Celebrating a formidable 30 years as recording artists on EMI, Iron Maiden have announced the first leg of their upcoming 'The Final Frontier Tour'. An album of the same name (minus the 'Tour' bit) gets a release in the summer, produced by Kevin Shirley. It's the band's first new material since 2006's 'A Matter of Life and Death' and has been mixed and produced at Compass Point in the Bahamas (I imagine Bruce flew them all there!). As is the tradition with every new Maiden album, there are people to play to and 2010 is no exception.

The world-trip begins in North America at the beginning of June, culminating in Washington on 20th July. The European Tour will then begin in Dublin on 30th July at the O2 - Heaven and Hell is the support [Heaven and Hell have also just been added to the High Voltage Festival 2010 - Ed]. Tickets go on sale this Friday (16th) at 9am.

As yet, the Maiden haven't announced any further UK dates apart from appearing at Sonisphere at the end of July so Dublin is your best bet if you can't make the festival. They are also appearing at several European festivals straight after Ireland, including two other Sonisphere events in Sweden and Finland and Pukkelpop Festival (feat. Queens Of The Stone Age, Prodigy, Blink 182) in Hasselt, Belgium.