Iron Maiden Album: “Live After Death [Expanded]”

"Live After Death," for any lover of heavy metal, is a necessity, along with live recordings such as Ozzy's "Tribute" and Zeppelin's BBC recordings. This is where the spandex 80s metal reached its high-point for British rock/metal. The album is wonderfully mixed and recorded. The remastered version is a step up from the original as well, and the songs are even spliced in different places for the remaster (the older cut did not include Bruce Dickinson's chatter before each song but rather at the back end of the previous song; also, on the older version, Churchill's speech was lumped in with "Aces High" but now it's a separate track). On the older versions, one only received the tracks up until "Running Free," but the double-CD remaster is faithful to the old vinyl and cassette versions of the album which include the final 5 tracks or so. Some reviewers are upset about Dickinson's ability to sing the older Di'Anno songs, but I wound up hearing this album before the old Di'Anno albums and frankly I like Bruce's vocals a bit more. Di'Anno sounds almost like a punk rock singer than he does a metal singer.

All in all, this set is necessary for any lover of metal. Maiden fans all across the board rave this album with little to no variation. Enjoy!

It doesn't get much better than this. LIVE AFTER DEATH is without a doubt, the best Iron Maiden live album. It comes to us from the POWERSLAVE tour, and is comprised of a nice selection of tracks from the first five Maiden records. My only complaint is they only have one track from KILLERS - 'Wrathchild' - I would have at least like to have seen the song, 'Killers' as well.

The more popular songs don't need much explanation here, except to note there is a great sing-along section in the middle of 'Running Free' where Bruce tells the crowd that he wants the crowd to sing so loud he wants to be able to go back to the hearing doctor in London and say, "Doctor, Long Beach f***ed up my hearing for good." Hilarious.

The best parts of this release are the songs we don't hear on any other live Maiden albums. Those would be 'Powerslave,' 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner,' 'Wrathchild,' 'Aces High,' 'Revelations,' 'Flight of Icarus,' '22 Acacia Avenue,' 'Children of the Damned,' 'Phantom of the Opera,' and 'Die With Your Boots On.' You can actually see them perform some of those songs on the MAIDEN ENGLAND home video, but they never appeared on any of the other four live maiden albums.

This is also a great introduction for anyone new to this band. It's a great live performance of Maiden songs from 1980-1984, plus you get to hear Paul DiAnno songs with Bruce on vocals.

This is, without a doubt, Iron Maiden at their peak. The recording is great and the song selection is excellent, too, although the setlist is heavy with tracks from Maiden's three albums prior to this one (Number of the Beast, Piece Of Mind, and Powerslave) and pretty light on the ones before that (only 3 songs from the debut album and one from Killers). Still, the performances are awesome, and its cool to hear songs that they probably haven't performed live in years, like Revelations, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and Powerslave. Anyone who has the original Capital Records version of this disc and is still a fan of it is best replacing that version with this, since that version contains only the first disc of this 2 disc set, so you're missing out on more great tunes like Phantom of the Opera and Wrathchild (which were on the original vinyl and cassette versions of Live After Death; I can't imagine why Capital left them off the CD). Iron Maiden was never better than this. The next couple of releases that followed were pretty good, but the band started to slide once guitarist Adrian Smith left, and they really fell off once vocalist Bruce Dickinson departed. The line up changes, combined with changing tastes and styles in the metal community really left the band hurting. Still, you can't disregard the quality of this album. A must for any Maiden fan and any fan of early eighties metal before thrash and glam took over and split up the scene.

Like many reviewers have already stated, this is without a doubt, one of, if not, THE best live metal album ever. This live album chronicles Maiden at their absolute peak during the World Slavery Tour. Even if you try, it is hard to find a weak spot in this album.

To start off, the musicianship is superb. Nicko does an excellent job on the drums. Steve is phenominal as always, and both guitars are clearly seperable, but yet work together very nicely. Bruce gives a good performance, although it falls a little short of his performance at Rio de Janeiro (Rock in Rio).

There are some songs that actually sound better live than their studio version. Just to name a few songs that sound better live: 2 Minutes to Midnight, Flight of Icarus, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Running Free, and Children of the Damned. Of course, some songs suffer a little bit, but keep in mind its live.

This album surpasses the two live albums released by Maiden in the early 90's by a large margin, and beats the excellent Rock in Rio not by a whole lot. If you are a Maiden fan, you need this ASAP, and if you are a casual fan you should also buy this excellent live album.

In the early eigthies, while most of America listen to dumb radio songs, a metal band from East London, England, quietly began its rise to glory. That rise resulted in an apex known as "The Worldslavery Tour" of 1984. Along time ago, but classics always withstand the test of time much like Beethoven is still heard, and appreciated today, five hundred years after his time. This album not only presents some of Maiden's best songs ever - their live versions are well preserve here. They are mainly taken from a four-night stint at the Long Beach Arena which Maiden became the first recording artist to sell out four consecutive nights1 An amazing accomplishment since they had no media attention, no radio air play, no true MTV support (thank God!), and did not fit the mold of a major band by the standards of the press. So they were ignored, and to this day they are mainly forgotten in this country. Fans here are goo-goo for the new sound of Metallica which they think brings new stuff to the front, but in reality Maiden has been doing it, and playing it since their club days at the Ruskin Arms (a place that has been made the spiritual representation of the NWOBHM as Maiden's legend has grown). More importantly they've been doing it with much more originality and heaviness than any current Metallica release. Songs like "Powerslave" and the epic "The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" showcase the then line-up's ability to change tempos, play smooth rythmn sections, imaginative guitar playing, and above all, a lead singer with singing ability! These are not your run-of-the-muck metal cohorts. This is the band that has delivered musical quality for years. Sticking to their promise of giving their fans value for money. And indeed, you get lots of value here. The songs average a running time of at least five minutes, and "The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" is a whopping thirteen minute opus. Now there is a sure sign of willingness! Willing to push the envelope to go where few fear to tread. On the ECD there are added bonus tracks on a second disc which include "Children of the Damn", "Phantom of the Opera", "22 Acacia Avenue", "Wrathchild", and "Die with your boots on". These only add to the fine experienced already provided with the re-released titled that also icludes a different live verison of "Running Free" not available on the original release. In this version Bruce, the frontman, has a little shouting contest with the crowd which is what playing live is really all about. An interaction with the fans preserved here for all etenity or until some nuke falls from the sky on top of our heads! If you seek music to a higher standard, this album is a definite for you. The rich textures of each song will become very apparent and you'll be asking yourself "This band is from the eighties?". After Sabbbath, this is the next signifiacant band in metal history. The rythmn sections: melodic and heavy at the same time - what Metallica is trying to accomplish, but really have become a band that sounds like any other band. This is the sound they are after. This is the complete package of metal music. If there's talent, there's an ocean of it here!!