Somewhere In Time

Somewhere in Time is the sixth studio album by British heavy metal band Iron Maiden, released on 29 September 1986 on EMI in Europe and its sister label Capitol Records in the US (it was re-released by Sanctuary/Columbia Records in the US in 2002). The studio follow-up to the hugely successful Powerslave/Live After Death pair, it was the first Iron Maiden album to feature guitar synthesizers. Bruce Dickinson’s song material was refused in favour of the songs of guitarist Adrian Smith, who wrote the bulk of the songs identified with the album (including the singles “Wasted Years” and “Stranger in a Strange Land”).

While many of the songs from Somewhere in Time have all but disappeared (and some like, “The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner” being only played once) from the band’s live shows over the years, “Wasted Years” and “Heaven Can Wait” have been consistent mainstays of the band’s live setlist. Performances of “Heaven Can Wait” have featured a group of local fans and celebrities invited onstage to sing along during the song’s middle section.

The album also marked a change for Iron Maiden, as it was their first album to introduce synth, although this style was expanded upon in their next album, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. This is also their first studio album not to be released a year after their previous one. The band has never released a studio album a year after the previous again as of 2011. The band began to put more time into writing and recording their albums as well as touring for an extensive time after the release of Powerslave.