Somewhere in Time is the sixth studio album by the English heavy metal band Iron Maiden. It was released on 29 September 1986 in the United Kingdom by EMI Records and in the United States by Capitol Records. It was the band’s first album to feature guitar synthesisers.

Since its release, Somewhere in Time has been certified platinum by the RIAA, having sold over one million copies in the US. Somewhere on Tour was the album’s supporting tour. In 2023, it was made the focus of the Future Past World Tour, alongside 2021’s Senjutsu.

Somewhere in Time is the band’s first studio effort following the extensive World Slavery Tour of 1984–85, which was physically draining for the group, lasting 331 days and comprising 187 concerts. The resulting exhaustion is credited as the main factor in the complete lack of songwriting contributions from lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson, whose material was rejected by the rest of the band.

Dickinson had written several “acoustic-based” songs, explaining that “I felt we had to come up with our Physical Graffiti or Led Zeppelin IV … we had to get it onto another level or we’d stagnate and drift away”, although bassist and primary writer Steve Harris “thought he’d lost the plot completely”, surmising that “he was probably more burnt out than anyone at the end of that last tour”.

On the other hand, the record is also notable for the number of “fully formed” songs written by guitarist Adrian Smith, who wrote both of the album’s singles: “Wasted Years” and “Stranger in a Strange Land“, the former of which is the only song on the record not to feature synthesisers.