Disco de Iron Maiden: “Rock in Rio”

Wow. Imagine being part of the crowd during Iron Maiden's stop to Rio de Janerio for their Brave New World tour. Just think being part of 250,000 screaming brazilians who know every word to every song that Iron Maiden perform. Also imagine Iron Maiden's best live album released since Live After Death. Finally, imagine Bruce Dickinson, the voice of Iron Maiden, back with the band to stay!

Maiden get things going with a bang with the opener, The Wickerman. They continue on with Ghost of the Navigator and Brave New World. The song 2 Minutes to Midnight is breathtaking, along with the song, Blood Brothers. Two of my favorite tracks come from...yes...songs from the two Blaze albums he did with Iron Maiden - The Sign of the Cross and The Clansman. Even though Bruce did not write the material, he performs them with so much emotion and passion. The Evil that Men Do and Fear of the Dark sound equally good. The songs Number of the Beast, Hallowed be thy Name, and Run to the Hills caps off a brilliant live show.

Iron Maiden are my favorite band of all time. This live album is just as good as Live After Death and a great compliment to anyone's metal collection. Maiden continues to make incredible music with their Dance of Death release last year. I was able to see them perform in Los Angeles, CA for their American leg of that tour. It was a beautiful experience. Please buy this album, along with Live After Death!! These are ESSENTIAL to own for Maiden fans! This is NOT to be missed! Purchase the live DVD!!

First off I still dont get why so many people dislike Gers. Sure he is a much different kind of guitar player then Adrian, but that doesnt mean he ruined the sound and is a bad guitarist. I think one main problem people have with Gers is that he is very jumpy on stage, which can lead to some fair cheesyness I suppose, but that doesnt mean he needs to be kicked out, trust me Gers is what get the crowds going, compared to Smith especially.Myself, have been playing guitar for 15 years now, and Gers is one of my main influences, why? Well because nobody in the world sounds like him, he has the most rawest sound ever for a metal guitarist, and he is a mix of both Murray and Adrian together. He dreads the guitar fast and relentless like murray, then plays very smooth with a melodic style like smith. Most people I know find it hard to believe that Jannick would ever play a nice textured solo because of how wild he is, but its true, he does. Alot of people also say Gers lacks melody, please!! Maiden have had much more melody then ever when Gers came in the project, just listen to the songs off here: Ghost of the Navigator-a very complex song, opens real melodic, then the jamming comes in place fast. Then gers's solo on this song? Huh? A horrible guitarist, not a very good guitarist? Listen to the solo again, and you tell me this guy isnt a good guitarist, and that is just one example of one of the songs songs off this album, like Dream of Mirrors which is perhaps the most complex maiden song ever aside from Sign of the cross. No offense to Smith, but he could only dream to be able to play guitar solos so fast and raw with the bridge like Gers, and dont think I am an adrian hater, I love him about as much as gers, I think I feel more love for gers's playing since he is always criticized.This album is unique, Maiden havent gone in a new direction and will never be in a new direction, so they added some more melody over the years, and started out slower on most of their songs, big deal!! That doesnt mean maiden are soft, in a new direction, or too old. It just means they made their music more complex then before in the 80's. Also why do people think the band is keeping gers if he is such a horrid guitarist? Come on, if gers was such a bad guitarist then he wouldnt be with maiden now would he?

The first person to leave the band if it came to it would be smith, since he was lucky to being able to rejoin the band in the first place, of course I hope that never happens either. Gers might change some of his solo work around live, but that is ok, his solos are very complex to play, trust me. Try playing Ghost of the Navigator, The clansman, or any other song with his solos, tell me these arent complex solos. I also think one reason why gers is also to have said to be out of tune, flat, or lack of melody, is because he has a very raw sound. That doesnt mean he is in any of those errors, like I said he just has a raw sound, and it is very unique, some metal heads will have to just get into it more, while others should just fall in love with it instantly. Maybe if gers would be a little more calmer when playing on stage, then maybe he wouldnt be criticized by most people, however I dont mind it, he does what he does, and best too, and like smith said about gers on a practice guitar vid I saw, when he was describing the differences of Murray's playing as well as Gers, " Gers isnt afraid to play the guitar and plays the hell out of it, the way it should be played"

Jannick haters please give him more of a chance. UP THE IRONS!!

Wow, it is great to have Bruce back in the band. The Blaze Bayley albums (X-Factor and Virtual Xi) were somewhat depressing, although in my opinion, still a step up from "Fear of the Dark" and "No Prayer for the Dying." With Bruce and Adrian rejoining the band, the band is capable of playing at a more genuine, vintage pace and timbre. "Rock in Rio" is a return, to some degree, of the olden days (though this album is a far cry from "Live After Death").

On the plus side, it is a treat to hear Bruce singing the Bayley songs "Clansman" and "Sign of the Cross." Both are played exceptionally well and Bruce actually adds to the songs what Bayley lacked. In fact, even the crowd makes "The Clansman" much more entertaining -- you can almost picture William Wallace with his sword aloft as he charges the field of Bannockburn yelling "Freedom!!!" Gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.

On the down side, IM doesn't need a third guitarist. Why are they still clinging to Jannick Gers? From a guitar-player's standpoint, he tremolo picks every solo (that is, he picks the string as fast as he can, whether it's in time with the song or not), and his fret-work is sloppy. Is he drunk in concert? He doesn't have this problem on the studio albums, and the songs that he writes are decent. When he plays live, he stinks. His on-stage antics are unbearable. I laughed out loud when I saw him strumming his guitar windmill-style during "2 Minutes to Midnight" on the DVD version of this album. Janick, leave the windmilling to Pete Townsend! And if you think about it, he looks and acts a lot like Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple) did while playing live. The guitar-spinning, hoisting, knelt-down poses and wannabe 80s hair-band style of guitar playing is CHEESY! Janick is a good guitarist (although Murray and Smith are better, IMO)---he should just stick to playing guitar and stop the show-boating. It's embarrassing.

Another point -- if you've got Adrian Smith back, then play some of his stuff! We haven't heard "Stranger in a Strange Land" (one of his best compositions) in nearly 20 years, and "Wasted Years" (a crowd favorite) is all but gone. "Infinite Dreams" was another great song that featured Adrian that is played no more. This was understandable while Smith was gone. But now that he's back, they need to exploit his abilities like the used to.

Another problem (to me) is the crowd. Sometimes, as I stated above for the song "The Clansman," they are helpful, but most of the time they are too loud and quite often they come across as annoying. I know IM's biggest fan base is in Brazil, but sometimes they sing along with the guitar melody ("The Evil that Men Do" for instance) or sing over and on top of Bruce (most songs) at very high volume. I don't blame the crowd per se, but perhaps I blame the sound mixing. Either way, it does get in the way of the music, so if you're new to IM, you may want to pick up the studio releases to supplement this CD so that you can understand better what is being played/sung.

My biggest hang-up, as a bassist myself, is Steve Harris' (lack of) presence on this album. I have to strain in order to hear his bass-playing, which shouldn't be the case with IM. He just sounds quiet to me, whereas even in the studio recording of "Brave New World," (from which the majority of the songs on this CD were chosen) Steve's presence is unmistakable.

All in all, this is a pretty good set of songs (even the vintage "Sanctuary" makes a come-back!) and it is played well. I would pick it up, along with "Live After Death" as essential live recordings of IM.

If "Brave New World" wasn't a good enough indication that Maiden is back with a vengeance, I cannot think of a better one than this. I'm sure there will be plenty of argument as to whether or not this album is as good as "Live after Death", so you know what? I'm not even going to discuss it. One thing for sure is that this is certainly their best live album since that one.

What we have here is nearly two hours of excellent live metal. The new album, "Brave New World", is well-represented, with 6 of its 10 songs on here, done to perfection. Many of the old favorites can be found here as well, such as "The Trooper", "Hallowed Be Thy Name", and "The Number of the Beast", and they're as great as ever. Heck, even the Blayze Bailey songs sound great. But really, the only bad thing about them was Blayze, anyway. Hearing Bruce sing "The Clansman" is just awesome. You can just see William Wallace charging across the field, can't you? "Sign of the Cross" is well-made, but that instrumental section is just way too long. Yep, an awesome live album. However, there is one problem. There is NOTHING from "Somewhere in Time" on here! Not one song! How could they not include "Wasted Years", or "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner"? I was really disappointed about that, but oh well.

Everything that actually is here is perfect. The musicians all play very tight, and Bruce further solidifies his position as one of the top metal vocalists. The crowd is very lively, and you can tell they're having a great time (why are foreign audiences so much more enthusiastic than American ones? What's the matter with us?). And, once again, we have Bruce screaming "Scream for me, Brazil!". Yep, you've heard that before.

This is just what I needed. The best album to come out this year, and one of the best live albums period. I'm sure Megadeth's live album is a good one too, but there's just no comparing it to this. Now all we need is a new studio album.

Up the Irons!!!

Tremendous. Dickinson is well north of forty at this point, and gives the absolute best vocal performance I've ever heard. I have 10 live Iron Maiden recordings, spanning more or less their entire existence, and this one may well be peak. Bruce holds every note cleanly and in its entirety in songs like Run to the Hills, which is frequently not well represented at live shows.

In addition, the crowd is absolutely electric, able to be heard nigh as loud as the group during play. I've never heard a more appreciative or enthusiastic audience. It literally gave me goosebumps to hear 150,000 plus letting fly with "TO MIDNIGHT!" Fear of the Dark, often a fantastic live piece, is done justice beyond precedent, with Dickinson working the crowd perfectly and at the most opportune times. There really is a sense that this band has been manipulating audiences for over twenty years; I've never seen or heard it done better.

However, the only drawback is a proliferation of newer tracks, disappointing to those looking forward to hearing songs like "Heaven can Wait" and "Wasted Years." You will feel this show in your bones, the hair on your neck will stand up, you'll feel electricity radiate from your pores when this enormous, frenzied mass screams every last lyric of Maiden's absolute best. Enjoy!