IRON MAIDEN's Acclaimed Remasters Get CD Digipak Treatment

[That 70s Guy]

BMG will continue its reissues series of the IRON MAIDEN catalog with "The Studio Collection - Remastered", covering the band's sixteen-strong studio albums across their career to date.

Following on from 2014/2017's black vinyl releases and 2015's "Mastered For iTunes" project, "The Studio Collection - Remastered" will be released on the digipak CD format, with the track listing matching the original U.K. releases. The recordings are taken from the same remasters as the 2015 hi-res digital releases. The albums will be released chronologically in batches of four, across a nine-month period superseding the previously available studio catalog and all titles will also be made available on streaming platforms. As a bonus for collectors, one CD from each batch of releases will also be optionally available in a specially artworked box featuring a 1:24 scale figurine and exclusive patch. In the November 16 batch, this will be "The Number Of The Beast".

MAIDEN founding member and bassist Steve Harris says: "We've wanted to revisit these for a long time and I was delighted with the remastering we did in 2015. I thought it was the best that our albums have ever sounded and it was only right that we made them available on CD now too."

All four albums in this first batch are available for pre-order now from studiocollection.ironmaiden.com.



First batch: November 16

Iron Maiden / Killers / The Number Of The Beast (option of standard or collectors boxset edition including "The Number Of The Beast" Eddie figurine and patch) / Piece Of Mind

Second batch: February 2019

Powerslave / Somewhere In Time (standard/collectors) / Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son / No Prayer For The Dying

Third batch: April 2019

Fear Of The Dark (standard/collectors) / The X Factor / Virtual XI / Brave New World

Fourth batch: June 2019

Dance Of Death / A Matter Of Life And Death (standard/collectors) / The Final Frontier / The Book Of Souls *

* not remastered but appearing in digipak for the first time

IRON MAIDEN recently completed the first leg of its "Legacy Of The Beast" tour, playing sold-out stadium, arena and headline festival shows across Europe to over 750,000 fans. The trek, which was hailed by fans and media alike as the must-see show of the summer, will continue into 2019 with a headline show at Brazil's Rock In Rio festival, which was recently announced, and more dates to follow.

 

[Lynch]

Steve Harris says: "We've wanted to revisit these for a long time and I was delighted with the remastering we did in 2015. I thought it was the best that our albums have ever sounded and it was only right that we made them available on CD now too."

I'd be curious to know how many times they've remastered their catalog, specifically the golden-era of the 80's. Not to gripe about it, I'm just wondering. I have everything through the first 9 or 10 albums (including Live After Death) on CD, of which many were "remastered", or at least I thought they were. I think I got most of them on CD in the mid to late 90's, but I could be wrong.

That being said, was the 2015 remastering only for vinyl re-releases?

 

[Sharp Dressed Man]

That being said, was the 2015 remastering only for vinyl re-releases?

Maiden's catalogue was reissue on vinyl last year. I believe the 2015 remasters were only for iTunes. As far as I know, the last time the albums were remastered for CD was in 1998.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

No B-Sides on this set? That's the reason I bought the 1996-ish Castle releases. 2 disc releases of the first 10 albums (including Live After Death) with all the B-Sides.