LIVE AFTER DEATH

Last Wednesday, while working at my client's office, out of the blue I was very keen to play "Flight of Icarus" by Iron Maiden. The song is very special to me because the first time I heard this song from M97 FM Classic Rock Station in Jakarta sometime in 2000 (I think) was my first introduction to the band. I phoned the radio station number asked what song they were playing and what title. Once I knew it as a song from "Piece of Mind" album by Iron Maiden, I searched the CD right away. Since then I purchased all albums of Iron Maiden because the music fits my taste. Well, during 80s I practically only listened to Marillion and any other neo prog bands, and no drive at all to collect hard rock music like Iron Maiden.

Right after I played "Flight of Icarus" MP3 sent by my friends in i-Rock! mailing list (because I did not have it at my laptop), I suddenly wanted to listen to the live version. I only got a chance to spin the CD of "Live After Death" this morning and I enjoyed it very much. The root of Iron Maiden, in my humblest opinion, is Black Sabbath. The only difference is on the use of power chords which are not demonstrated clearly here at Iron Maiden. However, bass lines delivered by Steve Harris is so obvious and rarely happened in Black Sabbath's music - so, I think, the two are different even though I can say that there are many similarities of Iron Maiden's music with Black Sabbath. Even though I'm not a big fan of Iron Maiden, but I like most of their albums especially "Brave New World" album.

This live CD is excellent for me, knowing the fact that the producer is Martin "Live Animals" Birch who also produced the legendary Deep Purple "Made in Japan" back in 1972. The Birch factor does contribute a lot to position this album into my mind because I do like how he treated this record how he tells the whole story of "the making of" this live record from Iron Maiden's 1984/1985 tour.

Let me tell you why this live album is excellent .

Excellent Package. Well, the CD is not packaged in deluxe edition or pecial edition whatsoever but .. I do love comprehensive information presented by the package. It contains sleeve notes opened beautifully by Martin Birch on what, how and why the concerts were all about. He talks everything in his areas of competence even on the state of the art mobile studio he was using during the recording session. It's so exciting when I read his opening write up. He even talks about something that I do not understand but I like they way he writes it. For example, when he talks about API Custom Board . oh, what is this? I have no single idea at all about this stuff. But he writes it so compelling as I understand it.

The sleeve also contains full concert photographs. The pictures of the show sound familiar to me because I have the laser disc version of "Live After Death". What is really interesting is when there is information about tour statistics: "The first concert was in Warsaw, Poland, on August 9th 1984, and continued through 24 countries for 322 days. During this period, we traveled nearly 100,000 miles, used 7,778 hotel rooms, 6,392 guitar strings, 3,760 drum sticks, 3,008 guitar picks, and consumed about 50,000 cans of beer, 30,000 soft drinks, 6,000 pints of milk, 2,500 pints of orange juice and literally tons of food." Were the figures right? I don't really care but I like they put such detailed statistics.

Excellent Songs, Excellent Performance!. The selection of songs is truly good where all the band's masterpieces being performed at their best, I think. The album starts with Churchill's Speech followed brilliantly with "Aces High" with full blast of music in relatively fast tempo. Bruce Dickinson voice is very clear and transparent. It runs through seamlessly to "2 Minutes to Midnight" and then the song with powerful riffs which has become favorite of metalheads ."The Trooper". My favorite "Flight of Icarus" is also performed with good live vibes. And of course. the chorus line is so memorable ."Fly on your way, like an eagle. Fly as high as the sun, on your way, like an eagle. Fly and touch the sun.". Wow! What a great music segment this one is!

Disc 2 also contains excellent tracks plus video (enhanced CD). There are five excellent songs presented at disc 2 and all of them are performed excellently.

Overall, this is an excellent rock live album that I have known so far. The selection of songs is top notch. The performance and sonic quality are excellent as well.

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW