(Two-Disc Set) (1985)
Sony Universal Music
DVD Release Date: February 5, 2008
Run Time: 240 minutes
Remember where you were in 1985? Maybe some of you weren’t even alive yet. To most who can remember the mid-80s, those were better times. Grunge hadn’t happened yet and it was a glorious time to be a head-banger. Guitars were blazing in flamboyant harmonies, thighs everywhere the eye could see wrapped in spandex, and you couldn’t always tell apart the guys and the girls from behind. Both decadent and glamorous, it was a great time to be young.
Iron Maiden’s Live After Death recording is one we all know well, I’d bet almost all metal fans know this recording by heart. I personally didn’t own a copy, yet while watching the newly released DVD it acted as a time capsule – a fist- flailing walk down memory lane. Available for the first time on DVD, the four-show stint at California’s Long Beach Arena offers up a full 90 minutes of Bruce Dickinson and company at the top of their rocking game.
Filmed on 35mm, the recording is crisp and vivid for footage as old as it is, and with two sound options available, the original stereo sound track and the original concert audio mixed into 5.1 Surround Sound, Maiden fans can enjoy this recording as they know it, or supped up thanks to modern technology.
The solid visual and audio quality bring to life the string of now-classic metal tunes — perhaps one of the best live-recordings of that era. The set list is as follows: “Churchill Speech/Aces High,” “2 Minutes to Midnight,” “The Trooper,” “Revelations,” “Flight of Icarus,” “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” “Powerslave,” “Number of the Beast,” “Hallowed Be Thy Name,” “Iron Maiden,” “Run to The Hills,” “Running Free,” and “Sanctuary.”
Early on in the show the outspoken Dickinson talks to the audience briefly about how contrary to the rumors, Iron Maiden is not satanic. “We wish these people would go fuck off and die or crawl into a corner or something.”
The energy of the band and audience alike is infectious; it’s nearly impossible to watch this concert while sitting still. We’ve enjoyed it for years on record and CD, now we can revel in it all over again thanks to DVD.
And as if rocking out with Maiden for an hour and a half wasn’t enough, then you can pop in Disc 2.
Kicking off with Part 2 of the ‘History of Iron Maiden’ documentary – a continuation of the band’s story from The Early Days DVD. Rare behind the scenes footage and interviews with the band and crew tell a warm story of a very powerful time in the history of one of the biggest metal bands in the world.
Also, never before seen footage from the Behind The Iron Curtain, Rock In Rio ’85, and ‘Ello Texas, not to mention tons of pictures and promotional clips. But hearing some of these stories of the band’s experiences in their glory days is a precious keepsake all in itself.
With a total of four hours of Maiden mayhem, metal fans will gleefully treasure this release for years to come.
