Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Iron Maiden
Label: EMI Records
Release: 2002
Rating: 2.5/5
“Live After Death” was spruced up. Only the best bits of the four-night run in Long Beach were picked and stitched together. “Live At Donnington” too. The real “The Evil That Man Do”, for example, Dickinson totally botched in the first chorus of the Donington show, which of course you can’t hear on the original, but you can on one of the Italian bootlegs (Bruce, you didn’t get away with it). “Real Live And Death One” was a proper S. Harris puzzle, as B. Dickinson said in one of his recent interviews, since Steve supposedly took the guitars from that production and, say, slapped on drums from a completely different show, the one where he thought they were played best, and allowed himself plenty of similarly deceptive shuffling along the way. For the first time ever on an official live release from the band, the guys steered clear of any cosmetic touch-ups during production, so we get to enjoy the real Iron Maiden. The sound is flat-out fantastic, which means the guys really put in the effort.
The best rhythm section of the eighties, and for many still today, the McBrain/Harris tandem, confirmed it once again. Nicko literally jazzed his way through the entire show, and you can rarely catch him playing the same fill twice in a row. The whole production by Kevin “Caveman” Shirley is very similar to the one on “Live After Death”. Why? The hammering on the pickups of the always-open bass strings (which sometimes really grates on Iron Maiden live recordings from the nineties) doesn’t stick out as much anymore. And finally they found the right PA for Bruce too, and his vocals sound almost identical to those from Iron Maiden’s golden age in the eighties.
To my taste, the record has the best live version of “The Evil That Man Do” so far, and the steely “The Trooper”, “Hallowed Be Thy Name” and “Run To The Hills”, played with filigree precision, come out brilliantly too. The “Rock In Rio” festival drew 250000 wild fans who literally drown Bruce out a few times (the “Run To The Hills” chorus, for example) and go berserk at Dickinson’s familiar stage gestures. One of the biggest treats on this live recording is definitely “Sign Of The Cross”. Of course, the faster parts of the song are played even faster, not to mention Nicko “venting” on the drums.
The only minus on the record is the setlist. Out of 19 songs in total, a full six are from “Brave New World”. Meaning that, for those tracks not to somehow “get lost” in the show, the Maidens would have had to play at least 25 of them live. But it’s too late to lock the barn door now. So we get the millionth-heard version of “Wrathchild”, “The Number Of The Beast, “Two Minutes To Midnight”, “Fear Of The Dark”. Considering that on the “Ed Hunter” tour the Maidens played “Aces High”, “Phantom Of The Opera”, “Killers”, “Powerslave” or “Wasted Years”, I’m sorry to say that listening to the new live Iron Maiden record leaves me unsatisfied, again and again.
Lineup
Bruce Dickinson – vocals
Adrian Smith – guitar
Dave Murray – guitar
Janick Gers – guitar
Steve Harris – bass guitar
Nicko McBrain – drums
Production
Kevin Shirley
Tracklist
CD 1.:
1. Intro
2. The Wicker Man
3. Ghost of the Navigator
4. Brave New World
5. Wrathchild
6. 2 Minutes to Midnight
7. Blood Brothers
8. Sign of the Cross
9. The Mercenary
10. Trooper
11. Brave New World (enhanced video)
CD 2.:
1. Dream of Mirrors
2. The Clansman
3. The Evil That Men Do
4. Fear of the Dark
5. Iron Maiden
6. The Number of the Beast
7. Hallowed be Thy Name
8. Sanctuary
9. Run to the Hills
10. A Day in the Life (enhanced video)
