Tag: iron maiden

Iron Maiden – Fear Of The Dark

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week9 Comments

I switched gears for this week after finding out this album just had its 32nd anniversary (or birthday, whichever) over the weekend. It is a mixed bag for sure and the record marked the end of an era for the group as they continued drifting away from the golden years of the 1980’s.

Iron Maiden – Fear Of The Dark

Released May 11, 1992 via EMI Records

Iron Maiden has entered the 1990’s with a retooled, stripped-down sound. The synth era of the late ’80’s was over and the band explored a meat and potatoes rock approach on No Prayer For The Dying. That album spawned the band’s only UK number one hit but is also widely held as one of the worst albums of the entire catalog. There was more variety on display here but the sounds and vibes weren’t terribly far off of this record’s predecessor.

The band’s line-up was the same as the album prior – Steve Harris as always on bass and band leading, Bruce Dickinson on vocals, Dave Murray and Janick Gers on guitar and Nicko McBrain on drums. Martin Birch helped Steve Harris produce, it marked Birch’s final involvement with Maiden as he would head into retirement. This was also Dickinson’s final album with the group until 2000, Bruce was off to his solo career about a year later.

This also marks the end of the line for Derek Riggs album covers – this one was done by Melyvn Grant, who is now the second-most credited artist for Maiden covers. And this one was a pretty good job, very nice and different depiction of Eddie.

This is one loaded album – it is 12 tracks at 57:58, marking Maiden’s first double album. As I recall from my Iron Maiden album ranking, this one did not place very well at all, landing at number 14 on my list. As I said then, this album has a lot of variety but also a lot of varied results, so let’s jump in and see what’s what.

Be Quick Or Be Dead

The opener also served as the lead single. It is a very fast and aggressive song, something a bit over the bar for Maiden. The intensity helps drive home the song’s message about how screwed up corporations and governments are, something that has only gotten worse 32 years on. This one is really good and certainly among the album’s keepers. Grade: B

From Here To Eternity

Another single and the conclusion of the long-running Charlotte saga. It’s a muscular hard rock affair that is fairly basic but I enjoy what it has on offer. It won’t set the world on fire but I don’t have an issue listening to it. Grade: C+

Afraid To Shoot Strangers

On now to a song that fits the Iron Maiden identity full and true. This haunting track starts quietly then builds into explosive action later and it features the movements and thoughtfulness typically expected from Maiden. The song examines the first Gulf War from the eyes of a young soldier who is sent to kill – it’s a new take on the classic “government starts the war and poor people fight it” trope found in music of all stripes. It could be said this is what Maiden used to sound like before the 1990’s shift, but I think it’s more accurate to say that this is what Maiden would sound like in their second “golden” era in the coming reunion years. An absolute whale of a song, very well done. Grade: A

Fear Is The Key

Up next is a song lyrically inspired by the death of Freddy Mercury to AIDS and the concept how how no one really “gave a shit” about the disease until celebrities started dying to it. The issues around HIV and AIDS were a massive shitshow in the 1980’s and early ’90’s for sure.

This song has some good hooks and riffs though it does feel a bit odd in structure. And the song’s last few minutes really throw a wrench into the works – I don’t know what’s going on but it reminds me of Spinal Tap playing Jazz Odyssey. Hilarious in the movie, not so hot on record. Overall this one doesn’t command my attention much, bit of a roller coaster. Grade: D+

Childhood’s End

Another bit of a fierce pounder here and a song that very much offers the sound of Maiden to come for the rest of the decade. Interesting use of drums here and everything comes off pretty sharp and well done. It’s a look at how the whims of politicians lead to children around the world caught up in war, famine and other shitty situations. While this song is one of the album’s secondary tracks, it does a pretty good job. Grade: B

Wasting Love

If you had “Iron Maiden will release a power ballad in 1992” on your bingo card way back when, well, you probably cashed in. I don’t know why Maiden would do a ballad or why they’d release one in 1992 when the ballad was persona non grata in the alt-music world. But none of that is really important because the song is pretty damn good. It’s a sad look at someone trying to end their loneliness through casual hook-ups and only finding more loneliness at the end of it all. This one was a curveball but curveballs are valid pitches to throw. Grade: B+

The Fugitive

Here’s one inspired by the old TV show, there were since movie remakes and whatever. Not a bad song but not radically interesting either, easy to listen to but also easy to forget. Grade: C

Chains Of Misery

It’s a song about the “devil on your shoulder” concept. It’s an outright sleazy glam track with gang vocals and the whole nine yards. It’s not a terrible song per se but it’s so out of place on an Iron Maiden record. This song is another curveball but the pitch doesn’t really land. It’s musically just good enough to not be a total trash affair. Grade: C-

The Apparition

Whether or not you like this song hinges on what you think of Bruce’s climbing vocals through the verses here. If you like them then you probably think this ghost tale is at least ok. I personally don’t like them much and it’s all the song does so I think it’s awful. One way to make a double album is to not make it and cut certain songs that don’t work – this would be one of them. Grade: D

Judas Be My Guide

This one’s about how everyone is basically “for sale,” in that everyone has a price and will eventually sell out to the high bidder. It’s of course tied to the biblical story of Judas, the betrayer of Jesus. It’s also an absolutely fantastic song. It’s short and a quick rock track but it works on every level. The Iron Maiden “butt rock” era could have been something else if more of the songs were like this. I and many others consider this to be one of the most underrated tracks of the Maiden catalog, this one is a true hidden gem. Grade: A+

Weekend Warrior

The Maiden butt rock era might have worked with more songs like the last one, unfortunately there were also tracks like this. It’s a song about football/soccer hooliganism, something Steve Harris is quite familiar with as a West Ham United fan. Whatever the topic, I don’t know what the hell is going on with this song – it’s so basic that it hurts and it goes nowhere. It’s very close to the worst Maiden song I’ve ever heard. Grade: F

Fear Of The Dark

The title track and album closer offers a very simple premise – it’s about being afraid of the dark, being paranoid about what might lurk in the shadows and corners that light doesn’t penetrate. It’s also the Maiden song from the 1990’s that has endured and earned the title of classic.

This song is a total Iron Maiden track through and through, with running riffs and quiet/loud dynamics and about anything you’d want out of a Maiden song. After slogging through an uneven album that has some massive question marks in creative choices, this song nails everything about Iron Maiden. Grade: A+

Although this era of Iron Maiden is lightly regarded, Fear Of The Dark was a bit of a success as the group pressed on in the wilderness of the 1990’s. The album charted at 12 in the US, 1 in the UK and claimed many other top 10 positions. It has been certified gold in 5 countries and has a platinum cert from Italy. It was, as of 2008, at least in the ballpark of a US gold certification as well, no known updates on that.

So what happens when you have a few really awesome songs, a handful of average tracks, and a few real stinkers? I guess, in the end things kind of average out and I can consider this an average album. It’s not average in that all of the songs are consistent and ok – it’s average because it’s great in a few spots and awful in a few others. But average is average when all is said and done.

Album Grade: C

This would be the end of an era for Iron Maiden – they would spend the balance of the decade with a new singer and song direction before restoring the glory years line-up in 1999 and being at the forefront of the new interest in traditional metal in the 2000’s. It is easy to dismiss these albums as a lost period, but there are songs certainly worth visiting on this one.

For an explanation of the grading scale, head here.

For questions, comments or concerns, either use the comment form below or head to my contact page.

For more of what I’ve posted about Iron Maiden, check out the band index.

Iron Maiden – Aces High

On By bigbadburchIn Song Of The Week6 Comments

Today I’m off back to that wonderful year of 1984 and into my ongoing celebration of the 40th anniversary.

I do run into one problem when I do this year-long 1984-versary – I’ve already covered a lot of this ground already. And in today’s case I’ve covered it twice – I have long since talked about Powerslave, one of my favorite Iron Maiden albums. And I’ve talked about the song before, when I ran it down as a part of the series where I visited the Maiden singles in my collection. But the occasion to celberate 1984 and also Iron Maiden gives me the opportunity to talk about this song yet again.

Aces High was released on the Powerslave album and was also released as the second single from that record. The song charted decently in the band’s native UK, going number 20 there as well as 29 in Ireland. But the sheer immortality of the song goes far beyond chart positions.

Aces High has a clear subject matter on hand – it depicts a British RAF pilot flying his Spitfire during the Battle of Britain in 1940. The British held out over a long campaign of German bombing that caused devastating damage to England’s cities and military infrastructure. But the inability of Nazi Germany to affect a British surrender would be a major turning point in World War II, and the resolve of the British people during a horrifying time is the stuff of legend.

One main way Britain held off Germany’s assault was through the use of the Spitfire, which was not in vast production at the onset of the battle but did showcase that it could keep up with the Luftwaffe’s well-rendered aircraft. And while the song today doesn’t identify the RAF pilot who flew these sorties, the single’s cover clearly depicts one Eddie as the pilot in question.

The lyrics paint a daring and detailed picture of the bombings and the dogfights that would ensue to defend Great Britain. The first line mentions the air raid siren, which was a constant feature of life in England during this campaign and also, likely coincidental, is the nickname of singer Bruce Dickinson. The rest of the lyrics are filled with the plane fight to shoot down bombers and then engage German fighters. The chorus soars, just as a plane does up in the open sky.

Not only do the words do a great job of communicating the story of the Spitfire, but the music is a muscular beast that also compliments the plane fight theme. The song is all action, kicking off hard from the word go and not letting up for a millisecond throughout. The guitar work from Dave Murray and Adrian Smith is exactly the kind of twin guitar attack you’d want to depict a dogfight, and Steve Harris’ bassline here is one of the best of his career. Accompanied by the bashing of skins from Nicko McBrain, this is a metal song that couldn’t get any more complete.

As presented on Powerslave and on the single, you simply get Aces High the song. But Maiden quickly appended a verbal introduction to the video as well as when playing the song live and it has become just as much a part of the song as the instruments and vocals. The verbiage in question is from Winston Churchill and is a part of his famous June 1940 speech, informally referred to as “On the beaches.” Churchill had been vehemently opposed to Hitler for the Nazi tyrant’s entire career, and Churchill’s dogged adversity would pay off when he became Prime Minister and helped lead Great Britain through the war. His speech was a celebrated rallying cry when delivered in Parliament. Do note that Churchill’s recording of the speech is actually from 1949, the original speech was not recorded.

Aces High instantly became a highlight piece of Iron Maiden’s catalog. It would open the World Slavery tour, as famously represented on Live After Death. While the song ranks at a relatively modest number 19 in terms of how many times Maiden have played it live, it is no doubt one of the band’s most-known and loved tracks. The list of signature Maiden songs can get a bit long but Aces High belongs there no question.

1984 was a banner year for heavy metal, and it was also the year Iron Maiden unleashed one of their best albums and truly took over the world. Aces High is one of the standout metal songs from that year, from Iron Maiden and honestly from heavy metal in general.

Iron Maiden – The Band Index

On By bigbadburchIn Uncategorized1 Comment

This post will offer up a series of links to the various posts and series I’ve written about Iron Maiden. They are my favorite band and I’ve covered them extensively here, with more to come, so I thought it’d be wise to create a central hub for easier navigation between all of the stuff I’ve posted over the years.

This will be updated with new posts as they come. Also I will eventually use this as a hub for any Maiden associated acts, such as Bruce’s solo albums, Blaze’s stuff or the wealth of side projects and other solo albums out there.

Albums

I have covered a handful of Maiden’s studio records and eventually will get to them all. I’ll just post a list of all the albums and link up to the posts for those already done.

Iron Maiden

Killers

The Number Of The Beast

Piece Of Mind

Powerslave

Somewhere In Time

Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son

No Prayer For The Dying

Fear Of The Dark

The X Factor

Virtual XI

Brave New World

Dance Of Death

A Matter Of Life And Death

The Final Frontier

The Book Of Souls

Senjutsu

The Studio Album Ranking

Here lies the post where I ranked all of the albums. Simple enough.

The Album Cover Ranking

I have also ranked the album covers. That is in two parts – Part One here, Part Two here.

The Singles Series

I’ve ran through my collection of singles and discussed the ones I presently own. I am planning on restarting the series to fill in the gaps at a future point in time when I’ve bought more.

This is the first post in the series, and this is the last post. Links to each entry in the series are contained in each post for your navigational ease.

The Live Album Series

I did a full run-through series in the same vein as the singles series. Here is the first post of that series and the, for now, most recent live album. There is also a live album ranking and a wishlist for stuff I hope gets released officially at some point. This series also has links to each post in the series within it.

Unplayed Songs Live

This two-parter looks at the songs Maiden haven’t played on a live stage. The post was heavily updated to reflect the current Future Past Tour, which knocked the list down a fair bit. Part One is here, Part Two is here.

Songs

I occasionally take a look at a specific Maiden song. I have not done a great deal of these yet but this list will grow over time.

Hallowed Be Thy Name

Alexander The Great

Charlotte The Harlot (this is all four songs in the saga)

Aces High (not here yet, check back on Wednesday…)

One-off Posts

This section will compile various posts I’ve done regarding Maiden. I am still putting this list together and will update it soon.

Other updates will come as I scan through my old posts to identify anything I missed. I hope this assists readers who want to check out the scope of things I’ve done.

For questions, comments or other concerns, use the comment form below or use my contact page to reach me.

Iron Maiden – My Live Album Wishlist

On By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Live Album Series21 Comments

It’s time to wrap up the Iron Maiden live series, as well as wrap up 2023. This final post will look at a series of tours and concerts that are not officially available as live albums that I wish were. While Maiden have cranked out the live records to the tune of 13, there are several periods in history that are missed and today I’ll be looking at some of those that I’d like to see officially released.

And yes, there is a key word here – “officially.” Most anything I’m going to discuss today is available as a bootleg. But I’m concerned with the (usually) top-quality efforts the band and label release themselves. Also, some of these bootlegs are not easy to find outside of digital download form. Try digging up a physical copy of the 1985 Rock In Rio appearance, it’s kind of ridiculous.

Before I get into specific time periods I’ll go over what I’d like to see overall, since it’s very easy to look at another band and see what they’ve done. Kiss have issued an Off The Soundboard series of different concerts through their career. The packaging is no-frills and minimal, but the point is people get a show that otherwise wasn’t released officially. The Kiss issues have been well-received and I have a few of them even though I’m not a die-hard Kiss collector.

So that’s what I’d like to see from Maiden, is an occasional live release series. Things don’t have to be packaged to the gills or anything, though for Maiden there would need to be some sort of Eddie artwork. But I don’t think it’d be too difficult to pull off an annual or semi-annual release series of shows that aren’t represented already by a live album.

Now, will this happen? I kind of doubt it. I think it makes sense to do, we as Maiden fans are gleefully willing to part with our money for random shit, so getting more live stuff out there wouldn’t be a bad choice. But as many know, Steve Harris is a total control freak and often won’t let a release out without him going over every detail with a fine-tooth comb. He would have to relent some on his micromanaging vision to let a fair bit of archive live material out, as no one has time to go over everything in microscopic detail. Will he do that? Again, I kind of doubt it.

But for the sake of argument let’s say the Captain is agreeable to this archive live idea. What stuff do I want to see? Let’s get into it.

The Somewhere In Time tour

This tour cycle came and went for Maiden, then they jumped straight into Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son and left a lot of SiT sitting on the shelf. They have given the album more live time in ’23 as part of their current Future Past Tour, and rest assured we’ll get a live set from that probably in ’25. But that still leaves the original tour for the album in the dust.

There are well-regarded bootlegs out there for this tour, in fact it’s a pretty hot commodity on the unofficial market as the album was glossed over in years after. There is a Paris performance that I’ve heard previously that is quality, and I’m sure there are several other worthwhile sources for a decent live record. This would be towards the top of the list of tours I want an official representation of.

The Rock In Rio series

Maiden first played this festival in 1985. They released their 2001 performance in the Rock In Rio album and video set. They’ve also played in 2013, ’19 and ’22. And it’s possible I missed a performance in there, all of this shit is listed on one huge Wikipedia page and it’s easy to miss.

But there are four other shots at live stuff there, if only to complete a bit of a vanity series. No need for a video portion or an all-out blitz, these could simply be released as no-frills packages. I do have a bootleg of the 2019 show and it’s overall very good, just with a bit of wonky guitar frequency by way of Nigel Tufnel at the Air Force base in one spot. But for the kind of release I’m envisioning that would be fine, I’m not out for everything to be the out-and-out best stuff ever.

More early stuff

We do have several live EP’s and other collections of Paul Di’Anno-fronted live stuff, but what’s the harm in more? There are some very good sounding radio broadcast bootlegs in circulation and there’s no reason a few of those couldn’t be selected for official release. I wouldn’t mind more archive-style stuff from the early days, it wasn’t a long time period but there’s a fair bit of material out there. There is also an opportunity to release the full version of the Maiden Japan EP, as expanded bootlegs do exist. Why not fill out the performance?

The Blaze years

There is no official live material from the time Blaze Bayley fronted the group. This is understandable as the period is not the band’s most celebrated. But I think it’d be nice to have an official live document from this time.

There is a caveat – Blaze couldn’t sing the Bruce stuff like Bruce could, which on the surface is fair since no one would accuse Blaze of being Bruce. But the band flat refused to step down in scale to accommodate Blaze, which I consider a mistake. I do have some bootleg Blaze stuff and I think it works fine so I don’t have a problem with it, but there are a lot of fans who would be vocally against it. They aren’t writing my wishlist though so screw ’em.

A Matter Of Life And Death

The 2005 album was hailed as one of the band’s best and Maiden took the extra step of performing the whole thing live. After the tour, Maiden transitioned to a retro setlist which came to life in the Flight 666 album and film. This had the side effect of shelving a live release for AMOLAD.

There has also been a lot of chatter that the tour wasn’t as well-received as Maiden hoped for. While the die-hard fanbase was totally up for it, often concerts are filled with more casual fans who aren’t as up on current material, and playing all of the album threw off some attendees. I don’t know any of this for sure, but there’s enough speculation out there to give credence to this line of thought.

With all that said, I want nothing more than an official release of this tour. It would probably be the most unique Maiden live set, with only their current tour rivaling it for interesting cuts. The tour is heavily bootlegged, but I see no reason to shelve an official release of this. And this one could come with all the bells and whistles of a typical Maiden live package, it doesn’t have to be minimal like I’d accept for the other stuff listed here. This one does rank at the top of my wishlist.

I think that about covers it. Sure, I’d love a live release from the Piece Of Mind tour and even No Prayer For The Dying, we might as well have something official for each album cycle and honestly we’re not too far off. Neither of those feel essential, though PoM would probably be well liked.

That covers what I’d like to see for future live Maiden releases. I’m sure we’ll get one for the current tour Future Past, and at some point in time we’re going to have that sad farewell tour and I have no doubt Maiden will release that as well. I’d also speculate that maybe there’s room for one more studio album and a live set focusing on it, I have no clue what the band’s plans are as time goes on. But I hope there’s a will for Harris to let someone go through the archives and release all this and other stuff. I suppose we will see. This does wrap up the Maiden live album series – for now, there is no doubt that it will expand in the future.

The Iron Maiden Live Album Series

Live After Death

A Real Live One

A Real Dead One

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” (you are here, and you made it to the end!)

Iron Maiden – The Live Album Ranking

On By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Live Album Series18 Comments

I’ve spent the past 13 weeks going over each Iron Maiden live album, and now at the end of it all it’s time to give them a proper ranking.

I will only be including the full-length, official live albums in this. The EP stuff like Maiden England is out, as is any kind of bootleg. The list on the bottom of this page has a link to the post where I discussed the album in detail.

This ranking is pretty fast and loose, this is not a series of conclusions reached after careful, strained analysis. It’s just a big vibe check more than anything, ranking live albums is kind of ridiculous and I’m only doing it because these guys released 13, and counting.

13 – A Real Live One (1993)

This is easy to rank, pretty much because it sounds like shit. It’s an awful sound capture or mix or whatever. It is potentially interesting given that this does represent well the band’s early ’90’s era which didn’t get hardly any live airing after these tours, but it really hurts this album that the exact same songs from the same tour can be found on another live album. This one is totally skippable.

12 – A Real Dead One (1993)

This companion to the spot below it offered up the band’s classic era and early hits. It sounds way better than the other one. But the performances are a bit lacking in dynamics, the setlist isn’t really inspiring since it’s all stuff you can hear in any number of other places, and almost all of these songs from this tour are found on another live album. This one isn’t a total wash but it doesn’t serve much of a purpose, either.

11 – Nights Of The Dead (2020)

This is the most recent one to date. It’s got a cool theme with the tie in to Day of the Dead. The sound is fine, if not just a hair off. Bruce doesn’t sound his best on here due to illness and it does affect the performance. The setlist is mostly obvious stuff but that’s to be expected from a career-spanning set. A few gems on here and overall it’s a pretty cool album but it has it faults.

10 – Flight 666 (2009)

This is another “hits” set with all but one song from the ’80’s. It all sounds really good and showcases the band in very fine form. It sits a little lower on my rankings because I’m drawn more to the live sets that highlight specific albums. Ranking this one here isn’t meant to be a knock on this album at all, it’s just that others serve my purposes more.

9 – The Book Of Souls – Live Chapter (2017)

A nice package that sums up the tour for this album very well. It does focus on the 2017 version of the tour and I would have preferred the 2016 setlist, but that’s a minor complaint. It’s a good effort and does a good job showcasing the album that this tour was supporting.

8 – The BBC Archives (2002)

This is very cool series of small sets that give us a bit of official material with Paul Di’Anno live. It’s a great look at the early years and even has a few songs with guys that weren’t in the band very long. This is more of a treat for die-hards but it’s executed in splendid fashion, this die-hard is very happy with it.

7 – Live At Donington (1993)

3 live albums in one year and this one renders the others obsolete. This is a complete show from the hallowed festival grounds and has almost all of the songs featured on the other two releases. Stuff here sounds good and it’s the best way to experience ’90’s Maiden, even if it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

6 – Maiden England (1988, 1994, 2013, etc)

Released in different forms several times, the 2013 complete issue is the one to seek out. This captures the band in a prime era for them, on the Seventh Son tour and with a lot of those songs making their way here. The sound is a few steps down from other recordings but it’s still a worthwhile listen. Hard to beat this setlist, even if they forgot to play The Trooper for whatever reason.

5 – Death On The Road (2005)

The live set in support of Dance Of Death is here and it’s a really good offering of the stronger tracks from that album alongside a collection of the band’s usual classic offerings. Paschendale alone is worth the price of admission.

4 – En Vivo! (2012)

This set is pulled from the tour for The Final Frontier album. Beyond just being a showcase for that stuff, this actually breathes new life into those songs and gives a looked-over album some great representation. Great sound, great crowd and everything here clicks.

3 – Rock In Rio (2002)

This offering was the conclusion of the Brave New World tour and the first live release since the band’s reunion in 1999. The album they were touring on was fantastic and it’s featured heavily here, paired with two special songs where Bruce performs Blaze-era material. This was a very exciting album and tour for the band and began a new chapter of their legacy that is the band’s longest and runs to this day.

2 – Beast Over Hammersmith (2002)

This gig from 1982 sat for a decade before an official release in a box set, then 20 years after that it got cut on vinyl for the first (official) time. This set is a total home run, showing off the band on the Beast on the Road tour and letting the world know just how great their new singer Bruce Dickinson is. Killer performances from front to back and it obviously features a lot of early material as they only had 3 albums to work off of back then.

1 – Live After Death (1985)

It’s hard to top the granddaddy of them all and for Iron Maiden live albums, this is it. Their first one is also still their best, capturing the group at their peak in the Powerslave era. It’s a magnificent set and features the band at full energy and performing many of their best tracks.

And that will do it for the live album rankings. I’ll surely be revisiting this one at least once more and maybe many more times. Christmas will be over in a few days but I’ll still put a bow on this series next week with a look at some tours I wish we had live albums for. ‘Till then.

The Iron Maiden Live Album Series

Live After Death

A Real Live One

A Real Dead One

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 (you are here)

The Maiden Live Album “Wishlist”

Nights Of The Dead – The Iron Maiden Live Album Series

On By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Live Album Series17 Comments

This series is winding into the home stretch now as we’ve reached the end of the list of Iron Maiden live albums. Of course this is “for now,” as I’m sure at least one more is to come, and quite possibly several if not many more over the years. This will be a “living” series, for sure, and I’ll update it when new albums are issued. But for now and most likely for at least another year until the Future Past Tour finishes up, this will be the last proper post.

This album was recorded over three shows in Mexico City in September 2019. It is evident that Maiden went into Mexico with the express purpose of recording a live album. It’s generally understood that they record all of their shows anyway, but it does feel as though they had their sights set on these performances.

This was the first stretch of the Legacy Of The Beast tour. This is entirely a hits set, the band had not released a new album since 2015’s Book Of Souls and it would be about a year after this live cut before their next studio effort.

Of course, we can look at the date 2019 and know that these concerts were performed just before the COVID pandemic that totally defined 2020 and changed about everything. Maiden’s run of the Legacy… tour was cut short and the tour was finally resumed in 2022. This newer version of the tour did alter the setlist to incorporate songs from the 2021 studio album Senjutsu, but today’s live set is all about the 2019 version of the tour.

There is on-theme cover art featuring a Day of the Dead-inspired Eddie. Some might call it cultural appropriation, I prefer to think of it as Eddie simply visiting the world. It’s one of the more interesting Eddie pieces of the past several years, for sure.

Let’s do the usual – go over the tracklist then have at the particulars of the recording.

Churchill’s Speech/Aces High

Where Eagles Dare

2 Minutes To Midnight

The Clansman

The Trooper

Revelations

For The Greater Good Of God

The Wicker Man

Sign Of The Cross

Flight Of Icarus

Fear Of The Dark

The Number Of The Beast

Iron Maiden

The Evil That Men Do

Hallowed Be Thy Name

Run To The Hills

First let’s go over song selection. The vast majority of this is the same as what I’ve said about most every other live album – a lot of the obvious songs are here. Given that this set was a career retrospective, it’s no surprise at all. The Trooper is here, Number Of The Beast, the ever-present Fear Of The Dark, and Run To The Hills closes things out. From top to bottom this is a pretty stacked selection of the vanguard Iron Maiden tunes. Hallowed Be Thy Name is back in the set after the band sorted a legal challenge in 2017.

There are a few sprinklings of so-called “treats” here. Two of those are The Clansman and Sign Of The Cross, songs from the Blaze Bayley years that are widely regarded as the best tracks from that period. This was the first time since the Brave New World tour that anything from the Blaze albums got a live spin so it’s nice to hear them brought out again.

There is a treat from the golden years, too – Flight Of Icarus had not been played live since 1986. This was a very cool inclusion for the Maiden faithful, it’s kind of shocking that this classic sat on the sidelines for all these decades.

For all the talk of how well-regarded Maiden’s reunion has been, there were only two songs chosen for this tour from this era, Maiden’s longest run of consistency. The Wicker Man is one, the lead single from Brave New World has previously been in the set for the En Vivo! Live album and has been a part of several tours over the years. I’m a bit shocked the band didn’t include Blood Brothers, as that song has been a true anthem, but Wicker Man is totally an enjoyable track and there’s nothing to complain about.

The other reunion cut is the true gem, if not total crown jewel of the bunch – For The Greater Good Of God marks the first and, to date, only appearance of a song from A Matter Of Life And Death on an official Maiden live release. The album was played in whole on its tour cycle but no live record came from that, and then no song got back in a released set again until this tour.

And they didn’t just pick any old song from the album either – this one is an outstanding epic track, the twisted tale of religion and man’s fallacy is one of the best cuts from that album. For me this is the true reward of this live set.

Now let’s move to production and sound quality – overall it’s pretty good. I do think it’s a shade off of the prior two live releases, but things are broadcast pretty clearly without any real issues. I don’t know what night’s performances were chosen for inclusion on the album or what might have been messed with under the hood, I tend to think things were released “as is,” which is usually (but not always) the case with live Maiden.

And finally I should look at the band’s own performance, where honestly, we do have an issue. Now the band is in good form, nothing here sounds off or bad. I don’t know if this set really goes the extra mile compared to past live releases, but it’s all good in terms of the instruments.

There was a really big issue during these Mexico shows, though – Bruce Dickinson had the flu during the Mexico run. And yes, it’s pretty noticeable that Bruce is off on this album. Some songs sound better than others, I’d say Where Eagles Dare is the one that really sticks out as there being something wrong. On others he sounds maybe a bit labored and not hitting the highs of his youth, but still getting things mostly sorted.

I’ll say that I don’t think Bruce’s performance was total dogshit or anything like that, it doesn’t ruin enjoyment of the album for me. But it is there and is noticeable, and no matter my fanboyism of this band, I can’t sweep it under the rug. Now, I will say that the flu was the most likely cause here – there are other concerts from this tour and Bruce sounds way better on them. I have a bootleg of the Brazil show, and the Stockholm show is one many cite as the one that maybe should have been released as the live album. Bruce is spot on in both of those shows.

It does beg the question if maybe Maiden should have chosen a different show for the live release, but that’s purely hypothetical since this is the album we have. While it is flawed in an unfortunate way with the member that many consider the band’s main selling point, I do think they still squeaked out with a pretty enjoyable product here.

The question is – where would I rank this among the other live albums? Well, find out next week when I do just that – rank all 13 of the live Maiden releases.

The Iron Maiden Live Album Series

Live After Death

A Real Live One

A Real Dead One

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 (you are here)

The Iron Maiden Live Album Ranking

The Maiden Live Album “Wishlist”

The Book Of Souls: Live Chapter – The Iron Maiden Live Album Series

On By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Live Album Series19 Comments

Getting towards the end of the live album series here, though rest assured that the series will grow in the future, we won’t spend long without a new Maiden live album taking up more of my precious vinyl storage space.

The album title here makes things very easy to decode – this is the live album from the tour cycle for The Book Of Souls. The tour ran 2016 and ’17 and the shows here are mostly from 2016, with only two performances being on the 2017 run, for reasons that will be obvious in a minute. I did personally see this tour twice, once each year.

The songs are gathered from a variety of tour stops and represent a good chunk of the inhabited world. Sadly neither show I attended was picked, as nothing from the United States was chosen. The show must go on despite my wounded American exceptionalism. A few cuts come from major metal festivals, one from the almighty Wacken festival in Germany and two from the 2016 Download fest in England. The two Download songs mark the only “repeat” venue across the 15 tracks.

The band line-up is the same as it’s been all through the reunion era – Steve Harris in charge and on bass, Bruce Dickinson singing, the guitar threesome of Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers, and Nicko McBrain doing the drumming.

There was one huge question going into this tour – how was Bruce Dickinson going to sound? This wasn’t just a question of Bruce getting older – he had been treated for throat cancer in 2015, before the release of The Book Of Souls. It was something I was wondering about in early 2016 before the show then, fair to say that any concerns about the illness impacting his performance were quashed early on.

There was also a legal issue that would affect the 2017 setlist. Maiden were sued over songwriting to their magnum opus Hallowed Be Thy Name. The song had borrowed lyrics from the 1973 song Life’s Shadow by Beckett, a band that Maiden manager Ron Smallwood had been the agent for. Camp Maiden had a longstanding arrangement in place with a Beckett member who was billed as the song’s sole writer, but in the 2010’s a new lawsuit emerged from another Beckett band member who claimed he was cut out of a rightful share. This kept Hallowed… out of the setlist in 2017, the suit was settled out of court in early 2018.

This is all relevant here as the live album mirrors the 2017 setlist, despite having been mostly recorded from 2016 shows. There was one other change beyond removing Hallowed Be Thy Name – the BoS song Tears Of A Clown, a tribute to the tragic death of beloved actor Robin Williams, was also cut from 2017 sets. The BoS song The Great Unknown was added in, as was the early classic cut Wrathchild.

A quick note on video – while most live packages up to this point have had a physical video release, this one only got a digital video issue. Everything is freely available to watch on YouTube, so this did mark the likely end of the “old school” video releases from Maiden. Kind of sad in a way but that’s how changes roll.

Let’s do the usual – go ove the tracklist, then get into the music itself. This won’t take too long as it’s the typical reunion era album tour format.

If Eternity Should Fail

Speed Of Light

Wrathchild

Children Of The Damned

Death Or Glory

The Red And The Black

The Trooper

Powerslave

The Great Unknown

The Book Of Souls

Fear Of The Dark

Iron Maiden

The Number Of The Beast

Blood Brothers

Aces High

Going right into the reason for this album being – the songs from The Book Of Souls. There are several pretty obvious inclusions here – opener If Eternity Should Fail, the track Steve Harris knicked off of Bruce’s solo album, also opens the show and works great in that spot. The album’s single Speed Of Light is a quick and shorter number that also easily works live. And the title track Book Of Souls is another just amazing Janick Gers title track masterpiece.

We do also get Death Or Glory, another Maiden airplane dogfight song that is fine but not everyone’s cup of tea. The Great Unknown is another song that I’d also call fine but not necessarily remarkable. I would have preferred having Tears Of A Clown on the live album over either of those but Steve Harris didn’t ask me my opinion.

There is one other BoS song here – the monster epic The Red And The Black. This is the third-longest song Maiden have recorded, beaten out only by Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, and that only by 20 or so seconds, and then Empire Of The Clouds by several minutes. Opinion on The Red And The Black is divided, all I can do is offer mine – I absolutely love the song and I’m glad I got to hear it live twice and also have it on this release. It’s one of those songs that I play and take in every second and feel like only five minutes have passed when it’s over, I just don’t process that it’s as long as it is. So nothing but praise for me there.

There aren’t any real “hidden gem” songs here. We could call Children Of The Damned one – it was played a lot in its day but is kind of a treat in modern setlists, I guess. Powerslave is also one I don’t often expect to pop up, it does eat a few more minutes of stage time than others but I’ll never complain about hearing it.

There is an interesting bit in the encore – we can see by this point that the Brave New World opus Blood Brothers has been elevated to encore status. The song has been one of the most well-received of the reunion era and it’s a rightful Maiden anthem at this point, so it does fit well in this spot.

Beyond that, everything here is obvious picks. They are the same songs on most every other Maiden live release and yes, you do run a lot of the same ground when you release more live albums than other bands release total studio albums. Not a complaint from me, merely an observation.

The sound here is really good – this sounds live and still comes across clear and listenable. It’s a very solid recording that captures things very well and is “put together” out of its several different performances to fashion a very cohesive listening experience. No complaints at all in that department.

Overall this is a pretty remarkable live album. I probably do fawn over it a bit more because I caught them twice on this run, but it’s an impressive display of a band now in total legend status still able to captivate with a brilliant set, and showcase a lot of new material in the process. Big props for this one.

Next week I’ll wrap up the series proper with a look at the most recent live record, a career-spanning set recorded in 2019.

The Iron Maiden Live Album Series

Live After Death

A Real Live One

A Real Dead One

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”

Bruce Dickinson – Afterglow Of Ragnarok

On By bigbadburchIn Song Of The Week10 Comments

Usually I do a “song of the week” but this week we’ll get two as I have the new Bruce Dickinson single in my hands and, as luck would have it, there are two songs on it. One of them many are already familiar with, but we’ll get to that.

Afterglow Of Ragnarok is the lead single from Bruce’s forthcoming album The Mandrake Project. The album has now had its tracklist previewed and will be released on March 1st, 2024. Anticipation is high among the fanbase for this one, as this is Bruce’s first solo album since 2005, nearly a two decade wait. This first single was released to streaming on Friday, December 1st and it was also issued on 7-inch vinyl, which I got in the mail this past Monday.

The single package includes a small comic book which sets up the story being told in this concept album. There will also be a graphic novel running alongside the album that further gets into the crazy story Bruce has set up here. The music video for this song and the small comic inside the vinyl seem to be setting up the same story.

Afterglow Of Ragnarok

The A-side is the title song here so let’s hit that up first. You may notice the video is 8 minutes long, but rest assured the actual song is a more lean 5:40. There is an intro and extended credits cut on the video here.

This is one heavy, heavy song. It does go into some more melodic sections that give Bruce room to shine (well, sort of, we’ll get into that in a second) but this is seriously heavy stuff from Roy Z. It’s honestly a little stark just how hard hitting this one is. Not in a bad way at all, but there’s an edge here beyond what we’ve heard from Bruce or his other outfit.

Lyrically this one is a tough nut to crack. It’s not one of those songs that offer something to the usual human experience and that anyone can take a bit of meaning from. This is a pretty dense affair that has all to do with the story being told. The song functions well on its own but it will require hearing the whole album and knowing more about what the hell is going on to really get into the theme.

There is a pretty big issue here, one that I am far from alone in bringing up. For whatever reason, Bruce’s vocals are fairly buried in the music here. The instruments, which again are heavy as all hell, are somewhat flooding out a guy known as the Human Air Raid Siren. It’s a very noticeable flaw here and one I put down to production. Bruce sounds fine, all concerns about his age and past throat cancer aside. He may not wail like it’s 1984 but he can still carry a tune plenty well enough to do this solo record. But a puzzling choice was made to put his vocals under the music for some reason and it sticks out. It is maybe a bit better on the actual vinyl as opposed to digital but it’s still noticeable. I don’t know how this all works but I’m hoping someone can stealth fix this issue a bit before the full album releases, at least get the digital version of the album set straight. I do still like the song and I’ll gladly play the album but this flaw can’t be looked over.

If Eternity Should Fail (demo)

The B-side offers up a bit of a treat and a song nearly 10 years old now. This is the demo recording Bruce and Roy Z did of this song back when they were first laying plans for this album. The album was supposed to go by this title and this was presumably either the centerpiece or the starting point for the huge story.

Well, something got in the way, and that something is Steve Harris and Iron Maiden. Steve heard this demo and really liked the song, and as you may notice it is the opening track of The Book Of Souls. This led Bruce back to the drawing board and he chose a new title for the album and, after some rewrites on the background story, he also re-christened this song. I presume the track Eternity Has Failed from the album will bear some resemblance to this one but also be its own entity.

But here we have the original demo recording done in 2014. It is pretty well what most would think – it’s a demo version of this song. It is basic in structure though the song is fairly well formed, it hits the same beats as it does in its final form and there isn’t anything missing or altered. It is bare bones compared to the Maiden version but that’s certainly excusable as this is only Bruce and Roy’s demo version, they didn’t even get a chance to finish it. It’s a cool thing to have as a B-side, especially since the song proper didn’t make the album. We also get to clearly hear Bruce speak what is a bunch of distorted vocal gibberish on the end of the finished Maiden version – it’s all stuff that directly relates to Bruce’s story but Steve said to leave it on the Maiden album because “lol,” I guess.

One further note – as of now, this B-side seems to only be available on the physical vinyl single. I could not find it on any official digital service and I’m not gonna bother posting a random YouTube version that will probably get taken down in a day. This is more of a cool bonus track anyway, it’s not something essential to the album itself.

That about covers it for this new single, ahead of one of my most anticipated albums of 2024. The old guard are still flying the metal flag, gotta enjoy it while we can.

Maiden England 88 – The Iron Maiden Live Album Series

On By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Live Album Series18 Comments

This week we’re back to 1988 and the celebrated Maiden England tour. This live set comes from two shows at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England. The shows were played at the end of November and then put together for a live video and audio package, though we get into some interesting stuff when it comes to the album’s release dates.

This was originally offered on video form in 1989 – even on LaserDisc, the vinyl-sized CD precursor to the DVD. It was not released in audio form until 1994, when a CD was issued. However – neither of these initial packages were the complete show, both omitted the encore. In 2013 the set was re-released in complete form both audio and video, and officially on vinyl for the first time. This coincided with Iron Maiden’s tour through 2012 and ’13, which was a recreation of the Maiden England package with a few setlist tweaks.

I know most people who see this will likely know what I’m about to say, but I do want to offer a caveat to anyone who maybe isn’t all that familiar with the Iron Maiden timeline or release windows – this live set I’m discussing is from the 1988 tour, despite being released in 2013. This is not a live set chronicling the 2012 and 2013 tour – there is no official live material for that tour cycle. I could see where someone new to looking at all of this could be easily confused by it.

The line-up here is the band’s classic era roster – The Captain Steve Harris on bass and bandleading, Bruce Dickinson at the mic, the guitar tandem of Dave Murray and Adrian Smith, and Nicko McBrain on the drums.

We do have another compare and contrast feature here – the cover art for the different versions was changed. Up above I’ve actually posted the original 1989 cover art, a badass image featuring a leather-clad Eddie flying over a concert crowd on a motorcycle. It’s a pretty iconic image of Eddie, no doubt about that. The 2013 reissues saw modified art, with Trooper Eddie in his redcoat uniform leaping on a horse over a cannon. The more recent cover art was done by artist Hervé Monjeaud, while the original cover and other associated artwork in the reissue was courtesy of Eddie’s iconic artist Derek Riggs. The newer art is very worthy by all means, but that original Riggs image is just massive stuff.

Let’s do the usual thing – look at the tracklist, then jump into the sounds and highlights.

Moonchild

The Evil That Men Do

The Prisoner

Still Life

Die With Your Boots On

Infinite Dreams

Killers

Can I Play With Madness

Heaven Can Wait

Wasted Years

The Clairvoyant

Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son

The Number Of The Beast

Hallowed Be Thy Name

Iron Maiden

This is all from the Seventh Tour Of A Seventh Tour, which obviously was in support of the album Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son. This set kind of reads like one of the reunion-era set lists, in that you get six songs from the current album, maybe a few hidden gems, then a grouping of obvious hits. Given that Seventh Son… is my favorite Maiden album, you won’t hear me complain about it being the focus of this package.

We get a good assortment of songs from Seventh Son… here. The singles are here, as well as Infinite Dreams, which would be a single released from this set. We also get the epic and amazing title track, which is a massive treat for a live performance and not one the band busts out all of the time given that now they have a billion epic-length songs to choose from.

We do get a couple of more out of the way songs from the earlier days here in The Prisoner, Die With Your Boots On and Still Life. The latter especially hasn’t been featured in too many other places. The Prisoner and Die With Your Boots On had a bit more representation in other live releases but it’s always nice to hear them again.

The prior album Somewhere In Time gets a bit of representation here, with the obvious single Wasted Years and then Heaven Can Wait, which gets a fair bit of live play. It’s a shame the album didn’t get a ton of play live before 2023 but stuff happens, I guess.

The other songs are a fair collection of the obvious songs Maiden would play live. Killers was a live staple in the early days, and the three encore songs are ones that aren’t getting cut at a Maiden gig. Well, one would, but we’ll get to that next week.

There is a glaring omission on this set – The Trooper was not played. It seems really weird that it got cut for this tour. The song was in the set for earlier tours the same year in other parts of the world, I don’t know why they chose to cut it here. I haven’t watched the documentary of this time period in many years so I don’t recall if it was brought up on there or not. But the song’s absence does stand out.

As for the sound quality – this is good, in parts very good and in others it feels maybe a bit “off.” I don’t know if the band was out of sync early or if the thing just wasn’t mixed entirely right but there is a bit of odd sounding stuff in the first few songs, this does seem to fade as the set goes on. This isn’t the band’s best sounding live album but it’s not unlistenable by any stretch. It doesn’t require being a superfan or a great deal of effort to get into, but it does sound a hair lesser than other live albums.

Talk of sound quality does require a look at the vinyl – the official vinyl release is on picture disc. Now, I’m not an audiophile by any means, but yes, there is surface noise on the vinyl of this that does pick up on playback. I think it’s even more noticeable here than other picture discs I’ve played where I’ve had very minimal noise. The CD and streaming offerings of this album do sound better.

Overall I do feel like this is a worthwhile live album. It does have a few faults but it’s a great set and it captures a tour from my favorite era of the band. It might be tough to call this one “essential” but I feel it’s worth it.

Next week it’s back to the reunion era as we’re nearing the end of the list here. It was Maiden’s first album in five years, Bruce’s return from a cancer scare, and an epic song was left off the set due to legal wrangling. All that and more in seven short days.

The Iron Maiden Live Album Series

Live After Death

A Real Live One

A Real Dead One

Live At Donington

Rock In Rio

BBC Archives

Beast Over Hammersmith

Death On The Road

Flight 666

En Vivo!

Maiden England ’88 (you are here)

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”

En Vivo! – The Iron Maiden Live Album Series

On By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Live Album Series18 Comments

Let’s get this first bit out of the way – En Vivo!, as it translates from Spanish, means “as it happens live.” I don’t actually know this myself as I don’t speak Spanish even though I took it for two years in school 100 years ago, but I’ll trust Wikipedia on this one. Google seems to confirm that it has something to do with “live,” so we’ll go with that.

And live is what we have, once again we are on to a reunion era album and its corresponding tour. The feature album this time is The Final Frontier, which was released in August of 2010. The studio album was pretty well received both commercially and critically, though it did “dip” a bit in perception and maybe was under the radar compared to other reunion albums. All of that is relative, of course, I can only speak to what I’ve witnessed over the years.

This album, which also received what is to date the last physical release of an equivalent video component, was released in March of 2012. This concert was recorded in Santiago, Chile in April of 2011. This is another case of a single, complete concert being released officially. While in the end that’s no huge deal, it is cool to have complete documents of shows.

This audio release did chart in many countries, though not all that high in most cases. The video release did chart extremely well. The song Blood Brothers was nominated in the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance category at the 2013 Grammy Awards, Halestorm was the winner of that one.

I’ll do the normal thing here – post the tracklist, then get into the nuts and bolts of it.

Satellite 15

The Final Frontier

El Dorado

2 Minutes To Midnight

The Talisman

Coming Home

Dance Of Death

The Trooper

The Wicker Man

Blood Brothers

When The Wild Wind Blows

The Evil That Men Do

Fear Of The Dark

Iron Maiden

The Number Of The Beast

Hallowed Be Thy Name

Running Free

So there’s not a whole lot to talk about in terms of song selection, we know by now what we’re getting with these reunion era live albums. It is several tracks from the new album, here we have a sprinkling of other reunion era cuts, and then a whole list of very obvious Maiden live inclusions.

We do get two songs from Brave New World as well as the excellent title track from Dance Of Death. Those are really nice songs to hear still included years later. The Wicker Man is one of the more recognizable and energetic songs from BNW, and Blood Brothers is a Maiden anthem at this point.

The real judgment of this album comes from the songs picked off of The Final Frontier, and on this the band hit a home run. I’d say every critical track is here – the singles like the title track and El Dorado, the quite underrated quasi-ballad Coming Home and two of the album’s epic cuts – The Talisman, and the nuclear war song Where The Wild Wind Blows. Some might quibble about El Dorado but I think everything here works.

Some might also vent over the inclusion of Satellite 15, which is an intro cut. The main issue people seem to have with the song is that it was placed on the studio album as one track along with the first proper song. Here is was a separate track and also different in form. I personally don’t care that much if bands do intro stuff and I simply have other things to care about, it doesn’t bother me.

I could pine for two songs that didn’t make the set – Isle Of Avalon and Starblind. The former might be a bit much to work with live as it is in contrast to the rest of the band’s material, but Starblind would have worked. It would have been super cool to have them but the band typically does about six off the recent album so this pretty well fits the mold.

The performances here all sound good, nothing is off or bad. It’s a good quality recording and probably wasn’t edited, it has a very “in the moment” feel. Maiden generally don’t edit their live stuff but have been known to do so a time or two, but this sounds pretty solid and untouched.

Maiden do again keep more to the songs’ original paces here, maybe sped up by a hair in some cases and honestly a bit slower in others. The band were getting long in the tooth entering the 2010’s and many wondered if the album title hinted at the band’s impending demise. Well, its 13 years since The Final Frontier released and no, Maiden certainly did not intend to quit in the 2010’s.

Overall En Vivo! Is a fine live package from Maiden. The main highlights are the inclusions from the album being featured on the tour. Those who aren’t necessarily out to get every Maiden live album would have to decide how much they want to hear live stuff from The Final Frontier to judge if this is worth a pick-up.

Next week we’ll go back in time for one final visit to the band’s golden 1980’s era and a deluxe offering of a set that showcased Maiden at the end of their peak, or at least their first peak..

The Iron Maiden Live Album Series

Live After Death

A Real Live One

A Real Dead One

Live At Donington

Rock In Rio

BBC Archives

Beast Over Hammersmith

Death On The Road

Flight 666

En Vivo! (you are here)

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”