Produced by Kevin Shirley
Released: May 25
Most of Iron Maiden’s live albums since Live After Death have been hit and miss affairs and all of them feature pretty much the same songs, so the cynical might ask why they’ve deemed it necessary to release yet another one. Of course, Maiden isn’t a band to let a marketing opportunity pass them by, so the soundtrack album to the Flight 666 documentary was always going to be on the cards. At 101 minutes, it’s far shorter than the bloated Rock in Rio set, clocking in at almost the same time as their legendary 1985 document.
Yes, this has the same old standards all the others do (“Number”, “Hills”, “Hallowed”, “Iron Maiden”, “The Trooper”), but also a ton of others that haven’t been featured live in a long time: “Moonchild” and the glorious “Revelations” among them. Each song was recorded in a different city, but to be honest it’s difficult to tell. Anyone who saw the film or actually went to one of the shows on the tour would testify that Iron Maiden were absolutely on fire every night they played, so it could just as easily have been culled from one or two performances. The sound is amazing, possibly the best of any of the band’s live recordings, flawlessly capturing the seemingly unlimited energy of a concert behemoth that few if any of the bands their age can match. Bruce Dickinson struggles to find his range here and there, especially in “Aces High” where he sounds just terrible, and he even defers to Adrian Smith a few times, but it’s otherwise hard to fault this.
Being more or less a modern re-imagining of the classic Live After Death it’s perhaps fitting that it’s almost as good, surpassing all the others that have come in between.
Released: May 25
Most of Iron Maiden’s live albums since Live After Death have been hit and miss affairs and all of them feature pretty much the same songs, so the cynical might ask why they’ve deemed it necessary to release yet another one. Of course, Maiden isn’t a band to let a marketing opportunity pass them by, so the soundtrack album to the Flight 666 documentary was always going to be on the cards. At 101 minutes, it’s far shorter than the bloated Rock in Rio set, clocking in at almost the same time as their legendary 1985 document.
Yes, this has the same old standards all the others do (“Number”, “Hills”, “Hallowed”, “Iron Maiden”, “The Trooper”), but also a ton of others that haven’t been featured live in a long time: “Moonchild” and the glorious “Revelations” among them. Each song was recorded in a different city, but to be honest it’s difficult to tell. Anyone who saw the film or actually went to one of the shows on the tour would testify that Iron Maiden were absolutely on fire every night they played, so it could just as easily have been culled from one or two performances. The sound is amazing, possibly the best of any of the band’s live recordings, flawlessly capturing the seemingly unlimited energy of a concert behemoth that few if any of the bands their age can match. Bruce Dickinson struggles to find his range here and there, especially in “Aces High” where he sounds just terrible, and he even defers to Adrian Smith a few times, but it’s otherwise hard to fault this.
Being more or less a modern re-imagining of the classic Live After Death it’s perhaps fitting that it’s almost as good, surpassing all the others that have come in between.
- Aces High
- 2 Minutes to Midnight
- Revelations
- The Trooper
- Wasted Years
- The Number of the Beast
- Can I Play With Madness?
- Rime of the Ancient Mariner
- Powerslave
- Heaven Can Wait
- Run to the Hills
- Fear of the Dark
- Iron Maiden
- Moonchild
- The Clairvoyant
- Hallowed be Thy Name
Rating: 85%
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