THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST

Not used to Iron Maiden material, but famous enough to have heard the "hits" of this album over and over again, I can compare both albums. Not a fan of the Maidens, but very respectful of their influence and trademark sound, I find a logical move for Dream Theater to pay tribute to one of their loved bands. The result is very good, really.

This is a bootleg, so, the quality of sound is a little down, but the intensity of the crowd and the raw sound that is needed when you play thrash metal, the performance is everything the metalheads could possible want of a live concert. So, we found very well known songs singed by both Labrie and the audience with intensity, Labrie overreacted in some places, tending to scream when he could be better to actually sing, but the result remains good, and good enough to enjoy, even if you are not an Iron Maiden fan, like me.

Nothing to say about Portnoy, Petrucci and Myung, who are at the level of playing this particular album without too many worries, they are the best players to take the challenge and succeed. They played great, accurate and made a great tribute. Special mention goes to Jordan Rudess, who have to evolve a lot to make his synths and keyboards to sound good, almost like a heavy metal guitar. He did a great job. James Labrie, as I said above, did a good performance but in some places he really mess up with screams but, is usual for him to be a little over the edge in live performances, and this was during their Tour of Thoughts in 2003, so, he wasn't at the top of form back then. Oh, I almost forgot, you actually can hear John Myung, for all of those people who complain he is always too low in the mix, here's your chance to hear him.

On in on, this a performance to enjoy if you are fan of both bands. I even suggest this particular album to any single metalhead or prog metalhead. You will enjoy with the best Prog Metal band playing one of the most classic Metal albums. THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST and RUN THROUGH THE HILLS worth the try alone. So, now you know. 4 stars is fair.