We continue our Iron maiden coverage with Metal Hammer’s review of Iron Maiden’s movie, ‘Flight 666′.

You saw the jet, the livery emblazoned on the side like some medieval standard – Eddie’s zombie visage a cloud-breaking figurehead that seemed to scream to the world in a demonic voice: “Iron Maiden are coming for you!”

If a heart beats within you, then you know you wish you were on that fucking plane. That’s because Iron Maiden’s Somewhere Back In Time tour last year wasn’t just some token jaunt through rock and metal’s well-trodden byways. It was a modern conquest of the path less taken – a continent-jumping, fire-breathing monster of a trek that saw a band now into their fourth decade circling the globe in a jet piloted by their own frontman in an exuberant fuck you to those who doubted their ability to captivate and enthrall audiences the world over. And how they came: Tokyo, Bogota, Mumbai – fans around the world spoke with a single voice of appreciation, and they sold out stadiums.

It helps that Bruce Dickinson and company are on top form, that their first seven album-spanning setlist is a metalligasm of headbanging joy. So how to document it all? Look no further than filmmaking duo Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen, already known for 2007’s thrilling documentary, Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey. They climbed aboard for 21 cities and 50,000 miles of that epic sojourn and, from more than 500 hours of footage, pared it down to the bare essence of what that tour, and indeed Iron Maiden, are all about: the fans.

This is more than just a breathtaking view from the cockpit of Ed Force One, or a stunning, pro-shot recording of Iron Maiden’s thrilling live show. Flight 666 gives you all the fly-on-the-wall observations that put you in the pants of some lucky bastard Iron Maiden have asked along for the ride – the candid backstage chats, the roadie-eye view. But – as Sam Dunn recently stated in these very pages – to make a Maiden film without the fans would be farcical, and their depictions even outweigh Tom Morello or Lars Ulrich’s gushing accounts of their love for Maiden in LA at the start of the film.

Where Flight 666 truly soars is its depiction of the fan on his way to the Mumbai show who, in a tradition repeated by so many brothers and sisters in fanhood, admits it was the artwork that got his interest, and the music that made him stay. Or, take the portrayal of the Brazilian priest who bases his sermons on Maiden lyrics and sports a torso covered in Maiden tattoos, or the Colombian fans who – after nine days in a makeshift tent city erected outside the venue – leave their shoes at security and sprint toward the stage to secure a view. Flight 666 is a monumental tribute to the greatest band of all time, a unique insight into the global fraternity of Iron Maiden fanatics, and it’ll put an ear-to-ear grin on your face guaran-fucking-teed. Up The Irons, Flight 666 rules. (10/10)

Alexander Milas

Stay tuned for our exclusive Metal Hammer & Iron Maiden news! It’s not a new album and it’s not any new tour dates but this is something really, really fucking cool. If you’re an Iron Maiden collector, you definitely won’t want to miss this one!