IRON MAIDEN's 'Alexander The Great' Covered Using Classical Instrumental

IRON ENSEMBLE is a septet from Greece consisting of a harp, piano, guitar, two violins, viola, violoncello and contrabasso. The band, which covers IRON MAIDEN songs in a unique way, has just released its first single, “Alexander The Great”. The CD single includes a 10-minute version of “Alexander The Great”, plus the same song divided in six parts, as a suite (total running time: more than 20 minutes). The eight-page booklet includes artwork by Tommy Pons as a foldout poster.

The second part of “Alexander The Great” can be streamed in the YouTube clip below.

IRON ENSEMBLE is:

Dimitris Aggelidis: violin
Costas Panagiotidis: violin
Ali Basegmezler (session): viola
Dimitris Travlos: violoncello
Dimitris Kamarianakis: contrabasso
Elias Koskoris: guitar, solo arrangements
Mary Tassouli: harp, piano, orchestration

For more information, visit www.ironensemble.com.

The original version of “Alexander The Great” appears on IRON MAIDEN‘s 1986 album “Somewhere In Time”.

Asked in a radio interview a few years ago why IRON MAIDEN has never played “Alexander The Great” live, singer Bruce Dickinson answered, “Because Adrian [Smith, guitar] can’t remember the guitar solo!” While Dickinson may have been joking, he did go on to say that, when the song was originally written, they put the solo through a load of then-very-advanced music computer wizardry, and it just couldn’t figure out the time signature.