I've been on an Iron Maiden kick lately. They're obviously one of the all time great metal bands and earned their hallowed names among the metal greats. But, something I find really fascinating is the proggyness of their discography.

I'm not about to walk in here and claim classic Iron Maiden is a prog metal band. They're all obviously somewhere in the "Classic/British Wave" spectrum. The Trooper is hardly a progressive metal song. But, there's some real proggy gems in there. Phantom of the Opera. Ancient Mariner. Hallowed be thy name.

Here's an intiresting question.

Even accepting classic Iron Maiden is, at best, proto-prog metal, is Iron Maiden now a progressive metal band? They're fairly unique in that they still make new albums and a lot of those albums are really fucking good.

But, part of what makes the newer Iron Maiden albums good and worth discussing is that they've went all in on the most progressive aspects of their music, especially focuses on concepts, literary references, epic songs with lots of tempo and time scale changes.

So my question is that as they've leaned in those elements have they actually gone all the way to being a prog metal band? If the answer is no, then what the even is Empire of the Clouds?