IRON MAIDEN “Virtual XI” /CD/

“Virtual XI” is the 11th studio album by Iron Maiden. The album was released on 23 March 1998. It was the second and final Iron Maiden album recorded with vocalist Blaze Bayley. The album is slightly unusual in the Iron Maiden catalogue for its extensive keyboard use. For this album some keyboard parts were performed by band founder/bassist Steve Harris whereas on previous albums all the keyboard parts were handled by session musician Michael Kenney. The album also had a reduced song-writing input from Janick Gers compared to the previous Iron Maiden albums since he joined the band in 1990.
The album cover and tour tied in with two extra-musical events: The band played football games alongside their tour (the album title relates in part to the eleven players on a football team), and the Iron Maiden videogame Ed Hunter provided much of the album art.
As of April 2009 Virtual XI had sold 84,987 copies in the United States and more than 1,050,000 worldwide according to Billboard, making the album the poorest selling of the band's career.
First press.
Well-stored s/h.
EMI Records Ltd., 1998 (7243 4 93992 2 8)