Main

Well its finally here the new 'Maiden' live album with Bruce Dickinson at the helm, and boy it's a good one. With a bungle of fine material from the excellent comeback album 'Brave New World' and the group on top form from lengthy touring, they recorded the whole show from front to back, in front of a quarter of a million screaming fans to perfection.

I knew this was going to be a good album, but was unsure how well the new material would go down live, I was not disappointed, the songs fit in very well with established numbers and sound better than the studio versions. Here we have 6 songs from 'Brave New World', 3 from the 'Di'anno' era, 2 from the 'Blaze Bailey' period and 7 from the classic Dickinson era. Its easy to criticise live albums, especially with respect to song selection, no doubt there will be a few moans- "Nothing from 'Somewhere in Time'", "Why bother with 'Blaze' era material", "Too much From 'New World'", I can hear them whining now. On the whole I think they have got it spot on, too much old stuff and your trying to recreate 'Live After Death', too much new and you're alienating the old fans.

Well what does it sound like? Easy, simply brilliant the band are on stellar form, 'Bruce Dickinson' sounds as good now as he ever has and the band rip through the numbers flawlessly, the production is top drawer the continuity couldn't be better, and there's no over dubbing. The fanatic crowds enthusiasm really makes this live album sound live, they sing along to most of the tracks and really scream their hearts out. Surprise inclusions for me include the early single release 'Sanctuary', one of my favourites 'The Evil that Men do' and the brilliant foreboding epic intro. There's no weak tracks here, they are all great, everybody's going to have different favourites, but mine include, 'The Wicker Man', which kicks the album off excellently, 'Hallowed be thy Name' which is sung with total conviction and the two tracks from the 'Blaze Bailey' era, which sound all the better with Bruce's voice behind them.

I'm really interested to see what 'Maiden' do next, it seems their bringing back the glory days of the 80's when they could do not wrong, another studio album like 'Brave New World' and the title of 'Best Metal Group' will again be theirs! ... Lets hope so.

Iron Maiden:- Rock in Rio Release:- 2002 Band Members:- Bruce Dickinson, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, Janick Gers, Steve Harris, Nicko McBrain, Krillion's Rating:- 94%
Well its finally here the new 'Maiden' live album with Bruce Dickinson at the helm, and boy it's a good one. With a bungle of fine material from the excellent comeback album 'Brave New World' and the group on top form from lengthy touring, they recorded the whole show from front to back, in front of a quarter of a million screaming fans to perfection. I knew this was going to be a good album, but was unsure how well the new material would go down live, I was not disappointed, the songs fit in very well with established numbers and sound better than the studio versions. Here we have 6 songs from 'Brave New World', 3 from the 'Di'anno' era, 2 from the 'Blaze Bailey' period and 7 from the classic Dickinson era. Its easy to criticise live albums, especially with respect to song selection, no doubt there will be a few moans- "Nothing from 'Somewhere in Time'", "Why bother with 'Blaze' era material", "Too much From 'New World'", I can hear them whining now. On the whole I think they have got it spot on, too much old stuff and your trying to recreate 'Live After Death', too much new and you're alienating the old fans. Well what does it sound like? Easy, simply brilliant the band are on stellar form, 'Bruce Dickinson' sounds as good now as he ever has and the band rip through the numbers flawlessly, the production is top drawer the continuity couldn't be better, and there's no over dubbing. The fanatic crowds enthusiasm really makes this live album sound live, they sing along to most of the tracks and really scream their hearts out. Surprise inclusions for me include the early single release 'Sanctuary', one of my favourites 'The Evil that Men do' and the brilliant foreboding epic intro. There's no weak tracks here, they are all great, everybody's going to have different favourites, but mine include, 'The Wicker Man', which kicks the album off excellently, 'Hallowed be thy Name' which is sung with total conviction and the two tracks from the 'Blaze Bailey' era, which sound all the better with Bruce's voice behind them. I'm really interested to see what 'Maiden' do next, it seems their bringing back the glory days of the 80's when they could do not wrong, another studio album like 'Brave New World' and the title of 'Best Metal Group' will again be theirs! ... Lets hope so.
Track Listing Disc 1:- Intro, Wicker Man, Ghost of the Navigator, Brave New World, Wrathchild, 2 Minutes to Midnight, Blood Brothers, Sign of the Cross, The Mercenary, The Trooper, Track Listing Disc 2:- Dream of Mirrors, The Clansman, The Evil that Men Do, Fear of the Dark, Iron Maiden, The Number of the Beast, Hallowed be thy Name, Sanctuary, Run to the Hills,