Iron Maiden protected their new album “Senjutsu” from premature leakage by locking it in a vault for two years

These days, it’s almost impossible to prevent an album from leaking online before its release. Even prog band Tool, whose highly anticipated comeback album was carefully guarded, was leaked when the album went online a few days before its release.

So metal legends Iron Maiden were not going to take the protection of their new album lightly. According to an interview published by Metal Hammer, none of the band had a copy of the album, and the entire album was locked in a vault for two years after its completion.

“At the ending of the recording, everybody else had fucked off home, so it was basically me, Steve [Harris, bassist] and Kevin [Shirley, producer] in the studio. We played it back a couple of times, said, ‘Yeah, that’s alright then!’ And then that was the last time I heard it or nearly two years. All of us! Nobody in the band had a copy!

“Steve, in particular, was so paranoid that someone would leak it onto the internet, and probably with some justification, it was locked up in a vault.”

“Senjutsu” will be released on September 3rd.