We are almost done with the single series, but there are two doozies lined up to close things out. Next week’s is … well, next week is next week. Today we have a special song that got a bit of an Internet mystery marketing campaign behind it before its 2006 release.

This single, like most “modern era” ones, was available in a few different versions. This is an oddity in record collecting as far as I’m concerned because I have a 10-inch vinyl. The song itself was too long for 7-inch so instead of throwing in on a 12-inch, they put out this oddity of vinyl physics. While 10-inch vinyl is cool from the standpoint of having something different, it’s also a horrible pain in the ass for storage. I have like, three 10-inch records in my collection and they’re just in with their bigger brothers, at risk of damage but I’m not setting aside a new area for three stupid records. But outside of the storage issues, it’s kind of a cool format since it’s not a common thing.

The cover art was done by Melvyn Grant, one of Eddie’s more prominent artists over the years. The cover features Eddie taking a pickaxe to the grave of one Benjamin Breeg, who we’ll get to in just a second. There are shades of Live After Death here, the art isn’t the same but it certainly evokes that memorable cover.

And honestly, this is the best Eddie art in the reunion era. Maybe I’m forgetting something, and this doesn’t include the really great t-shirt designs, but cover wise this is pretty much it. It’s reminiscent of the classic era stuff but still is distinct from the Derek Riggs line with the whole grave thing.

This single came with a very curious line of hype, though the hype was cryptic. A website sprung up for a Benjamin Breeg in 2006, with posts from a cousin of this Breeg fellow. The cousin was out of find more information about his mysterious relative. It became clear early on that the site was a marketing tool for the single when the cousin’s second post mentioned that the band were releasing a song about Benjamin, but the cryptic updates would continue.

Benjamin Breeg was born on September 3, 1939 – this was the date that Allied nations declared war on Germany in the kick-off to World War II. Breeg was orphaned some years later and developed a series of horrible nightmares that would plague him for the rest of his life. He painted the stuff he saw in his nightmares and later he wrote books about paranormal activity. He disappeared in 1978 with no leads as to what happened.

Breeg’s cousin makes a series of posts updating on the quest to find Benjamin’s fate. A person contacts the cousin and arranges a meet-up on August 14, 2006, coincidentally the same date as the single’s release. No further updates were posted and the site was eventually shut down, though the Web Archive does have a version still viewable.

In the second to last post, the cousin relays finally being able to see one of Benjamin’s paintings. I’ll just link to the site here if you want to look at the painting, but for those looking to save time, of course the painting features Eddie.

Nothing was ever revealed further about Benjamin Breeg and the connection to Eddie. It leaves several questions – was Eddie simply a figment of Breeg’s nightmares and then came to life when Breeg disappeared, around the same time Eddie was originally conceived? Was Eddie actually Breeg in an undead form? Did the cousin meet Eddie and also get dispatched? Or did the cousin actually meet Benjamin himself, rumored by some to still be alive? We’ll never know, though the first line of questioning seems the most logical in terms of impact to Eddie’s unknown origin story. Maybe one day the band will commission someone to tell the full tale of Edward the Head, which now must include Benjamin Breeg in some form.

This was a clever way to generate buzz around the band and their new album. The single was received warmly as was the entire album, still often rated as the best or one of the best from the reunion years in consensus opinion. While it was a bit disappointing there was no real “closure” to the Breeg saga, the whole thing was a very cool deal to experience when it was running in ’06.

All that was fun but there’s an actual song to talk about.

The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg

The song opens up with a nice intro that definitely gives off some vibes from old Maiden days, especially the “synth era” of the band. The vocals kick in with a quiet piece before the song builds into the pretty loud main riff that will back the balance of the track.

This one, like many from AMOLAD, was very well done. The music hits hard and has the “epic Maiden song” feel and Bruce is on point with the singing, as always. Lyrically the song is pretty vague. Divorced from the website story about Breeg, there really isn’t anything to go on to glean the meaning of this one. Someone needs saved and the world kind of sucks, that’s about it. With the background of Breeg the song’s words get a bit more clear but it’s still not an open book.

The single did reasonably well on European charts, landing a few number one spots and placing on several others. Maiden’s glory days were behind them by this point but the reunion era was bearing real fruit and at this time proving itself to be more than a flash in the pan.

Also – I have a t-shirt of this song with the cover on the front the “here lies a man about whom little is known” grave inscription on the back. Sadly the shirt now has an armpit hole in it, which just means I’ll have a hole in the pit when I still wear it.

The B-sides

No need to get too detailed here – both B-sides are “live in studio” sessions from BBC Radio One. It’s the same session that the B-sides from the Different World single are from, and one of them, The Trooper, is the exact same song. Here we also get Run To The Hills. These Radio One B-sides are available across all AMOLAD single configurations so they’re easy to get. Very worthwhile stuff.

That’s about all for the saga of Benjamin Breeg and Eddie. I don’t have any of the singles from The Final Frontier, they are not the easiest to come across. So that means next week is the finale of the Iron Maiden singles series. But don’t fret, we’re going out on an absolute whopper.

The Iron Maiden Singles Series

Live! + One

Running Free

Sanctuary

Women In Uniform

Maiden Japan

Purgatory

Twilight Zone/Wrathchild

Run To The Hills

The Number Of The Beast

Flight Of Icarus

The Trooper

2 Minutes To Midnight

Aces High

Run To The Hills (live)

Running Free (live)

Stranger In A Strange Land

Wasted Years

The Clairvoyant

Infinite Dreams

Bring Your Daughter … To The Slaughter

Holy Smoke

Be Quick Or Be Dead

From Here To Eternity

Virus

Out Of The Silent Planet

Rainmaker

Different World

The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg (you are here)

Empire Of The Clouds