Iron Maiden's Senjutsu in the lead for UK Number One album, beating Drake

The UK Official Albums Chart have announced a midweek race for the top spot this coming Friday, with Iron Maiden currently 8,000 sales ahead of second place Drake.

Maiden's 17th studio effort Senjutsu is beating the rapper's Certified Lover Boy on physical sales and downloads, but Drake is reportedly winning on streams, so, as the charts state, "everything is still to play for".

Elsewhere, The Wildhearts' awesome 5/5-rated 21st Century Love Songs is sitting in the top five, with the record on course to become the band's highest-charting LP to date. So it's a great week all-round – now let's keep these albums where they deserve to be!

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Speaking to Kerrang! about how the members of Maiden approached writing Senjutsu as a whole, frontman Bruce Dickinson recalled of the process: "Steve [Harris] would literally lock himself away for two or three days, and we’d all turn up and play pinball. And then he’d say, 'I think I’ve got one, chaps. Oi! Everybody in the studio!’ Boom.

"The stuff I wrote with Adrian [Smith] was a bit more conventional – we’d stand around and play guitar and sing and do that until we thought we had something. Then we’d rehearse it and put it straight down. It’s more organic, if you like. Steve tends to be quite detailed and meticulous in exactly how he wants it.”

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