Before I start this, I want to make it very clear that I have been an
IRON MAIDEN fan for as long as I can remember. This live album DOES NOT
do them justice. The band is either way off on a few songs with the
rhythms, or old Bruce can’t keep up with the band as he gasps for air.
The songs featured on this double live album are great, it’s an awesome
mix of some of their best material, but it would have been nice to have
“Rime of The Ancient Mariner” on here, or at least one song from
Somewhere In Time. Bruce just sounds bad on a lot of these songs, and
on top of that, the vocals are mixed so much louder than the rest of
the band on most of the album. Also, when the other band members do
backing vocals, and they all try to harmonize, Bruce is so off timing
that it makes the whole thing sound awkward. A band like Maiden should
have so many better recordings from many different nights of their
tour, why they picked some of these to put on this album baffles me. I
know they are capable of so much more, but this album really let me
down. I also didn’t like how right before the bridge solo of “Can I
Play With Madness” the AUDIENCE was mixed louder than the GUITARS!
I am left scratching my head. On a whole, it’s a good album,
the song selections are great, the band on a whole is great, the
performance of each individual member is really solid, but they seem to
have a hard time keeping it together at times, and Bruce is way off the
mark on this album. I hate to say all this because for the longest time
I didn’t think Maiden could put out a sub-par album, much less live!
How do you go wrong with songs you’ve already made famous!? Something
happened here, and I hope in the future they can get it back together
and put out a better live album, but until then, I’ll be appreciating
the studio versions of all these songs for the masterpieces that they
are and just hope the band chalks this up as a random accident.
