Maiden Voyagers

This week, your voyagers continue their trip into Bruce Dickinson's solo discography with their second part exploring Balls to Picasso and its recent reimagining, the imaginatively titled More Balls to Picasso. Join them as they dive in to the material proper this time, both in its original and gussied up 2025 forms, along with some other nonsense. -- Enjoy the show? Join the Maiden Voyagers community on social media: Instagram: @maidenpod Bluesky: @maidenpod.bsky.social X: @maidenpod Or you can email the show on maidenvoyagerspod@gmail.com You can also help top up our Trooper fund on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/maidenvoyagers 

With its recent reimagined re-release, it seemed only fitting that Bledd and Sam take a look at Bruce Dickinson's idiosyncratic second album, Balls To Picasso. Join the Maiden Voyagers in the first of this two part side-quest as they look at the album's troubled development and discuss the two other albums that could have been! -- Enjoy the show? Join the Maiden Voyagers community on social media: Instagram: @maidenpod Bluesky: @maidenpod.bsky.social X: @maidenpod Or you can email the show on maidenvoyagerspod@gmail.com You can also help top up our Trooper fund on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/maidenvoyagers 

Is it just me or does it feel like this season is lasting forever? But hey, after another impromptu break for unexplained reasons (blame life), we are back to provide your regularly scheduled Iron Maiden-themed idiocy. Well, sort of..! This week, Bledd and Sam recount their pilgrimage down to That London to catch the lads play one hell of a homecoming show. They also take a little bit of a detour to comment on another homecoming show, Black Sabbath's Back to the Beginning and take a moment to discuss Ozzy's legacy following his recent passing.  ...what's that? You're still waiting for A Matter of Life and Death? Look, it's coming. We promise. But first this. And then More Balls to Picasso. Why? Because it's our show and we can make all the terrible decisions we want. (Please keep listening to our nonsense) -- Enjoy the show? Join the Maiden Voyagers community on social media: Instagram: @maidenpod Bluesky: @maidenpod.bsky.social X: @maidenpod Or you can email the show on maidenvoyagerspod@gmail.com You can also help top up our Trooper fund on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/maidenvoyagers 

Let's rewind the clock a bit. We've covered Brave New World already - but in the immediate aftermath of Bruce Dickinson's return to Iron Maiden, what happened to Blaze Bayley? Well, who better to tell us than the man himself. Determined to forge onwards, Blaze immediately got to work putting together his solo debut, Silicon Messiah. A slab of heavy and traditional metal, the album has seen a real resurgence in recent years, but how Silicon Messiah received at the time? Blaze Bayley joins us to tell all as we delve right in to it. A huge thank you to Blaze for joining us and for his management making it happen - it was a real treat for us. You can keep up to date on everything Blaze at BlazeBayley.net -- Enjoy the show? Join the Maiden Voyagers community on social media: Instagram (our main home these days): @maidenpod Bluesky: @maidenpod.bsky.social X: @maidenpod Or you can email the show on maidenvoyagerspod@gmail.com You can also help top up our Trooper fund on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/maidenvoyagers 

Yes, yes, these episode titles are getting bad. What do you want from me? This week, we're joined by Adam Blackwood, vocalist of gnarly death metal band Angron. Join us as we chat all things guttural and the influence of Maiden's songwriting, while Sam says 'like' far too much. There's a lot of laughs, too. Lovely stuff. You can find Angron's music on Bandcamp and Spotify, plus follow them on Instagram. -- Enjoy the show? Join the Maiden Voyagers community on social media: Instagram (our main home these days): @maidenpod Bluesky: @maidenpod.bsky.social X: @maidenpod Or you can email the show on maidenvoyagerspod@gmail.com You can also help top up our Trooper fund on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/maidenvoyagers 

It's an unexpected bumper bill of an episode! With the Run For Your Lives tour in full swing and Maiden marking their 50th anniversary, we thought what better way to mark the occasion than jump all the way right to the studio beginning with 'The Soundhouse Tapes'? We dive into the EP's history, its legacy and of course the music itself. But that's not all! We've got a hype check on the current tour, some very exciting podcast news, a brief return of Pedant's Corner and of course Be Quiz or Be Dead. Get stuck in! SPOILER WARNING: We discuss the Run For Your Lives setlist between 06:10 - 14:25, so avoid that if you've somehow managed to avoid hearing what's on the tour so far! -- Enjoy the show? Join the Maiden Voyagers community on social media: Instagram: @maidenpod Bluesky: @maidenpod.bsky.social X: @maidenpod Or you can email the show on maidenvoyagerspod@gmail.com You can also help top up our Trooper fund on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/maidenvoyagers 

This week, our Maiden Voyagers find themselves dancing with the dead as they leap in to... well, 'Dance of Death'. Join Bledd and Sam as they go through the album itself proper, bask in their collective nostalgia and offer some unsolicited advice on how you could make the album better. Oo-er. -- Enjoy the show? Join the Maiden Voyagers community on social media: Instagram: @maidenpod Bluesky: @maidenpod.bsky.social X: @maidenpod Or you can email the show on maidenvoyagerspod@gmail.com You can also help top up our Trooper fund on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/maidenvoyagers 

Sam's tonsilitis be damned, we are finally back on air! And we are also finally ready to tackle Iron Maiden's 2003 album 'Dance of Death'. The second since Bruce's reunion, does it measure up to the loft bar set by 'Brave New World'? With Bledd and Sam's views so coloured by nostalgia, does it even matter? Find out all this and more!   Enjoy the show? Join the Maiden Voyagers community on social media: Instagram: @maidenpod Bluesky: @maidenpod.bsky.social X: @maidenpod Or you can email the show on maidenvoyagerspod@gmail.com You can also help top up our Trooper fund on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/maidenvoyagers 

Before voyaging back in to the albums proper, Bledd and Sam continue their detour with another special guest interview. In this week's episode, we welcome Serena Cherry, vocalist of post-metal band Svalbard and mastermind of black metal outfit Noctule. Join the three of us as we cover everything from difficult midsize band syndrome, the unfair stigma surrounding power metal and how it wasn't cool to like Iron Maiden in the 2000s. For the uninitiated, check out both Svalbard and Noctule on their Bandcamp pages.    Enjoy the show? Join the Maiden Voyagers community on social media: Instagram: @maidenpod Bluesky: @maidenpod.bsky.social X: @maidenpod Or you can email the show on maidenvoyagerspod@gmail.com You can also help top up our Trooper fund on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/maidenvoyagers     

In another slight change to the usual proceedings, we're taking a bit of a detour on our Maiden voyage. This time, we're joined by our first ever guest - Graeme Farmer, guitarist of heavy metal band, Seven Sisters. Join Bledd and Sam as they interrogate Graeme about Seven Sisters, Iron Maiden and how his experience with the band has impacted his own musical journey. Enjoy! The new Seven Sisters album, 'Shadow of a Fallen Star Pt. 2', is out 28 March and the lads are touring the UK in May.   Enjoy the show? Join the Maiden Voyagers community on social media: Instagram: @maidenpod Bluesky: @maidenpod.bsky.social X: @maidenpod Or you can email the show on maidenvoyagerspod@gmail.com You can also help top up our Trooper fund on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/maidenvoyagers 

Despite our slightly chaotic release schedue, this is arbitrarily the start of a new season (there is some kind of logic to it, I promise). So with that out the way, join Bledd and Sam as they catch up on all things Maiden from departures to tours, before they get started on a whole new slew of albums.   Enjoy the show? Join the Maiden Voyagers community on social media: Instagram: @maidenpod Bluesky: @maidenpod.bsky.social X: @maidenpod Or you can email the show on maidenvoyagerspod@gmail.com You can also help top up our Trooper fund on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/maidenvoyagers 

Okay, okay, we're finally back to round out "Season 3" with our definitive* history of Iron Maiden's first venture in to the world of gaming, Ed Hunter. Or is that Melt?  Join Sam and Bledd as they go in to the troubled development of the game and use the term "zeitgeisty" so often that it loses all meaning. *May not actually be definitive

In our last episode of the year, Bledd and Sam get to grips with what really matters about 'Brave New World' - the music. Join them as Bledd swoons over the album and Sam complains that every song is too long. (Spoilers, much?)

It's the new millennium and, yet again, it's all change in the Maiden camp. Goodbye Blaze and hello Bruce... and Adrian.  Yes, this week Bledd and Sam start delving in to the "reunion" album, 'Brave New World'. But is it a reunion if the band never broke up? All these questions and more answered in this episode of Maiden Voyagers.

The scene is set for Iron Maiden's next foray in to the late '90s music scene. Join Bledd and Sam as this week they go through 'Virtual XI' in agonising track-by-track detail. It can't be as bad as it's rep, can it? ...can it?

It's 1998. It's nearly the new millennium. Virtual reality is all the rage (sort of). France '98 (the footie world cup) is imminent. And who else is better placed to bring all these disparate elements together in to one cohesive artistic statement? Why, only Iron Maiden of course. This week, Sam and Bledd start exploring the second album of a new era of Maiden - Virtual XI. Join them as they take a perhaps unsurprisingly skeptical glance at the band's follow up to The X Factor. 

Alright, time to get down to brass tacks (or whatever the expression is). This week, we continue our look into one of Iron Maiden's most maligned albums - the first featuring young upstart, Blaze Bayley. Join Bledd and Sam as they reflect on Blaze trying to fill some of the biggest boots in heavy metal and whether 'The X Factor' deserves its negative rep.

It's all change in the Iron Maiden camp... again. Exit Bruce Dickinson and enter Blaze Bayley of Wolfsbane. Recorded way back in the distant past (well, okay, spring this year), you can finally join Bledd and Sam as they jump in to the next chapter of Maiden history. New singer, new album, same old hijinks?

After a... longer and slightly more sudden hiatus than planned, Bledd and Sam are coming home to talk about all things Iron Maiden. Before we get stuck in to The X Factor and Virtual XI (and boy, do we get stuck in), join us for a bit of a chat about current band events* and Bruce Dickinson's UK tour. (*Not that current, as this was recorded just before the 'Run For Your Lives' tour announcement. Classic.) We're excited to be back... again!