Forostar
Ancient Mariner
Re: Ullevi sound.
I think I prefer the sound of that other festival. Rock am Ring. Would need to compare again to be sure.
The MAIDEN Years: 2018/19/20/21/22/ad infinitum (Rock in Rio and Nights of the Dead)
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I think I prefer the sound of that other festival. Rock am Ring. Would need to compare again to be sure.
Spaldy
Ancient Mariner
Common issue with live broadcasts tbh. Someone forgets to switch on the mic for a few seconds or whatever.
Vaenyr
Ancient Mariner
Interesting, gotta find that then.
Unfortunately yes. The Argentina 2001 bootleg (where The Fallen Angel and Out Of The Silent Planet were played) has a similar issue. Bruce's mic is severely malfunctioning on OOTSP, which is an absolute shame.
Whooten
Ancient Mariner
I am constantly surprised that Face in the Sand is not more well-liked. I find it to be one of the greatest reunion era songs and much better than Dance of Death and certainly Paschendale--the latter I find to be very disjointed and jarring--easily my favorite on the album.
As for the Early Days sets, Another Life is a true WTF moment and possibly the most surprising track ever in a live set. Killers would have been the obvious choice there and Purgatory would have been a nice choice as well, but Another Life?!?!? I agree that Still Life and To Tame a Land would have been great in the setlist--especially TTAL given the relative lack of epics in the set. Those are probably top two on my wishlist of songs to see live.
As for the Early Days sets, Another Life is a true WTF moment and possibly the most surprising track ever in a live set. Killers would have been the obvious choice there and Purgatory would have been a nice choice as well, but Another Life?!?!? I agree that Still Life and To Tame a Land would have been great in the setlist--especially TTAL given the relative lack of epics in the set. Those are probably top two on my wishlist of songs to see live.
Forostar
Ancient Mariner
Face in the Sand has a very captivating, brooding intro. The problem of this song I find the last couple of minutes in which certain parts are repeated too often. The total result I find too monotonous to be a great song, really. And the who ho hoo bit is the worst this band ever did.
Far, far from great, in spite of the original music. A bottom three song of the album.
A Matter of Life and Death
Brave New World was a triumph that showed Maiden could still write great material, Dance of Death showed they were still capable of new things, but A Matter of Life and Death is the most focused (and the best) of the three. This is also the heaviest and proggiest album they had made up until that point. It’s as if they were so pleased with Paschendale that they decided to make an entire album of that type of song.
A Matter of Life and Death is the first time in the reunion era where it feels like a full album experience again, the way the 80s albums feel. The previous two albums were collections of (mostly) great songs, but there didn’t really seem to be a lot of attention to flow or how the songs fit together, especially toward the back half. Both albums also have what feels like quite a bit of filler. On AMOLAD, it feels like more attention is being paid to sequencing and how the songs fit together (I think this contributes a lot to their decision to play all of it live). While every album since Fear of the Dark was double vinyl length, this is the first one that actually flows like a double album. There’s a lot of dynamic movement in the first six songs culminating with Out of the Shadows, which feels like a sort of interlude piece. Then you have the most challenging, dark, and epic material on the back half. Not a single song on here feels like filler. I know The Pilgrim and Different World tend to be the less popular tunes, but they both serve important purposes on the album. Different World is an introductory tune, both figuratively and literally telling the audience that we’re in for something a bit different and a bit deeper than the average Maiden album. The Pilgrim is a much needed moment of brevity in between two pretty heavy war epics. It’s also extremely melodic, I love the little guitar interludes after the choruses.
Then you have the thematic nature of the album. Not exactly a concept album, but probably the closest we’re going to get to one with Maiden. There’s not just a clear lyrical thread running through the songs themes, but the music seems to match that too. The riffing is heavier than what we’ve come to expect with Maiden, there’s a lot more use of odd time signatures and chords outside the typical power chord structure. The guitar solos feel a little more composed. The sound is raw, this feels like the album where they most leaned into the “live in studio” thing. It’s extremely unpolished but it fits the material. I also think this album doesn’t get enough credit for some of its sonic depth. Take the layering of guitars in Out of the Shadows or the trippy sound of Lord of Light. It’s not like they were just putting this stuff to tape and releasing it dry, it’s a pretty immersive and atmospheric album. More so than Brave New World or Dance of Death, I would argue.
Smith and Dickinson are clearly becoming more prominent as writers here. Where Murray had multiple writing credits since the 90s, this is the first time in a while where his input is confined to one song. Gers also becomes much less prominent as a writer after a long time being, in many ways, the main guitarist from a songwriting perspective. I don’t actually consider this a bad thing. Having their input concentrated to one or two songs actually made those songs a lot stronger as a result. Gers, for example, had several misses on the previous two albums. But on AMOLAD, The Legacy is a really incredible piece of work. The Pilgrim is good for what it is. The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg is one of the most interesting things Murray has ever contributed to Maiden. Adrian Smith was clearly on a creative kick during this time, so I appreciate that the band gave him a lot of room to flourish on this album (as well as the next one). You also have Harris’ stamp on every song, which definitely shows. Again, it helps give the album a unified feel. The level of focus on this album is unusual for Maiden.
The three guitarist thing is in full force on this album. Each guitarist really settles into their own sound on this album. They each have very distinct tones, very distinct playing styles, and I feel like each player is used to the best of their abilities in a given part. There had never been a song before where Adrian and Janick are the two soloists, but on Brighter Than a Thousand Suns it makes the most sense to give Adrian the epic melodic solo and Janick the more chaotic fast paced solo. In Out of the Shadows, Dave Murray plays the tasty bluesy fills but when it’s time for the main solo, Adrian comes in with something quite different. Then you have the awesome three guitar attack in For the Greater Good of God. This still might be my favorite Maiden album in terms of the guitar work. It’s perfect.
The best thing about AMOLAD is that it perfectly skirts the line between concept album and just a regular collection of great songs. Usually a concept album’s greatest downfall is that there is about half an album’s worth of material that just isn’t interesting to listen to out of context. On AMOLAD, each song stands on its own and works in context of the album. In fact, this is the first time since the 80s where it doesn’t feel like there’s any filler. There are for sure songs that I don’t like as much, but I understand their purpose on the album and I still enjoy listening to them.
AMOLAD is the reason I still get excited about Maiden’s new music. BNW and Dance of Death were both good (BNW being great even), but AMOLAD is the first time where they are making material that truly competes with their best stuff from the 80s. It set a precedent that whether it’s the 14th Maiden album or the 17th Maiden album, it could very well be the best Maiden album. That doesn’t really happen in rock music.
Globen 2006
Without a doubt the most controversial of Maiden tours, but when you think of it something like this was an inevitability right? Maiden’s whole shtick has always been about not being a cabaret act and that the new music is what keeps them vital etc. On the BNW tour they controversially played 6 new songs + 2 Blaze era epics and even omitted Run To the Hills from most shows. They alternated between nostalgia tours always with the warning that “next time we’re going to play a ton of new music). The logical conclusion to this has to be playing a new album from start to finish. In 2006, playing an album in its entirety was starting to become a fashionable thing for older rock bands to do, but I can’t think of any other rock band who did it for the first (and so far only) time with a brand new album. Where other bands were trying to stay relevant and bring in larger crowds on a nostalgia trip, Maiden decided to make an argument for something deeper. AMOLAD was a strong artistic statement that proved the band’s best work was still to come, the AMOLAD tour proved that Maiden still takes the new music seriously.
This album also made the most sense to play live. Dance of Death has a lot of things that make playing the whole album live a logistical problem (double kick in Face In the Sand primarily but it’s a little too stylistically all over the place to work in a concert setting). Brave New World is pretty close, and they did play 8 of the 10 songs, but I think it works better spread out like in the 2000/01 setlist. A Matter of Life and Death was made to be live ready. It already sounds like a live performance on the album, the songs flow together amazingly well, and it already has the dynamics that you would want from a 10 song run at a concert. It just makes sense. Not to mention, each song is really strong and worthy of being played live.
A lot is made of how people complained about the setlist and how audiences were bored at the shows, etc. I’m totally willing to acknowledge that these were probably not the most high energy Maiden concerts (although I wasn’t there to say so one way or the other). However, I think the decision to play this album is one that paid off in the long run and still benefits them to this day. For one thing, the buzz around new Maiden albums is exceptionally large. They also have more staying power. People still talk about A Matter of Life and Death because they still play that material live. It also created a precedent where I think audience members go to Maiden concerts expecting to hear the new songs. There are still complaints and low energy during new music, that’s never going to change, but The Book of Souls tour saw the band filling up arenas. At this point, everyone knows they’re going to play new songs on new album tours, doesn’t seem like it prevents folks from going. Finally, I strongly believe it’s the reason that people my age are on this board right now. I don’t bother with the Judas Priest forum (if it exists) because I know Judas Priest doesn’t care about the new music. I’ll go see them live and enjoy it. I'll listen to the new album when it comes out and probably also enjoy it. But I know that the new music isn’t a priority for them and I don’t really see them as a relevant band. They’re a nostalgia act, which is fine, but they’re not as interesting as a band that is putting out new music and standing by it by routinely playing most of it live. I feel like I am Maiden’s target audience, not my dad. This is by no means a dig at the older members, especially because most of the older members here are just as interested in the new music. But let's face it, it’s usually older audience members who experienced Maiden in the 80s that are the ones complaining when Maiden doesn’t play Run to the Hills live. I was a kid when AMOLAD came out, so it speaks to me the way Powerslave speaks to older generations. Nothing wrong with that, I’m sure when Maiden releases their 25th album in the 2040s, I won’t have the same connection to it as younger folks will. Circle of life.
So lets talk about the actual show. AMOLAD played live is awesome. Like I said, the album was built to be played live. It flows great, the band sounds great, it’s refreshing to hear 10 songs that aren’t played very often. It’s also a really atmospheric experience. Not the typical heavy metal vibe where people are going crazy in the audience, but a sit quietly and experience the album kind of experience. I don’t necessarily want every Maiden show to be that way, but it’s cool to have one tour where that is the vibe. All these songs sound great. Honestly, every Maiden album has a song or two that just doesn’t seem like it would be the best live (and some of those were even played live), but AMOLAD doesn’t really have that. Out of the Shadows might be the closest, but it worked great.
Tragically, the band never released an official recording from this tour. It’s uncertain that there even is a good live recording (although they supposedly record every show). They prepared Donington 2007 for release (more on that later), but for the time being it doesn’t seem like we’ll ever get official AMOLAD content. Globen 06 is the best we have from the tour. It’s fortunate to have a radio broadcast quality recording, but even this is on the low end of broadcast quality. It’s pretty muddy, the version I have Adrian’s guitar is basically inaudible, and it’s just lacking a lot of definition. With that being said, it’s a really solid performance. There are more than a few rhythmic hiccups, but that’s to be expected for new material, and some of this new material is pretty challenging. The band sounds really good though and you can hear the enthusiasm of playing the new songs. This is not one to be missed.
I hinted at this when talking about Death on the Road, but this tour is part of a period where Maiden’s selection of classics on new album tours was especially uninteresting. I understand that after playing the entire new album live, they probably wanted to play it especially safe with the classic selection, but they still could’ve done a lot better IMO. Throw in a favorite from the Early Days tour like Die With Your Boots On or Phantom of the Opera or Remember Tomorrow. I think this would’ve given the casual fans a little bit more to be excited about with this particular tour. They seem to have a better understanding of this now, but during this time it felt like Maiden saw their catalog as only being about 5-6 songs deep with casuals, when you actually can go a lot further and satisfy that part of the audience. Although the lack of Number of the Beast, Run to the Hills, and The Trooper was a pretty bold choice that I give them a lot of credit for.
Live At Donington 2007
The A Matter of the Beast tour was an interesting concept when it was announced. Maiden hadn’t really done anything to mark similar milestones before, other than a single reissue campaign in the First Ten Years. But that was for the band’s entire career, not a particular album. While some surely may have seen it as Maiden walking back a bit on the play the whole new album live thing, I think it makes sense. On the 2007 tour, they were going back to places they had played already the previous year and they were hitting the festival circuit for a lot of this particular tour.
As I mentioned before, playing full albums live and marking such anniversaries seemed like a bit of a trend in rock music at that time, so it didn’t seem out of place for Maiden to jump on that. And Number of the Beast isn’t a terrible album for this. Despite being the band’s most well known album with three songs played on almost every tour, just about everything outside those core three songs could be considered a rarity live. So the prospect of hearing five Number of the Beast songs (which I believe is what they advertised in the original press release) is actually kind of exciting. You’re guaranteed Hallowed, Number of the Beast, and Run To the Hills, but past that pretty much anything is strangely a deep cut. So there was a lot of potential for the setlist. Unfortunately, I don’t think it really lived up to that potential. For one thing, they ended up playing just 4 songs from The Number of the Beast. Children of the Damned was an awesome choice, don’t get me wrong, it’s my #1 pick for a live song from that album. But this was a great opportunity to also play The Prisoner (not played live since the 80s), 22 Acacia Avenue (very rare), or even go for Invaders or Total Eclipse. This seems like a weird oversight and I’m curious what the story is.
Like I mentioned with the Globen show, it seems like Maiden were really not interested in taking chances with the setlists around this time. This is a much less interesting show than AMOLAD 2006. The highlights are without a doubt the 5 AMOLAD songs and Children of the Damned. Past that, it’s the predictable selection of classics that have been played on almost every tour during the reunion era. Again, I get that they’re doing the festival circuit and want to play it safe, but it did feel like Maiden didn’t have that much confidence in their back catalog around this time. It’s gotten a lot better on the recent tours for sure.
As for the concert itself, this is the band’s fourth appearance at the Donington festival. It was meant for an official DVD release, and there are several popular opinions as to why it never came out. There are flags all over the audience obstructing the view of the wide shots, Bruce has an embarrassing fall during Wrathchild, they decided to release a live DVD from the 2008 tour instead and didn’t want to cannibalize their own product. I think a big part of it is also just that this wasn’t one of their best shows. They sound pretty sloppy on a few songs, with some pretty egregious mistakes on These Colours Don’t Run and The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg in particular.
This performance is definitely worth checking out, if only for the professionally recorded footage of the AMOLAD material and the stage. I would rather them release it officially than have it stuck in the vault. It’s not necessarily the best document of the band from this period, but I’ll take what I can get for any AMOLAD content.
Brave New World was a triumph that showed Maiden could still write great material, Dance of Death showed they were still capable of new things, but A Matter of Life and Death is the most focused (and the best) of the three. This is also the heaviest and proggiest album they had made up until that point. It’s as if they were so pleased with Paschendale that they decided to make an entire album of that type of song.
A Matter of Life and Death is the first time in the reunion era where it feels like a full album experience again, the way the 80s albums feel. The previous two albums were collections of (mostly) great songs, but there didn’t really seem to be a lot of attention to flow or how the songs fit together, especially toward the back half. Both albums also have what feels like quite a bit of filler. On AMOLAD, it feels like more attention is being paid to sequencing and how the songs fit together (I think this contributes a lot to their decision to play all of it live). While every album since Fear of the Dark was double vinyl length, this is the first one that actually flows like a double album. There’s a lot of dynamic movement in the first six songs culminating with Out of the Shadows, which feels like a sort of interlude piece. Then you have the most challenging, dark, and epic material on the back half. Not a single song on here feels like filler. I know The Pilgrim and Different World tend to be the less popular tunes, but they both serve important purposes on the album. Different World is an introductory tune, both figuratively and literally telling the audience that we’re in for something a bit different and a bit deeper than the average Maiden album. The Pilgrim is a much needed moment of brevity in between two pretty heavy war epics. It’s also extremely melodic, I love the little guitar interludes after the choruses.
Then you have the thematic nature of the album. Not exactly a concept album, but probably the closest we’re going to get to one with Maiden. There’s not just a clear lyrical thread running through the songs themes, but the music seems to match that too. The riffing is heavier than what we’ve come to expect with Maiden, there’s a lot more use of odd time signatures and chords outside the typical power chord structure. The guitar solos feel a little more composed. The sound is raw, this feels like the album where they most leaned into the “live in studio” thing. It’s extremely unpolished but it fits the material. I also think this album doesn’t get enough credit for some of its sonic depth. Take the layering of guitars in Out of the Shadows or the trippy sound of Lord of Light. It’s not like they were just putting this stuff to tape and releasing it dry, it’s a pretty immersive and atmospheric album. More so than Brave New World or Dance of Death, I would argue.
Smith and Dickinson are clearly becoming more prominent as writers here. Where Murray had multiple writing credits since the 90s, this is the first time in a while where his input is confined to one song. Gers also becomes much less prominent as a writer after a long time being, in many ways, the main guitarist from a songwriting perspective. I don’t actually consider this a bad thing. Having their input concentrated to one or two songs actually made those songs a lot stronger as a result. Gers, for example, had several misses on the previous two albums. But on AMOLAD, The Legacy is a really incredible piece of work. The Pilgrim is good for what it is. The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg is one of the most interesting things Murray has ever contributed to Maiden. Adrian Smith was clearly on a creative kick during this time, so I appreciate that the band gave him a lot of room to flourish on this album (as well as the next one). You also have Harris’ stamp on every song, which definitely shows. Again, it helps give the album a unified feel. The level of focus on this album is unusual for Maiden.
The three guitarist thing is in full force on this album. Each guitarist really settles into their own sound on this album. They each have very distinct tones, very distinct playing styles, and I feel like each player is used to the best of their abilities in a given part. There had never been a song before where Adrian and Janick are the two soloists, but on Brighter Than a Thousand Suns it makes the most sense to give Adrian the epic melodic solo and Janick the more chaotic fast paced solo. In Out of the Shadows, Dave Murray plays the tasty bluesy fills but when it’s time for the main solo, Adrian comes in with something quite different. Then you have the awesome three guitar attack in For the Greater Good of God. This still might be my favorite Maiden album in terms of the guitar work. It’s perfect.
The best thing about AMOLAD is that it perfectly skirts the line between concept album and just a regular collection of great songs. Usually a concept album’s greatest downfall is that there is about half an album’s worth of material that just isn’t interesting to listen to out of context. On AMOLAD, each song stands on its own and works in context of the album. In fact, this is the first time since the 80s where it doesn’t feel like there’s any filler. There are for sure songs that I don’t like as much, but I understand their purpose on the album and I still enjoy listening to them.
AMOLAD is the reason I still get excited about Maiden’s new music. BNW and Dance of Death were both good (BNW being great even), but AMOLAD is the first time where they are making material that truly competes with their best stuff from the 80s. It set a precedent that whether it’s the 14th Maiden album or the 17th Maiden album, it could very well be the best Maiden album. That doesn’t really happen in rock music.
Globen 2006
This album also made the most sense to play live. Dance of Death has a lot of things that make playing the whole album live a logistical problem (double kick in Face In the Sand primarily but it’s a little too stylistically all over the place to work in a concert setting). Brave New World is pretty close, and they did play 8 of the 10 songs, but I think it works better spread out like in the 2000/01 setlist. A Matter of Life and Death was made to be live ready. It already sounds like a live performance on the album, the songs flow together amazingly well, and it already has the dynamics that you would want from a 10 song run at a concert. It just makes sense. Not to mention, each song is really strong and worthy of being played live.
A lot is made of how people complained about the setlist and how audiences were bored at the shows, etc. I’m totally willing to acknowledge that these were probably not the most high energy Maiden concerts (although I wasn’t there to say so one way or the other). However, I think the decision to play this album is one that paid off in the long run and still benefits them to this day. For one thing, the buzz around new Maiden albums is exceptionally large. They also have more staying power. People still talk about A Matter of Life and Death because they still play that material live. It also created a precedent where I think audience members go to Maiden concerts expecting to hear the new songs. There are still complaints and low energy during new music, that’s never going to change, but The Book of Souls tour saw the band filling up arenas. At this point, everyone knows they’re going to play new songs on new album tours, doesn’t seem like it prevents folks from going. Finally, I strongly believe it’s the reason that people my age are on this board right now. I don’t bother with the Judas Priest forum (if it exists) because I know Judas Priest doesn’t care about the new music. I’ll go see them live and enjoy it. I'll listen to the new album when it comes out and probably also enjoy it. But I know that the new music isn’t a priority for them and I don’t really see them as a relevant band. They’re a nostalgia act, which is fine, but they’re not as interesting as a band that is putting out new music and standing by it by routinely playing most of it live. I feel like I am Maiden’s target audience, not my dad. This is by no means a dig at the older members, especially because most of the older members here are just as interested in the new music. But let's face it, it’s usually older audience members who experienced Maiden in the 80s that are the ones complaining when Maiden doesn’t play Run to the Hills live. I was a kid when AMOLAD came out, so it speaks to me the way Powerslave speaks to older generations. Nothing wrong with that, I’m sure when Maiden releases their 25th album in the 2040s, I won’t have the same connection to it as younger folks will. Circle of life.
So lets talk about the actual show. AMOLAD played live is awesome. Like I said, the album was built to be played live. It flows great, the band sounds great, it’s refreshing to hear 10 songs that aren’t played very often. It’s also a really atmospheric experience. Not the typical heavy metal vibe where people are going crazy in the audience, but a sit quietly and experience the album kind of experience. I don’t necessarily want every Maiden show to be that way, but it’s cool to have one tour where that is the vibe. All these songs sound great. Honestly, every Maiden album has a song or two that just doesn’t seem like it would be the best live (and some of those were even played live), but AMOLAD doesn’t really have that. Out of the Shadows might be the closest, but it worked great.
Tragically, the band never released an official recording from this tour. It’s uncertain that there even is a good live recording (although they supposedly record every show). They prepared Donington 2007 for release (more on that later), but for the time being it doesn’t seem like we’ll ever get official AMOLAD content. Globen 06 is the best we have from the tour. It’s fortunate to have a radio broadcast quality recording, but even this is on the low end of broadcast quality. It’s pretty muddy, the version I have Adrian’s guitar is basically inaudible, and it’s just lacking a lot of definition. With that being said, it’s a really solid performance. There are more than a few rhythmic hiccups, but that’s to be expected for new material, and some of this new material is pretty challenging. The band sounds really good though and you can hear the enthusiasm of playing the new songs. This is not one to be missed.
I hinted at this when talking about Death on the Road, but this tour is part of a period where Maiden’s selection of classics on new album tours was especially uninteresting. I understand that after playing the entire new album live, they probably wanted to play it especially safe with the classic selection, but they still could’ve done a lot better IMO. Throw in a favorite from the Early Days tour like Die With Your Boots On or Phantom of the Opera or Remember Tomorrow. I think this would’ve given the casual fans a little bit more to be excited about with this particular tour. They seem to have a better understanding of this now, but during this time it felt like Maiden saw their catalog as only being about 5-6 songs deep with casuals, when you actually can go a lot further and satisfy that part of the audience. Although the lack of Number of the Beast, Run to the Hills, and The Trooper was a pretty bold choice that I give them a lot of credit for.
Live At Donington 2007
As I mentioned before, playing full albums live and marking such anniversaries seemed like a bit of a trend in rock music at that time, so it didn’t seem out of place for Maiden to jump on that. And Number of the Beast isn’t a terrible album for this. Despite being the band’s most well known album with three songs played on almost every tour, just about everything outside those core three songs could be considered a rarity live. So the prospect of hearing five Number of the Beast songs (which I believe is what they advertised in the original press release) is actually kind of exciting. You’re guaranteed Hallowed, Number of the Beast, and Run To the Hills, but past that pretty much anything is strangely a deep cut. So there was a lot of potential for the setlist. Unfortunately, I don’t think it really lived up to that potential. For one thing, they ended up playing just 4 songs from The Number of the Beast. Children of the Damned was an awesome choice, don’t get me wrong, it’s my #1 pick for a live song from that album. But this was a great opportunity to also play The Prisoner (not played live since the 80s), 22 Acacia Avenue (very rare), or even go for Invaders or Total Eclipse. This seems like a weird oversight and I’m curious what the story is.
Like I mentioned with the Globen show, it seems like Maiden were really not interested in taking chances with the setlists around this time. This is a much less interesting show than AMOLAD 2006. The highlights are without a doubt the 5 AMOLAD songs and Children of the Damned. Past that, it’s the predictable selection of classics that have been played on almost every tour during the reunion era. Again, I get that they’re doing the festival circuit and want to play it safe, but it did feel like Maiden didn’t have that much confidence in their back catalog around this time. It’s gotten a lot better on the recent tours for sure.
As for the concert itself, this is the band’s fourth appearance at the Donington festival. It was meant for an official DVD release, and there are several popular opinions as to why it never came out. There are flags all over the audience obstructing the view of the wide shots, Bruce has an embarrassing fall during Wrathchild, they decided to release a live DVD from the 2008 tour instead and didn’t want to cannibalize their own product. I think a big part of it is also just that this wasn’t one of their best shows. They sound pretty sloppy on a few songs, with some pretty egregious mistakes on These Colours Don’t Run and The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg in particular.
This performance is definitely worth checking out, if only for the professionally recorded footage of the AMOLAD material and the stage. I would rather them release it officially than have it stuck in the vault. It’s not necessarily the best document of the band from this period, but I’ll take what I can get for any AMOLAD content.
D
Deleted member 7164
Guest
"I first met with Adrian, for no particular reason" - Harris about the AMOLAD songwriting sessions. Yeah right
ChrisDeBurgh
Educated Fool
Not necessarily the strongest song, certainly not the most popular, but hard to beat as a scene-setter for an Early Days tour - something that hadn't been heard in donkey's years.
Forostar
Ancient Mariner
Today I heard Brighter Than a Thousand Suns in the car. Hadn't heard it (the whole album) for quite some time. I found myself being very impressed again by that awesome heaviness. Probably the heaviest thing Maiden ever did. And the song is full of beautiful, powerful riffs. 'Arry plays some incredibly cool basslines and Bruce is a master here. Hands down.
Remember how this song got replaced by Wrathchild early on in the 2010 tour? Only played in Dallas.
That was a bit of a moment. Especially a bummer to people who hadn't seen it yet. Also when Paschendale wasn't played anymore in that same tour (it was rotating with Dance of Death).
The 2010 Dallas gig had both Paschendale and Brighter Than a Thousand Suns!
(San Antonio, Albuquerque, San Bernardino and Auburn had Paschendale; the rest of the tour had Dance of Death)
Remember how this song got replaced by Wrathchild early on in the 2010 tour? Only played in Dallas.
That was a bit of a moment. Especially a bummer to people who hadn't seen it yet. Also when Paschendale wasn't played anymore in that same tour (it was rotating with Dance of Death).
The 2010 Dallas gig had both Paschendale and Brighter Than a Thousand Suns!
(San Antonio, Albuquerque, San Bernardino and Auburn had Paschendale; the rest of the tour had Dance of Death)
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I saw that tour on one of the earliest shows (maybe show 5 or 6?) and by then both songs had already been replaced. I went in without spoilers so I didn’t know what I was missing at the time, but I was definitely a little bummed when I came home and read that those two songs were on the menu at one point.
Of the two, I would really love to see BTATS live someday. It has some of the heaviest riffs in Maiden’s catalog and I’m sure it crushes live.
Ascendingthethrone
Ancient Mariner
I still have fond memories of the first Earls Court show on the AMOLAD tour. My mates and I travelled up from Poole to London by train. The gig was outsanding and the band were on fire. As a result, there was a small fire backstage that put a pause on the show. The band came out and played football to entertain the fans and there were singalong moments with Bruce. I thought all of the songs from AMOLAD worked really well live.
Due to the pause in the show, we nearly missed the train home. I remember legging it across Westminster bridge in the freezing cold to catch a train at Waterloo.
It was a ballsy move by the band to play the whole album. My uncle still thinks it wasn’t a great show. We have agreed to disagree on that one.
Due to the pause in the show, we nearly missed the train home. I remember legging it across Westminster bridge in the freezing cold to catch a train at Waterloo.
It was a ballsy move by the band to play the whole album. My uncle still thinks it wasn’t a great show. We have agreed to disagree on that one.
DJMayes
Ancient Mariner
AMOLAD is a weird one for me. I feel like as an album it's consistently overrated (it's probably my least favourite reunion album overall), but its best song - For the Greater Good of God - is consistently underrated.
Would've been cool to have seen it live, but that was a little before my time.
Would've been cool to have seen it live, but that was a little before my time.
Yax
Ancient Mariner
I'm currently listening to AMOLAD (at BTATS). The album has long been in my top three Maiden records, but I think I'm ready to put it as number one. The whole album is great, from start to finish and every aspect of it is killer. I can't believe it has been 15 years I sat in my then room, put this on and thought "is this it?". It took me a couple of weeks to actually fully digest the album, but I have been in love it with ever since.
Forostar
Ancient Mariner
The year 2006 is also not an unimportant time for us at Maidenfans. Some of our oldest active members met each other for the first time in real life.
It was the start of a tradition: a Maidenfans meet up, or meet. @Perun and @national acrobat (who is not that active anymore) started in 2006 with some other people.
I think they even met Maiden in the train once, after the concert in Paris. I was jealous! :--)
I met these guys for the first time in 2008. I met them and several other friendly people in the years afterwards (2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 in relation to Maiden events in Berlin, London, Stockholm, Cardiff/Paris, Oslo, the Netherlands and a few other times in other contexts). Per and Nush also went to Boston!
(Perhaps these Maidenfans meets started earlier but then I don't think any of these people are still active anymore, I could be wrong though)
It was the start of a tradition: a Maidenfans meet up, or meet. @Perun and @national acrobat (who is not that active anymore) started in 2006 with some other people.
I think they even met Maiden in the train once, after the concert in Paris. I was jealous! :--)
I met these guys for the first time in 2008. I met them and several other friendly people in the years afterwards (2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 in relation to Maiden events in Berlin, London, Stockholm, Cardiff/Paris, Oslo, the Netherlands and a few other times in other contexts). Per and Nush also went to Boston!
(Perhaps these Maidenfans meets started earlier but then I don't think any of these people are still active anymore, I could be wrong though)
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____no5
Free Man
I met some Maidenfans in person after the concert in Paris in November 2006, nearly all of them not active now. This was my
During the meeting with Maiden I wasn't there, but I think it was another year, not 2006.
No, I don't think that happened.