Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition has now a new official trailer out via Trafalgar Releasing, offering another look at the upcoming feature-length documentary centered on Iron Maiden.
The film, which documents one of heavy metal’s most enduring careers, is scheduled for a limited theatrical run starting May 7, 2026. It follows the band’s path across five decades, capturing both the scale of their success and the groundwork that built it.
Directed by Malcolm Venville (Churchill At War) and produced by Dominic Freeman (Spirits In The Forest – A Depeche Mode Film), the documentary traces Iron Maiden from their early beginnings through their rise into a global force.
The film also brings in outside perspectives, with appearances from figures like Javier Bardem, Lars Ulrich, and Chuck D, all reflecting on the band’s impact across music and culture.
When the project was first previewed in February, artwork by Albert Quirantes gave fans an initial visual identity for the release.
The timing lines up with the band’s current Run For Your Lives world tour, a two-year run that has already included a major hometown show at London Stadium, not far from where the band first took shape.
Formed in 1975 by bassist Steve Harris, Iron Maiden built their reputation steadily, starting with their self-titled debut Iron Maiden in 1980. Over the years, they have released 17 studio albums, along with a large catalog of live releases and singles, moving more than 100 million records worldwide.
Their touring history is just as extensive, with nearly 2,500 shows played across 64 countries. For a stretch of those tours, the band traveled aboard Ed Force One—first a Boeing 757 and later a Boeing 747—flown by vocalist Bruce Dickinson.
Among their recognitions are a Grammy Award and a Brit Award, along with more recent acknowledgment alongside The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd through their own Royal Mail stamp collection.
Outside music, their Trooper Beer brand has passed 40 million pints sold and is now available in 68 countries, with localized versions in markets including the U.S., Germany, and Brazil.
The band marked its 50th anniversary in 2025, celebrating with the ongoing Run For Your Lives tour and additional releases such as their first official hardcover visual history, Infinite Dreams.
Baltimore is a city full of vacant, decaying houses — places that could be real homes if the building and surrounding neighborhoods were properly rebuilt. That’s the subject of a new documentary called Saving Etting Street. The film, which is currently on the festival circuit, is about the efforts of Shelley Halstead, a carpenter who…
Exhumed and Gruesome touring together is a strong bill. With the singer of Exhumed pulling double duty in both bands, (vocals and guitar), it promises to be a great night of death metal fun. Acid Vat But before Exhumed and Gruesome, we have Acid Vat, who reveal themselves to be solid openers. They play old-school … Continue reading “Exhumed/Gruesome/Acid Vat – Rebellion, Manchester – 07/04/26 (Live Review)”
Underneath the rain Softly fall Underneath the rain We lost it all
For many of us, spring has already sprung; the days are reluctantly getting warmer and the nights are growing just a little more magical. To ring in the change of seasons, Brooklyn-based dream pop band The Harrow have just announced a new four-track EP. We’re honored to premiere the title track from the EP, the lush and driving “The Drowned World.” “The Drowned World” is nearly five minutes of dreamy post-punk bliss. The track launches out of the gate with pristine energy, taking hold quickly with a propulsive six-string bass line, punchy rhythms, shimmering twin guitar work, warm synthesizers, and heavenly vocals. It twists and turns through ethereal spaces before opening into a glistening, potent chorus. Shades of early New Order, Sad Lovers & Giants, and The Wake can be heard throughout the song, which is as prescient as it is romantic, embracing a sense of longing in an otherwise ruined landscape.
The Drowned World serves as the sister EP to 2024’s Cinderglow, complementary in scope yet in delicate opposition. Across three additional tracks, The Harrow expand their horizons and embrace more organic sonic textures. Returning as producer is Xavier Paradis of Automelodi, who has worked with the band since 2014. The EP was mastered by Hillary Johnson at Kale Shelter Studios. Guitarist Greg Fasolino, who wrote the lyrics for the track, offers a few words about the “The Drowned World”:
“The title started as a placeholder, but it stuck. It connected for me with the imagery of Debussy’s ‘The Sunken Cathedral,’ something beautiful and lost beneath the water. From there it grew into a kind of post-apocalyptic shoreline reverie, drawing on J.G. Ballard, La Jetée, and Jean Rollin’s recurring imagery of desolate beaches at Dieppe, where decaying structures dissolve into sand and water. I imagined people on the strand, lamenting a lost world, surrounded by things that have slipped beneath the waves. It’s not meant to be overtly bleak so much as wistful, a sense of ennui and detachment in the face of impermanence. The world in this song has passed beyond human shaping; all we can do is sit and watch. There’s a kind of numbed nostalgia in it, which also mirrors the relationship in the song. I kept that deliberately ambiguous, but imagine two people huddled together, watching the tides, birds passing overhead…a seaside echo of The World, the Flesh and the Devil.
I like that the lyrics sit in contrast with the breezy, buoyant groove of the music, which John had composed much earlier, as it’s a juxtaposition you hear in a lot of beloved mid-’80s jangly post-punk, like The Smiths or Felt.”
The Drowned World EP will be released digitally on all major services on May 15th. Order a copy on Bandcamp here and listen to the title track below:
KHEMMIS returns! Denver’s colossal heavy metal band is back with their massively anticipated fifth album, due out June 12th via Nuclear Blast Records. The self-titled record — the follow-up to 2021’s heralded Deceiver — represents KHEMMIS in their truest form: disciples of the riff. Adorned with artwork from Christopher Remmers and featuring eight tracks of unadulterated, monolithic metal, Khemmis is a celebration of heavy music, […]
SatchVai Band – Long Beach Terrace Theater – April 7, 2026
To those outside California, Long Beach, the LBC, is perhaps best known because of Snoop Dogg and Sublime lyrics, or the Grand Prix of Long Beach IndyCar race that takes over its streets each year. It’s a vibrant coastal community south of Los Angeles, and Tuesday night it was taken over by extreme guitar virtuosity. Two of the world’s greatest players, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, combined forces on stage to showcase impossible-to-comprehend musicianship.
I first became aware of both Joe and Steve when I was in college in the 1980’s, and was looking for music that was outside the box. I don’t know how I stumbled onto either of them – certainly nobody I hung out with had heard of them – I suppose I thought the album covers warranted further investigation, and I took home both Steve Vai’s Flexible and Joe Satriani’s Dreaming #11 EP within a month of each other. I’m not a musician, but what was immediately obvious was that the sounds coming out of my speakers were otherworldly and unlike anything anyone else was doing.
Before taking his solo work to the next level and following his own lead, Steve Vai was known for his work with Frank Zappa, David Lee Roth on Eat ‘Em and Smile and Skyscraper, and Whitesnake on the Slip of the Tongue record. Joe Satriani came up teaching guitar, and taught and mentored such visionary players as Vai, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, and Testament’s Alex Skolnick before his solo career took off.
A short aside for comic relief – I had a horrible neighbor who lived below me shortly after I bought Steve’s Flexible CD. They were loud at all hours of the day and night, and would constantly bang on their ceiling (my floor) for no reason. One day, I’d had enough. I took my speakers and faced them down on the ground. I put Steve’s song “Chronic Insomnia” on repeat, turned up the volume as loud as it could go without blowing the speakers, and walked out the front door for a whole day of class. “Chronic Insomnia” is eight tracks of guitar played at different speeds, and then flipped, so the whole glorious two minutes and five seconds of stereophonic chaos is played backwards… When I returned to the deafening sounds and bedlam emanating from my apartment many hours later, I laughed and thought about how awful it must have been to be anywhere near the epicenter of that never-ending spectacle of sound. Needless to say, I never had another issue with my downstairs neighbor, and I can honestly say that Steve Vai effortlessly helped me settle an intolerable noise dispute…with noise.
Tuesday’s Surfing with the Hydra Tour stopover was at the Long Beach Terrace Theater. The beautiful venue was built to showcase touring Broadway plays, the Long Beach Orchestra, and live music events. Slipknot wouldn’t do well in this venue, but dueling guitar pyrotechnics were the perfect match. The 3000-seat room actually has that – seats – and the fans made use of them all night. I haven’t been to a rock show in a long time where people sat throughout the performance, but I think with this kind of technical proficiency and next-level axemanship (I think I made that word up), people didn’t want to be distracted, but instead sit and concentrate solely on the music.
The night started with three new songs from Joe and Steve’s partnership – “Dancing”, “I Wanna Play My Guitar”, and “The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1”. It was exciting to see the two titans of their instrument performing side by side and not only trading licks back and forth, but also synching up in between. While these songs are new and written by both men, they seemed completely at home next to Joe and Steve’s solo material. From that point on, they traded off, with Steve performing a couple of his songs, then leaving the stage and letting Joe take over for a few, before teaming up again to perform together.
The backing band was incredible, featuring legendary drummer Kenny Aronoff, who’s played with literally everyone (most recently Sammy Hagar on his Best of Both Worlds Tour) in every conceivable genre of music. Joining in on bass was Marco Mendoza, who also stepped up to sing Glenn Hughes’ part on “I Wanna Play My Guitar”, and a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” and Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild” during the encore – not easy shoes to fill. Lastly was Pete Thorn, who provided the third guitar on stage. He’s played with tons of people, including Chris Cornell’s solo work, and he filled in seamlessly, getting to stretch out on his own during his solo on “Rock and Roll”.
My favorite part of the night was when Steve Vai’s amazing Hydra guitar was lifted to the darkened stage about halfway through, and unveiled as the lights came up. The Hydra is a custom guitar named for the multi-headed mythological creature. With three necks – a twelve-string, a seven-string, and a four-string bass, as well as 13 harp strings towards the back, this guitar looks like nothing else, all while sporting a steampunk aesthetic based on the film “Mad Max: Fury Road”. The guitar is too heavy to wear while playing, and comes out mounted to a stand to support it, while Steve stands over the beast and attacks it during the song “Teeth of the Hydra”. It was quite a sight to behold and listen to in a live setting.
This was truly an amazing night of guitar-driven wizardry. I suspect there were many guitarists in the audience on the edge of their seats watching Joe and Steve’s hands assault their fretboards, but for me, the beauty was watching five amazing musicians working in instinctive but improvisational harmony to put on an incredible show, where each participant pushed the others to their maximum and beyond.
SatchVai Band are:
Joe Satriani – Guitar
Steve Vai – Guitar
Kenny Aronoff – Drums
Marco Mendoza – Bass
Pete Thorn – Guitar
Setlist:
Dancing
I Wanna Play My Guitar
The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1
Zeus in Chains
Little Pretty
Ice 9 / The Crying Machine
Flying in a Blue Dream
Surfing With the Alien
Sahara
Tender Surrender
Teeth of the Hydra
Satch Boogie
If I Could Fly
For the Love of God
Always With Me, Always With You
Encore:
Crowd Chant
Rock and Roll (Led Zeppelin cover)
Born to Be Wild (Steppenwolf cover)
Animals as Leaders
Animals as Leaders are a big deal in their own right, regardless of their opening slot for Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. I was familiar with Tosin Abasi through his work a few years ago with Generation Axe (Zakk Wylde, Yngwie Malmsteen, Nuno Bettencourt, and Steve Vai), and knew of the band, but had never seen them live. They don’t make their living with theatrics – you won’t find any of the trio jumping off Marshall stacks, or soloing in the crowd, but you will hear song after song of amazingly technical dualling eight-string guitar prog-metal brilliance. All of that was on full display for the Long Beach crowd, as were the ever-shifting time signatures and guitar virtuosity. They were the right band to kick off a night of guitar-driven perfection, and those in attendance watching and listening with mouths agape felt the same way.
