On we plow through the 1990’s live Iron Maiden stuff. I didn’t pull punches last week when discussing A Real Live One and its awful sound quality. Does its companion album have something better in store?

A Real Dead One is in very similar fashion to its predecessor – this is a collection of songs from different stops on a tour. Most of the songs are culled from the A Real Live One tour in April and May of 1993, while 3 of the songs are taken from the same August 1992 tour that the prior live album was made of. 2 more cuts are from the same Helsinki, Finland show that was well represented on the prior album. The newer shows feature 2 cuts each from the same shows in Germany and Switzerland, while everything else is from shows represented once.

On to the cover art, again from the artist who brought Eddie to life, Derek Riggs. This features Eddie as a radio DJ in what I think is a very awesome piece of art. I always really liked this cover and total props for this cool art that’s a bit out of the way for typical Eddie portrayals.

The line-up is the same as the prior album, with Janick Gers in place at guitar in succession of Adrian Smith. There was a dark cloud over this tour however, as it had been announced previously that Bruce Dickinson was leaving Iron Maiden. He was burned out and wanted to truly explore a solo career, but he agreed to this tour so as not to leave the band hanging and also to bid farewell to his mammoth era in the group. In fact, Bruce was out of the group by the time this release hit store shelves in October of 1993.

The other quirk of this album is that it bookends its predecessor A Real Live One by doing the opposite of what the prior one did – while the former only featured songs from albums after Powerslave, this release only featured songs from that album and before.

I discussed last week how A Real Live One isn’t the cheapest set around – an original CD is easy to get, but the vinyl is not at all easy or cheap. This one is even worse by a fair magnitude – it’s a few hundred dollars in recent Discogs listings. These have never been reissued so the scarce ’90’s vinyl is the only option outside of unofficial copies if you want this on your turntable. Also there the double CD reissue with A Real Live One, called fittingly enough A Real Live Dead One. Great way to get both at once but that CD set is a bit more than the average CD.

Here’s the tracklist, then I’ll get into the song selection and the actual content.

The Number Of The Beast

The Trooper

Prowler

Transylvania

Remember Tomorrow

Where Eagles Dare

Sanctuary

Running Free

Run To The Hills

2 Minutes To Midnight

Iron Maiden

Hallowed Be Thy Name

The song selection is pretty cut and dried, this contains a fair few of the obvious Iron Maiden hits. A lot of these songs are in every setlist or are featured most of the time during tours even to this day, this is a foundation of Maiden classics.

But about half of this stuff is off the beaten path. Having songs like Prowler and Remember Tomorrow is pretty cool, those don’t pop up a lot. And the instrumental Transylvania is a very curious and also welcome choice, that is very out of the way and it’s something that makes this a pretty cool set.

The main knock on A Real Live One is the horrible sound quality – it doesn’t sound good at all. Those issues were rectified on this go around, as this stuff all sounds pretty nice. It’s clear and resonant, it isn’t a muddy mess like the first one was. It’s a massive improvement from the one before.

And the performances here are all solid, too. There’s nothing off or uninspired, every song sounds good. Bruce gets in some banter during Running Free as he usually does, and him introducing Transylvania is pretty funny as he has no role on that song.

The live stuff comes to a fitting conclusion with Hallowed Be Thy Name, long the consensus pick for Iron Maiden’s greatest song. The performance from Moscow is great and this was released as a single, finally giving the song a long overdue single release.

It could be said that the performances sound a bit basic or “meat and potatoes” compared to Iron Maiden’s more epic delivery in other eras, though that was the style they were operating in through the early ’90’s so it’s fair to expect that to come through live. It’s not anything really distracting but it is noticeable.

A Real Dead One didn’t set the world on fire sales-wise, but this was Iron Maiden’s career low point so it’s to be expected. Bruce was out by the time this hit shelves and a lot of classic era fans were left disenchanted, not only with Maiden’s happenings but with heavy metal’s fall from grace as a whole. This particular set does give some highlights from a dark time in the band’s history and helps cleanse the aural palette after the awful noise of A Real Live One.

The Iron Maiden Live Album Series

Live After Death

A Real Live One

A Real Dead One (you are here)

Live At Donington

Rock In Rio

BBC Archives

Beast Over Hammersmith

Death On The Road

Flight 666

En Vivo!

Maiden England ’88

The Book Of Souls – Live Chapter

Nights Of The Dead – Legacy Of The Beast Live In Mexico City

The Iron Maiden Live Album Ranking

The Maiden Live Album “Wishlist”