The poster advertises Iron Maiden's 15th studio album The Final Frontier, which peaked at number 1 in 28 countries including the UK. It features Eddie, the band's mascot designed by Derek Riggs, whose mangled skull would signal to fans that this is a heavy metal album rather than music in other genres like rap or pop. The torn appearance of Eddie's skull on one side contrasts with the smooth side, possibly symbolizing songs influenced by different genres as well as their usual style. Bright red colors and lighting bolts imply an exciting and shocking album in a brutal metal subgenre.

1. Iron Maiden – The Final Frontier poster analysis
The Final Frontier is the 15th studio album by Iron
Maiden released in August 2010. It peaked to
number 1 in 28 countries, including the UK.
Eddie the Head (designed by Derek Riggs) is a
character featured on all of their albumssince 8th
February 1980, and on most of their promotional
material. The design of Eddie is very prolific and
instantly associated with Iron Maiden. Even without
the name of the band and album, it is very clear that
the poster is advertising their genre of music.
The image of Eddie’s mangled skull would be linked
to heavy metal music rather than the music of a rap
or pop artist. This is because the goriness of the
image would be linked to the horror genre and as
Andrew Goodwin mentioned, many metal music
videos are influenced by horror films.
The right hand side of the image is relatively
smooth and clean, therefore contrasting the other
side which is torn apart and dissected. This could
symbolise the album contains songs influenced by
other genres as well as their usual type of
music.There are what look like thin red lightning
bolts on the left hand side; this could imply the album is exciting and shocking.
There are lots of reds and glows on and around the skull, including the lightning, suggesting a more
‘brutal’ sub-genre of metal.
The use of direct mode of address draws the viewer in to look at the poster. The bright red eyes stand out
of the skull and so look very striking when you look at it, giving the impression it is looking back at the
viewer. This instantly catches their attention.
The semantic code is used through the space background suggests the poster has elements of science
fiction and fantasy. This is also suggested with the name of the album itself asit can be linked to Star Wars
V: The Final Frontier, a science fiction film with the same name. This could attract other audiences who like
Star Wars. The skull also looks like Predator because of Eddie’s sharp teeth and piercing red eyes.
The Iron Maiden typography would automatically be associated with them because even if the text didn’t
say ‘Iron Maiden’, we would still know it is theirs, even if the text says something completely different. The
block capitals and sharp serifs suggest heavy metal music and the red and white colours are immediately
associated with the metal genre of music.

2. The key signifierof the poster is the skull, and interestingly the name of the album is at the bottom of the
poster, hereby suggesting the album name is not as important. This is because this album is the band’s first
release since 2006 and the audience won’t care about the name of the album, they will only care that the
band is back something new.
Right at the very bottom of the poster are logos, probably the record label’s logo and website address.
These conventions are vital to the construction of a poster advertising an album as the audience will want
to know the record company so they can use them to look for other bands of the same genres of music.