Iron Maiden released Somewhere in Time on September 29, 1986. Their sixth studio album introduced guitar and bass synthesizers, expanding the band’s arrangements as guitarist Adrian Smith took a larger share of the songwriting. He wrote three of its eight tracks, including both singles, “Wasted Years” and “Stranger in a Strange Land.”
The record followed the World Slavery Tour supporting Powerslave, a demanding stretch that left Bruce Dickinson exhausted. When writing began, the singer proposed acoustic material that Steve Harris felt did not fit Maiden. None of Dickinson’s compositions made the album. In retrospective interviews with Classic Rock, Dickinson described his frustration at being confined to singing when he wanted to contribute creatively. Harris and Smith handled most of the writing, with Dave Murray sharing a credit on “Deja-Vu.”
Smith’s songs emerged during an uncomfortable stay in Jersey in early 1986. The band had taken over an out-of-season hotel to prepare material, but he remembered the cold and isolation more vividly than a productive rehearsal schedule. Speaking to Classic Rock in 2026, he connected the lyrics of “Wasted Years” to his own sense of alienation. Its reflections on passing time came from the guitarist’s experience of life inside the band.
The music began with an unexpected noise from a new Roland guitar synthesizer. Smith told MusicRadar in 2024 that he played along with its rhythm and developed the idea into a four-track demo. He thought it resembled U2 and doubted it belonged in Maiden’s repertoire. Harris happened to hear him playing it during rehearsal and encouraged him to use it. “But if Steve hadn’t heard it by accident, I would never have played it to him,” Smith recalled.
“Stranger in a Strange Land” also started away from an ordinary writing session. Smith remembered its riff arriving during a rainy taxi ride back to the hotel after a lengthy root canal appointment. He recorded the idea when he returned. Both songs became singles during the album’s original release campaign.
With Martin Birch producing, Maiden recorded at Compass Point Studios and Wisseloord Studios. The expanded instrumentation served an ambition Harris had held before the equipment could satisfy it. “We wanted to make things more orchestral,” he told Revolver. He explained that suitable technology would have prompted him to try synthesizers earlier. That approach coexisted with the band’s extended songwriting: Harris’s “Heaven Can Wait” ran beyond seven minutes, while his closing “Alexander the Great” stretched past eight. Smith’s singles sat within a record that also gave its longer pieces room to develop.
The album’s stage history eventually became a reason to revisit it. When Maiden announced The Future Past Tour in 2022, Harris explained that they had not filmed the original Somewhere in Time tour. Earlier retrospective tours had followed their 1980s concert videos, leaving this period without the same dedicated treatment. Fans had continued requesting its songs, and the band paired material from the album with Senjutsu for the new production.
At the opening show in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on May 28, 2023, “Caught Somewhere in Time” returned to the set for the first time since 1987. “Stranger in a Strange Land,” “Heaven Can Wait” and “Wasted Years” also featured. The fifth selection completed a piece of unfinished live history: Maiden performed “Alexander the Great” onstage for the first time.
