Iron Maiden debuted three songs from 2021’s Senjutsu album and unveiled their new ‘Samurai Eddie’ mascot at their first live show in more than two-and-a-half years.
The metal icons re-started their postponed Legacy Of The Beast tour at the Arena Zagreb in Zagreb, Croatia on May 22, 2022, 31 months after the last leg ended.
The show opened with Senjutsu’s title track, followed by Stratego and The Writing On The Wall, all of which were being played live for the first time.
The opening section of the show also featured a new Japanese-themed backdrop, though the biggest surprise came with the giant animatronic Samurai Eddie, based on the cover of the Senjutsu album.
As with previous legs of the Legacy Of The Beast tour, the rest of the setlist drew from several previous eras of Maiden’s career, including three tracks from 1982’s The Number Of The Beast and three from Piece Of Mind. They also played 2000’s Blood Brothers for the first time in five years.
Appearing on Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast recently, Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson said the band had talked about playing Senjutsu from start to finish at some point in the future.
“We've talked about doing the entire album start to finish, but not this time around," said Bruce. "And we all appreciate that that is something that really diehard fans will probably love, [while] other people will go, 'I'm not gonna go see that.' So the answer is you play smaller venues so that they sell out with just your diehard fans.”
Maiden’s bring the Legacy Of The Beast tour to the UK, with their headlining appearance at the Download festival on June 11.
Iron Maiden: Legacy Of The Beast tour setlist (Zagreb, Croatia, May 22, 2022)
Senjutsu
Stratego
The Writing On The Wall
Revelations
Blood Brothers
Sign Of The Cross
Flight Of Icarus
Fear Of The Dark
Hallowed Be Thy Name
The Number Of The Beast
Iron Maiden
Encore:
The Trooper
The Clansman
Run To The Hills
