Iron-clad rockers Maiden reunites

Iron Maiden Queensryche,

Rob Halford

7 p.m. Friday

UIC Pavilion, 1040 W. Harrison

$34.50, $39.50

(312) 559-1212

LOS ANGELES Bruce Dickinson has no doubts that Iron Maiden isprepared to face a "Brave New World" head-on.

The album of that name, released May 30 on Portrait/Columbia, isthe first Iron Maiden studio set in eight years featuring Dickinsonon vocals. He rejoined the group last year, when the band releasedthe greatest hits/video-game package "Ed Hunter" and toured in frontof sold-out audiences.

But that tour was just "training" for "Brave New World," Dickinsonsays, a feeling he hopes will come across on the album.

"I think that this is genuinely the best-sounding Maiden albumthere's ever been," he says. "All respect due to 1983's `Piece OfMind,' my previous favorite record, but this is just one level ofbrutality beyond that."

Dickinson says that unlike other recently reunited groups thatseem satisfied to live off the past, Iron Maiden will build off of itinstead.

"We're not sad old farts getting back together to go and make afew bucks," he says. "That's sad and cheesy and not something I'minterested in."

While the album was being made in Paris, Dickinson says, Shirleysuggested the band record "completely live," a first in Iron Maiden'scareer. The band wrote the album's 10 tracks before the "Ed Hunter"tour and left them "not unfinished but unrehearsed" until it cametime to head into the studio.

Die-hard fans' enthusiasm caused the band to record the albumunder a cloak of secrecy, occasionally dropping bits of informationon its official Web site, ironmaiden.com.

"My copy of the album, I keep it somewhere safe," Dickinson says."I've heard people say that they would unquestionably steal it.People are nuts about this stuff, which is great."

The first song written for the album, the anthemic "The WickerMan," is also its first single.

"What I was trying to get on the lyrics was a feeling, just thisreal positive vibe," Dickinson says. "I wanted the same vibe I getwhen I stand onstage in front of all these people and they're allchanting and singing with you."

"The Wicker Man," with a galloping riff true to the classic IronMaiden sound, was co-written by Steve Harris, one of the group'sthree guitarists. Harris contributed to each of the album's cuts,including three collaborations with Dickinson.

The band didn't want to spend too much time on the road in 1999,preferring to capitalize on its momentum and head into the studio."We could have kept on touring till the cows came home, but we keptit deliberately short," says Dickinson, who left the band after1992's "Fear Of The Dark."

The American leg of the "Brave New World" tour, which comes to theUIC Pavilion Friday, follows a two-month stint in Europe.

The band will then head to Australia, New Zealand, Japan, andSouth America before beginning another American tour in October.

"If there was anybody out there who doubted we were serious aboutthis," Dickinson says, "think again."