Up the Irons! So today I'm covering another live Maiden album. This one is Live after Death. It is loud angry and explosive but lacks the same power and production quality as Rock in Rio. Overall this is a spectacular album that blows the roof off. It is loud aggressive and shows off all the might of Iron Maiden. There is the traditional speech at the start and then it breaks into a crashing rendition of Aces High which has all the skill of the album version. While it lacks the same feel of jumping up and down with the others as there is at Rock in Rio this is still a really cool album that goes down as a great live album. The songs are a cross section of everything Maiden had done up to that point. What is interesting is how there are the classic songs we all know and love that were not classic yet at that time. It is rather ironic.
The music is pretty good and very accurate to the albums. Murray and Smith have amazing memories. I can barely even learn 1 Maiden song much less all of them. This album is just amazing, it features a great Maiden line-up at a high point during their career. Everything on this album is hard, there are no quiet or somber moments unless the song demands it. The album is very driven and it is hard to stop listening to it, it has a certain amazing majesty. They have all of their best solos on this album and you just have to grin as you listen to it. Its really just a heavy metal explosion of power and dominance.
The music is very accurate to the studio versions of the songs and that is a very good thing. The only issue with this album is the lack of production quality. Some bits sound really weird and messedd up especially in songs like “The Trooper” and “Aces High” on other tracks the production is better but overall the production leaves something to be desired. The music is so masterful though that this is pretty well overcome. The track Flight of Icarus sounds almost exactly like the album save for the screaming of the crowd. The other majorly weird bit is the backing vocals. Harris and Smith who both usually have great voices sound oddly deep.
Overall this is a really good album that features a lot of the best Maiden songs up to that point. I really like this album and it is truly a heavy live album. While lacking some of the majesty of Rock in Rio it is still really powerful and shows a lot of technical skill and memorization. Everything is powerful and while the crowd does not scream along you still can get the vibe of jumping up and down with the crowd and making the sign of the horns as Dickinson sings the Number of the Beast. I love this album and it is definitely worth a listen especially if you want to hear what maiden sounded like in the relatively early days. The only thing taking this album down is production quality but the music is so good that it still is amazing. Seriously you should go listen to it, right now, it rocks really really amazingly hard.
OVERALL 9/10
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