IRON MAIDEN will release their longest ever song, with a duration of over eighteen minutes: ‘Empire Of The Clouds’  as a limited edition 12” picture disc single for Record Store Day on April 16th.

Taken from their latest studio album The Book Of Souls, the single is housed in a uniquely artworked sleeve, featuring a replica of the actual newspaper story reporting on the fate of the R101 airship, which is the focus of the song. Written by Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson, it will be made available through Parlophone Records (BMG in the U.S.A)  with the B-side featuring an in depth audio interview with Dickinson about the inspiration for the track which has been a truly personal labour of love and is, he claims:  “A very poignant story, a very human story, a story of ambition and dreams”.