarting from that Megadeth bullshit? – we needed this one. Up the IRONS. 

Concert VIP: This guy for showing us all how to do heavy metal parking lot like a total pro. Bring you own office chair, set up at the intersection in front of the gate, and just shotgun some sweet milk tea, waiting for the show to start like you just don’t give a FUUUUUUUUU ...

More snappies! 

Set List - Iron Maiden "Book of Souls World Tour" Beijing 2016

1) If Eternity Should Fall
2) Speed of Light
3) Children of the Damned
4) Tears of a Clown
5) The Red and the Black
6) The Trooper
7) Powerslave
8) Death of Glory
9) The Book of Souls
10) Hallowed Be Thy Name
11) Fear of the Dark
12) Iron Maiden

Encore

13) The Number of the Beast
14) Blood Brothers
15) Wasted Years

Photos: Morgan Short