Iron Maiden: 25 Years Since The Release of "Somewhere in Time"

"Somewhere in Time" is the sixth studio album by Iron Maiden, released in1986. The studio follow-up to the hugely successful "Powerslave"/"Live After Death" pair, it was the first Iron Maiden album to feature guitar synthezisers.

Bruce Dickinson's song material was rejected 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

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. 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".

The song "Alexander the Great" was the only song on the album that talked about the past, while other songs were about time travel, science fiction, and the far future.