Iron Maiden Score Highest Billboard Chart Placing With ‘Senjutsu’
Iron Maiden have scored their highest charting album ever with Senjutsu on North America’s Billboard 200. The album landed at Number Three in the charts after shifting the equivalent of 64,000 album units.
They previously peaked at Number Four on the Billboard run-down with their last two albums – The Book of Souls and The Final Frontier.
In total, Senjutsu is Iron Maiden’s 15th Top 40 charting album, of which four have hit the Top 10. It comes after the metal veterans were narrowly beaten to the Number One spot in the UK albums chart by Drake.
Certified Lover Boy racked up 46,000 chart sales in the UK to take Drake to the top spot, giving him a lead over Maiden by only 1,200 units.
Typical of the positive reviews of Senjutsu was the NME critique which awarded the record four stars and described it as “an imaginative instant classic”.
It added: “The powerhouse metal sound that’s earned them a religious following in every far-flung corner of the globe remains firm. But here, they take things further; ultimately letting imaginations run wild in an album that’s more confident and idea-packed than ever before.”
Meanwhile, Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson recently opened up about his battle with COVID-19.
The vocalist contracted the coronavirus last month, despite having received both doses of the vaccine. He’d taken a test after feeling “a bit groggy” but believed he would’ve been in “serious trouble” had he not been inoculated.
“I had my double shot of vaccine back in May, and everything [was] hunky-dory, and then I got what people are calling a breakthrough COVID infection, which was just like a… It’s a bit more than a flu,” Dickinson explained.
Dickinson subsequently urged fans to “get vaccinated”, reasoning: “And if you do get sick, you won’t get that sick. It’ll just be like a mild case of the flu.”