RUN TO THE HILLS 1985 LIVE

Iron Maiden tends to cash in on their gullible fans with special releases. Most of them are bordering to rip-offs. This has tarnished Iron Maiden's name in my view and was one of the reasons I cold shouldered them for plus minus ten years.

Iron Maiden released some EPs around the release of their first live album Live After Death. If a live album can be called a masterpiece, Live After Death is a masterpiece. Due to their or their record label's opposition to release it as a double CD, the CD buyers was given a pretty bad deal. The double LP and the double Cassette (I got the Cassette version) got the full monty while the CD version got one extra track (Sanctuary), but lost four songs if I am not wrong. The superb live version of Phantom Of The Opera was omitted from the CD, but included on this vinyl EP. Losfer Words was never included on the official Live After Death, but added on the 1995 version as a part of a half baked CD 2.

The full version of Live After Death was re-released on double CD in 1998 (with Sanctuary omitted) and the DVD last year together with two other VHS tapes restored on DVD. All of these versions is must have.

OK then, back to busines again and this now wastly inflated review of this vinyl EP (which is now also available on Cassette and CD). The songs here is excellent and some of the best they have ever done. Run To The Hills is one of the best Iron Maiden songs. Nuff said. I never liked the original version of Phantom Of The Opera due to Paul's pretty bad vocals. Bruce does this track much better and the result is a brilliant piece of prog rock. Losfer Words is excellent on Powerslave and really kicks off like ten wild horses on this album. A really good instrumental and as powerful as ten nuclear reactors. I have wasted too much time writing this review and you have wasted too much time on reading it. But this EP is the only excellent Iron Maiden EP out there. Forget the other ones. This is the one.

4 stars