...you're in a Flash game. In space.

quadralien linked to this a couple of hours ago - it seems that Iron Maiden are now joining Limozeen in outer space self-parody. (At least, I hope both of these are self-parody.) This several-year-late hop in to the whole interactive Flash Internet browser multimedia game thing involves Eddie - who by now is a horrific mostly-skeletal visage with teeth growing out of its teeth - having to recover the band's equipment by floating around shooting things. It's not the first time the band have gone into science fiction territory, but it still feels a bit like a gimmick from a bygone era.

The fifteenth album's called The Final Frontier, by the way, as you've no doubt heard by now. A preview song, El Dorado, is up here, so you can assess the sound for yourself. From the tracklist, it looks like they've returned to the philosophy that they introduced to me of a song not really being complete unless it's over seven minutes long, and are skirting with the maximum capacity of CDs in just ten tracks. On the positive side, its chorus doesn't just consist of the title sung sixteen times as has been their habit recently, but it's still a lot more... understated than their earlier material. Give us another Run to the Hills, Steve Harris!

I've stopped really following them over the last while, but it's at least impressive that a band of their age has had a stable line-up for ten years. Especially when compared to ones like Stratovarius, who split up seemingly irreparably after releasing every single album and then just crawl back together again like the T1000, absorbing a different bassist each time.