Rate all official Maiden live albums worst to best

Oh God..good question, not easy!!
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Raising Hell: it never got me excited.
A Real Live Dead One :a mix of little use with no good sound.
Nights of the Dead: great setlist but a bootleg feels better, why?
Live @ Donington 92 :for fans only.
Maiden Japan EP :I am fond of this.
TBOS Live Chapter :Good but it gets better.
Death on the Road: it's not appreciated by some but I really like these very dark atmospheres.
En Vivo!: perhaps(my opinion)for visual quality one of the best.
Flight 666:great live movie.
Beast Over Hammersmith: there's something to add here..
Maiden England: amazing setlist, amazing stage.
Rock in Rio: if there was no next one it would be the best.
Live After Death: no doubt, the best live album ever!!
+
The choices will always be discussed but it's almost impossible to make a ranking!! For me it's like that. Enjoy!
 
Can't be bothered thinking about the finer details of ranking albums, but would rather divide them up into tiers. A Real Live One and A Real Dead One are the worst by a mile, in all aspects, sloppy performances, Bruce's heart not in it, ridiculous track listing that don't reflect the real running order of a gig. They still have some good versions on them though.

Worst:
A Real Dead One, A Real Live One and Live at Donington. Donington being a good bit better than the other two.

Best essential live albums:
Live After Death, Maiden England, Rock in Rio

Middle tier:
all the rest.

Listening to A Real Dead One for the first time in years, maybe decades, and so far it's not that bad! I'm up to Transylvania, which is great, and one which I remembered as being great, but The Number of the Beast was a decent version bar Bruce messing around during the intro, Trooper was pretty good bar a wobbly sound from Dave's guitar on the main riff, and Prowler wasn't bad at all.
 
From worst to best:

Nights Of The Dead, Legacy Of The Beast: Live In Mexico City
The Book Of Souls - Live Chapter
Beast Over Hammersmith
A Real Live One
Live After Death
A Real Dead One
Live At Donington
Flight 666
En Vivo
Death On The Road
Maiden England
Rock In Rio

NOTD: A release full of baffling choices. The setlist is great, the audience sounds like a shotgun drenched in reverb recorded in a separate room and Bruce is at times downright unintelligible if you don't know the lyrics. There are parts where the audience is singing something and you can barely make out the line, let alone the melody sung. It's insane that this is an official release.

TBOS LC: The production on this one is awful, even though the setlist is interesting. To this day it's the only live album I haven't listened to in its entirety. Whenever I wanna give it a chance, I make it to Wrathchild, with the incredibly amateurish volume automation on the crowd and I remember why I hate this one.

BOH: Finally one that sounds pretty good. It's leagues above the previous two, but I'm not the biggest fan of the first two albums and I've had my fair share of TNOTB over the years. I simply prefer songs that came later. My biggest issue with recordings from that time is Bruce actually. His voice is powerful and the lines he's singing are seriously impressive. Unfortunately he didn't have the best control over it yet, which caused him to routinely overshoot the notes he was going for. All in all rather unpleasant to listen to. Having said all that, this album has the definitive version of Another Life. I love the different drum intro.

ARLO: I like the song selection, but everyone knows that the Real duo is plagued with performance issues. Thankfully we've got the Donington show, which is a complete concert with an overall better performance.

LAD: I know it's sacrilegious to list it that far down, but it simply has too many things that bother me. Being spoiled by later live albums, I'm not the biggest fan of the overall sound and production. Can't really fault the album for being a product of its time though. Again (you'll read this a bunch of times), but my biggest issue is Bruce. His voice is shot and he sounds so endlessly tired. Despite that, there are a ton of iconic moments and for some songs like The Trooper or Flight Of Icarus I always have Bruce's intro lines in my head, no matter which version I'm listening to. Also the end to Revelations is magical.

ARDO: Has the same issues that ARLO has, but it features a few rarities that weren't commonly heard on other live albums released up to that point like Prowler, Remember Tomorror and Where Eagles Dare.

Live At Donington: As one of the few who loves FOTD as an album, this one's great for having many of the new songs. The sound isn't the best unfortunately. The fact that they got Adrian for Running Free is also pretty cool.

Flight 666: Mostly a "remake" of LAD, with better performances and some interesting changes. It sucks that it's not one continuous show, but it makes sense with the documentary part. Bruce's best years were 1996 - 2010, so it's great to have another live album from that period.

En Vivo: While I'm not a big fan of TFF, I like the setlist for the most part. Bruce has a few slip-ups and the guitars can be quite sloppy at parts.

DOTR: From here on we've got my favorites. DOTR has a fantastic setlist. I'm happy that they brought back Lord Of The Flies. Some songs like No More Lies, that could be quite repetitive on the album, got a second chance to shine. Having audience participation and changing up some of the melody lines elevates the song immensely. Unfortunately Bruce was sick (like on too many other live albums as well lol), which knocks the album down a notch. It was also the first time I heard the third guitar harmony in The Trooper (wasn't on RIR for example), so details like that make me really appreciate this one.

Maiden England: The fact that this one has SSOASS on it puts it automatically to the top :D The setlist is fantastic. We've got the majority of SSOASS, Die With Your Boots On, Still Life, Killers (what's with the weird audio glitch on the right audio channel at 0:08? Why was this never fixed?). Unfortunately, Bruce was sick during this one as well, which means that the live album isn't the best represantation of this tour.

RIR: Absolutely magical. Fantastic setlist (6 BNW songs!), a couple of Blaze songs that have become classics since then and a healthy dose of classics done justice. Having an audience of 250k people is insane and hearing all those voices singing every word and every guitar line (FOTD, the intro to Clansman, the "whoah" part toward the end of Dream Of Mirrors) gives me goosebumps each time. Bruce is in great shape and delivers a fantastic performance. The copy/pasted vocal lines are weird, and I'll never understand why Steve thought that'd be a good idea, since the audience was loud enough, but what's done is done.
 
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From worst to best:

Nights Of The Dead, Legacy Of The Beast: Live In Mexico City
The Book Of Souls - Live Chapter
Beast Over Hammersmith
A Real Live One
Live After Death
A Real Dead One
Live At Donington
Flight 666
En Vivo
Death On The Road
Maiden England
Rock In Rio

NOTD: A release full of baffling choices. The setlist is great, the audience sounds like a shotgun drenched in reverb recorded in a separate room and Bruce is at times downright unintelligible if you don't know the lyrics. There are parts where the audience is singing something and you can barely make out the line, let alone the melody sung. It's insane that this is an official release.

TBOS LC: The production on this one is awful, even though the setlist is interesting. To this day it's the only live album I haven't listened to in its entirety. Whenever I wanna give it a chance, I make it to Wrathchild, with the incredibly amateurish volume automation on the crowd and I remember why I hate this one.

BOH: Finally one that sounds pretty good. It's leagues above the previous two, but I'm not the biggest fan of the first two albums and I've had my fair share of TNOTB over the years. I simply prefer songs that came later. My biggest issue with recordings from that time is Bruce actually. His voice is powerful and the lines he's singing are seriously impressive. Unfortunately he didn't have the best control over it yet, which caused him to routinely overshoot the notes he was going for. All in all rather unpleasant to listen to. Having said all that, this album has the definitive version of Another Life. I love the different drum intro.

ARLO: I like the song selection, but everyone knows that the Real duo is plagued with performance issues. Thankfully we've got the Donington show, which is a complete concert with an overall better performance.

LAD: I know it's sacrilegious to list it that far down, but it simply has too many things that bother me. Being spoiled by later live albums, I'm not the biggest fan of the overall sound and production. Can't really fault the album for being a product of its time though. Again (you'll read this a bunch of times), but my biggest issue is Bruce. His voice is shot and he sounds so endlessly tired. Despite that, there are a ton of iconic moments and for some songs like The Trooper or Flight Of Icarus I always have Bruce's intro lines in my head, no matter which version I'm listening to. Also the end to Revelations is magical.

ARDO: Has the same issues like ARLO has, but it features a few rarities that weren't commonly heard on other live albums released up to that point like Prowler, Remember Tomorror and Where Eagles Dare.

Live At Donington: As one of the few who loves FOTD as an album, this one's great for having many of the new songs. The sound isn't the best unfortunately. The fact that they got Adrian for Running Free is also pretty cool.

Flight 666: Mostly a "remake" of LAD, with better performances and some interesting changes. It sucks that it's not one continuous show, but it makes sense with the documentary part. Bruce's best years were 1996 - 2010, so it's great to have another live album from that period.

En Vivo: While I'm not a big fan of TFF, I like the setlist for the most part. Bruce has a few slip-ups and the guitars can be quite sloppy at parts.

DOTR: From here on we've got my favorites. DOTR has a fantastic setlist. I'm happy that they brought back Lord Of The Flies. Some songs like No More Lies, that could be quite repetitive on the album, got a second chance to shine. Having audience participation and changing up some of the melody lines elevates the song immensely. Unfortunately Bruce was sick (like on too many other live albums as well lol), which knocks the album down a notch. It was also the first time I heard the third guitar harmony in The Trooper (wasn't on RIR for example), so details like that make me really appreciate this one.

Maiden England: The fact that this one has SSOASS on it puts it automatically to the top :D The setlist is fantastic. We've got the majority of SSOASS, Die With Your Boots On, Still Life, Killers (what's with the weird audio glitch on the right audio channel at 0:08? Why was this never fixed?). Unfortunately, Bruce was sick during this one as well, which means that the live album isn't the best represantation of this tour.

RIR: Absolutely magical. Fantastic setlist (6 BNW songs!), a couple of Blaze songs that have become classics since then and a healthy dose of classics done justice. Having an audience of 250k people is insane and hearing all those voices singing every word and every guitar line (FOTD, the intro to Clansman, the "whoah" part toward the end of Dream Of Mirrors) gives me goosebumps each time. Bruce is in great shape and delivers a fantastic performance. The copy/pasted vocal line are weird, and I'll never understand why Steve thought that'd be a good idea, since the audience was loud enough, but what's done is done.
I agree with everything on this list!
 
Listening to A Real Dead One for the first time in years, maybe decades, and so far it's not that bad! I'm up to Transylvania, which is great, and one which I remembered as being great, but The Number of the Beast was a decent version bar Bruce messing around during the intro, Trooper was pretty good bar a wobbly sound from Dave's guitar on the main riff, and Prowler wasn't bad at all.

Finished listening to this and really enjoyed it.

The only outright bad version was Where Eagles Dare.

Running Free and Run to the Hills weren't the best versions in the world but there wasn't anything wrong with them either. 2 Minutes to Midnight, even though it started with Janick's wimpy tone on the main riff, actually kicked into a pretty aggressive version when Steve kicked in and the French crowd were good. That version of Hallowed is just amazing.
 
Here is my updated rank:

14) Nights Of The Dead: This had everything to be a great release. It features a great array of tunes (although lacking any Killers and SIT stuff). And it would be if a little more effort was put in the production department but especially if they picked an early date (on 2018 specifically). It's a disgrace to release something with Bruce as sick as he was and struggling that much resulting in an awful performance (understandably so due to the circumstances). Bruce didn't deserve this, period. The rest of the band is also far from being tight. So what could be a great document turned out to be an utter disaster IMO by far dead last.

13) A Real Dead One: Decent enough performances (while far far from their best) taken from different venues and a somewhat mixed collection of classics and surprises (Prowler, Where Eagles dare, Remember Tomorrow) from their early catalogue (still lacking any song from Killers - WTF?). Nonetheless the biggest gripe here is the awful production.

12) A Real Live One: The main con is the same regarding its twin album: production. Plus leaving Wasted Years outside the setlist is a huge letdown, especially when they played it during the following tour. And it features Wasting Love and picking this crap over tunes like Judas Be My Guide while promoting FOTD is something that's borderline blasphemous IMO. On the other than hand It features THAT iconic Fear Of The Dark version, better performances than ARDO and when it came out it was the first official release with post Powerslave songs so it was absolutely convenient.

11) Raising Hell: Unique gig that served as Bruce's farewell. A mix between FOTD Tour and ARL Tour setlists and cool performances. I really don't care about the magic acts but since it was such an important date it's understandable they featured it. Once again no Wasted Years but at least they dropped Wasting Love.

10) The Book OF Souls (Live Chapter): Age attrition can already be noticed on another compilation of concerts all over the world. Nonetheless the band still delivers and it's a cool album: besides promoting The Book Of Souls it features a fairly interesting setlist.

09) Live At Donington: Perhaps Maiden could have left ARLO and ARDO in the drawer and only released this record instead. Better produced , better performance the only weird thing here is The Number Of The Beast being the second song. Misfires? Needless to say the absence of Wasted years and Wasting Love instead of Judas Be My Guide. Great concert on a stage every metal band wishes to headline.

08) Death On The Road: Some surprises like Can I Play With Madness and the excellent rendition of Lord Of The Flies, a cool selection of new songs (although leaving Montségur out is unforgivable) and a good performance (Bruce's voice is slightly raspy once again due to minor health issues but he still delivers in great fashion ). Overall a great record.

07) En Vivo: Santiago's crowd simply made their own show within the show. Regarding the setlist it could be better. I prefer Death On The Road setlist. That being said the songs picked to promote The Final Frontier are the right ones IMO and overall as a concert I think it works better (nonetheless it can switch places with DOTR any day of the week). And although the band's members are already far from being young they're absolutely on fire on this gig.

06) Maiden Japan (the full concert): From now on we're entering really top notch quality as far as I'm concerned. Early Di'Anno Maiden firing at all cylinders was an unstoppable beast! Ok I know I'm kinda cheating and the only recordings from the whole concert are bootlegs. But damn this thing is too awesome to ignore.

05) Rock In Rio: Rock In Rio's major strengths are its awesome production, huge performance and some surprises (namely the two epic tunes from the Blaze era). Other than that a couple of great tunes from the album they were promoting. Now as cons back it puzzles me how they picked boring stuff like Dream Of Mirrors and The Mercenary and ditched Out Of The Silent Planet, The Thin Line Between Love And Hate or even The Fallen Angel. Plus the rest of the setlist is absolutely predictable and filled with stuff that even back in 2001 was grossly overplayed. IMO overrated mainly by younger fans but still an amazing record.

04) Beast Over Hammersmith: If early Di'Anno Maiden was an absolute monster, early Dickinson Maiden was equally stunning. Mind blowing setlist, performance is stellar and young Bruce going over the top in order to make a statement as one of metal's best frontmen is a show within the show. This thing is crazy good.

03) Maiden England: Although I kinda miss The Trooper this setlist is absolutely stunning! The production is quite good and the performance is also tight as hell. The only exception is Bruce getting a bit strained in some of the most demanding tunes (SIT and SSOASS had a lot of those). IMO it's still as consequence of the wear and tear during the massive World Slavery Tour - from which he would only fully recover some years later - but nothing too compromising (especially when compared with other records on this list). 80's live Maiden was on a league of its own. Performance wise Beast Over Hammersmith tops this but in everything else I do prefer Maiden England.

02) Flight 666: The major leap in my rank. Fact is Flight 666 has it all: great production, excellent compilation (although something from Killers and at least one mor tune from SIT would make it perfect) this record is what you get when you mix Maiden England with Live After Death. Ok... performance wise the band is no longer on their prime but they're still tight as hell and the three guitar arrangements on their classic tunes sound amazing! I truly have a ball listening to this record and some of its moments are unforgettable.

01) Live After Death: This record isn't just arguably Maiden's best live album: it's mentioned as one of the best live albums ever, period. And IMO it is so with entire justice. The whole band is on fire (don't even mention Dickinson... I can't even begin to understand some people's diatribes to his immaculate performance here nor do I want to waste my time doing so). Still regarding the band's performance there are several rumors of overdubs... but then again so they were when Rock In Rio came out and in both cases until somebody proves me otherwise I believe it was merely to fix minor issues (adding some vocals to the crowd's sing-alongs and stuff like that and some lines on some screw ups). Production wise this thing is on an echelon of itself. These two factors combined boost every song so much that every time I want to listen one of Bruce's first 3 albums songs that are featured on LAD I almost never pick the studio version. Finally song selection is excellent on both Long Beach and Hammersmith concerts. And if one adds to it the B' sides Sanctuary, Losfer Words and Murders In The Rue Morgue this thing is as good as it can get. make no mistakes: for a reason this is a classic that shines among all classics that marked an era and an entire genre.
 
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Similar could be said for LAD: overrated by older fans.
Mmmmm... LAD's high ratings break any age group. But what makes it truly iconic is the immense praise it gets outside Maiden fandom and even outside the metal world. And I'm speaking about praise from various sectors. Lets be real: it's the album that, by far is considered to be THE Maiden live album by the majority of musicians specialized media and music fans alike. With this I'm not saying it's better of worst than Rock In Rio (I personally prefer LAD by far... but then again there is no universal worst or better here: just a matter of opinion). The fact no one can deny is LAD is the only Iron Maiden live record that managed to achieve that classic reputation that all time rock records do. And this is for a reason. If you call that "overrated by older fans" fine. We agree to disagree.
 
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01) Live After Death: This record isn't just arguably Maiden's best live album: it's mentioned as one of the best live albums ever, period. And IMO it is so with entire justice. The whole band is on fire (don't even mention Dickinson... I can't even begin to understand some people's diatribes to his immaculate performance here nor do I want to waste my time doing so).

I mean, the fact that some vocal takes had to be redone in the studio and even then Aces High sounds the way it does shows that it's far from "immaculate". It's iconic for sure and you're obviously entitled to your opinion and free to love it, but Bruce sounds incredibly strained all over the album. From a purely objective point of view the vocal performance isn't the best. A lot of the songs are superior to the studio versions as a whole, but the vocals in most cases (if we ignore stuff like drastically different tempos compared to the studio recordings) are definitely much weaker than the original takes. At the end of the day everyone has their own opinion and that's absolutely fine. Otherwise every topic on this forum would be very boring :D But maybe don't go dismissing valid criticisms and opinions of others as "diatribes", it's needlessly insulting ;)

Still regarding the band's performance there are several rumors of overdubs... but then again so they were when Rock In Rio came out and in both cases until somebody proves me otherwise I believe it was merely to fix minor issues (adding some vocals to the crowd's sing-alongs and stuff like that and some lines on some screw ups).

I mean, we know for a fact that both LAD and RIR have been edited/overdubbed. This post on this very forum has the following excerpt from an interview with Bruce where the man himself confirms it in the case of LAD:

BD: That record was assembled from three nights at Long Beach, with different tracks being selected from different nights. It also was messed around with a bit. Some of the backing tracks were fine, but Adrian's guitar was way out of tune on one or two songs, so we went into a studio here in LA and did some guitar overdubs and I think I even did some vocal overdubs on "Run To The Hills" and some other bits. All these years I felt "Live After Death" as being the ultimate live Maiden record, that's why it's nice to have "Rock In Rio." This has a vocal performance on it in which I'm a lot more proud of than "Live After Death". It's shit-loads better singing-wise. Whether or not it will replace "Live After Death" in the affections of everybody is more difficult to say because a record like that is more a product of its time.

Source: http://www.hardradio.com/hr3.html?http://www.hardradio.com/shockwaves/dickinson2-2.php3

As for Rock In Rio, it didn't have overdubbs in the sense of them going to the studio rerecording takes. There are many instances on the record, where Bruce would let the audience sing at the concert, but on the album Steve would take the same vocal line from a different part of the song and overlay it. The Clansman "no, we can't let them take anymore" part is very noticeable. The first time through Bruce is singing it, the second time through it's overlaid. You'll notice that Bruce screams for the audience in a very high register, while singing in a lower one. The best part is 06:11 - 06:16 where the overlaid vocal is cut off abruptly. It's quite hilarious actually. There's a bootleg from the concert, because it was streamed on TV, where you can notice all the differences.
 
Mmmmm... LAD's high ratings break any age group. But what makes it truly iconic is the immense praise it gets outside Maiden fandom and even outside the metal world. And I'm speaking about praise from various sectors. Lets be real: it's the album that, by far is considered to be THE Maiden live album by the majority of musicians specialized media and music fans alike. With this I'm not saying it's better of worst than Rock In Rio (I personally prefer LAD by far... but then again there is no universal worst or better here: just a matter of opinion). The fact no one can deny is LAD is the only Iron Maiden live record that managed to achieve that classic reputation that all time rock records do. And this is for a reason. If you call that "overrated by older fans" fine. We agree to disagree.
I don’t deny that the album is held in high regard by many people. I, on the other hand, am not one of them. I got my first copy of Live After Death in 2007. I was not blown away. Bruce sounds strained on many songs and he needlessly yells ‘Yeah!’ over parts of songs where he is not singing (that part of Rime always pisses me off)

The album is incredibly strong. However, Maiden have released live albums that are superior when it comes to the vocal and band performance (RIR, F666). I just don’t subscribe to the notion that it is the best because it is iconic and groundbreaking. The Number of the Beast is a ground breaking and iconic album, but I believe they have released far superior albums.

It’s always great to debate these things!
 
even then Aces High sounds the way it does
in the video one I agree it's a bit funky and he struggles but in the LP version is by far the best vocal rendition of the song I've ever listened to. Anyway what the hell am I doing? Didn't I said I wouldn't talk about Bruce's voice on this one anymore? If you think it's "far from immaculate", "incredibly strained", "isn't the best" or "much weaker than the original takes" good for you. I don't. Just don't say "everyone has their own opinion" but yours is a "purely objective point of view". So I'm not dismissing others opinions it's exactly the opposite.
With this I'm not saying it's better of worst than Rock In Rio (I personally prefer LAD by far... but then again there is no universal worst or better here: just a matter of opinion).
I even said this unlike presenting my opinions as "facts" as many do.

I mean, we know for a fact that both LAD and RIR have been edited/overdubbed. This post on this very forum has the following excerpt from an interview with Bruce where the man himself confirms it in the case of LAD:
If one takes a more careful thinking on the subject there's an aspect that's truly relevant here: the evolution of post production tools. In 1985 there were no resources such as Pro Tools and fixing minor gripes on the original recording normally meant a trip to the studio to re record stuff. On the other hand 16 years later it was a completely different story. I mean... even a debutante without sound engineering background managed to fix semi decently some recordings. The living proof is I did it with my band back in 2005. So while auto tune or pitch bend effects or plugins would ultimately spare those Adrian studio takes. Now if the singing on LAD was so awful it's also curious that Bruce only recalls recording overdubs for RTTH.

As for Rock In Rio, it didn't have overdubbs in the sense of them going to the studio rerecording takes.
When it comes to RIR overdubs It's curious you point out The Clansman and especially that section. I wonder how you noticed all the stuff you pointed out and failed to address the tempo miscues on this passage (and also at the beginning), miscues that didn't show up to the official RIR release. Isn't this post production work ? Now think what it would take to fix this back in 1985. But even so I consider all these interventions in both RIR and LAD to be minor ones.

To wrap it up: "This has a vocal performance on it in which I'm a lot more proud of than "Live After Death". It's shit-loads better singing-wise." Ah! The "this new album is our best one ever" speech. Such a novelty... :p

So as I said before... If you want so think LAD or Bruce Dickinson's performance there is better or worst than RIR's it's perfectly fine for me. Just don't try to put it as a universal truth. I never did so and won't let anyone do it to me.
 
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I got my first copy of Live After Death in 2007. I was not blown away.
Bruce sounds strained on many songs
he needlessly yells ‘Yeah!’ over parts of songs where he is not singing
Maiden have released live albums that are superior when it comes to the vocal and band performance (RIR, F666).
Well I completely disagree with you but then again... opinions.

Now...
I just don’t subscribe to the notion that it is the best because it is iconic and groundbreaking.
Hey! That's not what I was saying. As you point out and well the most iconic may not be "the best" (once again there are no absolute "bests"... just favorites but let's adopt the term best for simplicity's sake). And I totally agree with you. What I wanted to show is the opposite: how can such a revered album be bad? I've already noticed despite all your critiques you like it but some people say it's crap. You pointed out an excellent example: I have TNOTB at #8 on my all time Maiden records. Now does it make out of it a somewhat forgettable album? Hell no! It's as iconic as it gets and I totally understand those who rank it #1 or near it. To be fair I have two way less iconic Maiden albums on higher ranks (#7 being The X Factor and #6 A Matter Of Life And Death... al the others are also iconic albums and represent the remaining 1981 to 1988 spree). The reasons why it's at the middle of my rank are merely personal: overplaying, thinking the production is too bright, a couple of meh tunes, among others.

So I'm not here to change the minds and tastes of anyone. Instead perhaps show that "I don't like it" and "it's bad" or "worst than" ar two completely different things. I mean I don't appreciate Mozart (one of the more skilled composers ever if not the most - once again subjective especially when we hav the Bachs of the world in the equation) as much as I appreciate Ravel. And the reason why is simple: personal taste. But do I dare saying Mozart is bad or meh... nope.

It’s always great to debate these things!
So in the light of all I mentioned before yes, it's great to debate this stuff. I don't say you're wrong for having RIR as your favorite live album by the band. Hey... You may not even like LAD (I know it's not the case) and it's perfectly fine. It's when people try to present stuff that is merely personal taste as universal truths that I draw a line and conversations become a waste of time.

Peace.
 
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in the video one I agree it's a bit funky and he struggles but in the LP version is by far the best vocal rendition of the song I've ever listened to. Anyway what the hell am I doing? Didn't I said I wouldn't talk about Bruce's voice on this one anymore? If you think it's "far from immaculate", "incredibly strained", "isn't the best" or "much weaker than the original takes" good for you. I don't. Just don't say "everyone has their own opinion" but yours is a "purely objective point of view". So I'm not dismissing others opinions it's exactly the opposite.

I never said mine is the purely objective view. Saying that his vocals are not immaculate on LAD is objectively correct though, strictly talking from a technique standpoint. I'm not here to argue, my chief complaint was your statement of calling the opinions of others diatribes, simply because you disagree with them. You have to agree that that's dismissive and uncalled for, right?

If one takes a more careful thinking on the subject there's an aspect that's truly relevant here: the evolution of post production tools. In 1985 there were no resources such as Pro Tools and fixing minor gripes on the original recording normally meant a trip to the studio to re record stuff. On the other hand 16 years later it was a completely different story. I mean... even a debutante without sound engineering background managed to fix semi decently some recordings. The living proof is I did it with my band back in 2005. So while auto tune or pitch bend effects or plugins would ultimately spare those Adrian studio takes. Now if the singing on LAD was so awful it's also curious that Bruce only recalls recording overdubs for RTTH.

None of that is relevant to the fact that LAD had overdubs though. We can argue day and night about if it was necessary or not, how far a band should go, but that's not really what we're doing here. Most Maiden fans would be pretty disappointed if Bruce started using pitch correction, even if only on studio albums. Rerecording vocals for live albums falls in the same category, imo.

When it comes to RIR overdubs It's curious you point out The Clansman and especially that section. I wonder how you noticed all the stuff you pointed out and failed to address the tempo miscues on this passage (and also at the beginning), miscues that didn't show up to the official RIR release. Isn't this post production work ? Now think what it would take to fix this back in 1985. But even so I consider all these interventions in both RIR and LAD to be minor ones.

"Failed to address"? My comment wasn't some kind of comprehensive changes list lol It was simply one of the examples that proves the RIR release was edited. Again, it's debatable what people are willing to accept. The RIR changes, in my opinion, were unnecessary and I specifically pointed out one edit that, in my opinion (as someone who has edited music before), was incredibly amateurish and sounds genuinely bad.

So has I said before... If you want so think LAD or Bruce Dickinson's performance there is better or worst than RIR's it's perfectly fine for me. Just don't try to put it as a universal truth. I never did so and won't let anyone do it to me.

I'm sorry if my comment came across as if claiming to be some authority or claiming "universal truth", that wasn't my intention. Most of my comment was simply my opinion, while a few other things are simply facts. I said from the beginning that everyone has their opinion, all opinions are valid. What bothers me is when valid criticisms are dismissed as "diatribes", especially when, at the same time, you put your own opinion ("immaculate vocals") over these "diatribes". I know that you don't want to argue, so we can drop it, just please: Don't go calling other opinions diatribes just because you disagree ;)
 
I never said mine is the purely objective view. Saying that his vocals are not immaculate on LAD is objectively correct though, strictly talking from a technique standpoint. I'm not here to argue, my chief complaint was your statement of calling the opinions of others diatribes, simply because you disagree with them. You have to agree that that's dismissive and uncalled for, right?



None of that is relevant to the fact that LAD had overdubs though. We can argue day and night about if it was necessary or not, how far a band should go, but that's not really what we're doing here. Most Maiden fans would be pretty disappointed if Bruce started using pitch correction, even if only on studio albums. Rerecording vocals for live albums falls in the same category, imo.



"Failed to address"? My comment wasn't some kind of comprehensive changes list lol It was simply one of the examples that proves the RIR release was edited. Again, it's debatable what people are willing to accept. The RIR changes, in my opinion, were unnecessary and I specifically pointed out one edit that, in my opinion (as someone who has edited music before), was incredibly amateurish and sounds genuinely bad.



I'm sorry if my comment came across as if claiming to be some authority or claiming "universal truth", that wasn't my intention. Most of my comment was simply my opinion, while a few other things are simply facts. I said from the beginning that everyone has their opinion, all opinions are valid. What bothers me is when valid criticisms are dismissed as "diatribes", especially when, at the same time, you put your own opinion ("immaculate vocals") over these "diatribes". I know that you don't want to argue, so we can drop it, just please: Don't go calling other opinions diatribes just because you disagree ;)
Well a diatribe is defined as a severe attack and fact is some people do actually attack Bruce's performance there severely. And yes I think its singing is immaculate here and am entitled to do so. And no, I didn't said I dismiss who thinks otherwise. If you read the sentence correctly it begins with: " I can't even begin to understand". It's ME! My position... my opinion and the fact I don't understand how people think it's crap. Does that mean you're not entitled to think otherwise or have to think Bruce's singing is great? Hell no! But nonetheless I still can't work out why some people think it's bad and am entitled to share how bizarre this sounds to me personally. If you don't want to understand this, ok.

Now you made your points. Some of them I could debate strongly like the fact that tempo screw ups do need to be fixed but fact is I do not wish to take this discussion further precisely because of what I mentioned in the last paragraphs of my last post answering to @Ascendingthethrone .

Let's just recur to the old saying of "agreeing to disagree".
 
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1. Live After Death (This is the PEAK of Maiden. The band is super tight, they're at their most successful point, and its the World Slavery tour! Not only is it their best live album, it's also a great introduction to te band. This is actually what I watched before listening to their catalog for the first time,)
2. Beast Over Hammersmith (Sure its super compressed, but its NOTB era man. Rest in Piece Clive.)
3. Maiden England (this made me realise how good SSOASS is, and I can't thank it enough)
4. Flight 666
5. Rock in Rio
6. Maiden Japan
7. Death on the Road
8. A Real Live\Dead One
9. Live at Donington
10. Book Of Souls: The Live Chapter (I've never listened to this or En Vivo! so I can't give a opinion)
11. En Vivo!

side note: If Raising Hell was a album it would easily top Rock In Rio.
 
Here is my updated rank:

14) Nights Of The Dead: This had everything to be a great release. It features a great array of tunes (although lacking any Killers and SIT stuff). And it would be if a little more effort was put in the production department but especially if they picked an early date (on 2018 specifically). It's a disgrace to release something with Bruce as sick as he was and struggling that much resulting in an awful performance (understandably so due to the circumstances). Bruce didn't deserve this, period. The rest of the band is also far from being tight. So what could be a great document turned out to be an utter disaster IMO by far dead last.
This is why I'd be totally okay buying a second volume in the Legacy of the Beast live album series from the third leg of the tour, if one was recorded with the altered setlist. Bruce sounded way better in pretty much all videos I've seen from the third leg than he did through most of what I heard from 2019 (and on the NOTD album), and we'd likely get better overall performances of repeat songs from NOTD. But, of course, Maiden's been pinching pennies when it comes to live album production since Kevin Shirley stopped working on them, so it'd be a miracle if the album sounded better than the last two.

I rank NOTD dead last too. Shame, because, like you mentioned, Bruce sounded great in 2018.
 
This is why I'd be totally okay buying a second volume in the Legacy of the Beast live album series from the third leg of the tour, if one was recorded with the altered setlist. Bruce sounded way better in pretty much all videos I've seen from the third leg than he did through most of what I heard from 2019 (and on the NOTD album), and we'd likely get better overall performances of repeat songs from NOTD. But, of course, Maiden's been pinching pennies when it comes to live album production since Kevin Shirley stopped working on them, so it'd be a miracle if the album sounded better than the last two.

I rank NOTD dead last too. Shame, because, like you mentioned, Bruce sounded great in 2018.
Agreed.
 
I don’t think NotD sounds nearly as bad as folks make it out. The singing and sound is still a good deal better than A Real Live Dead One.

I, Chaosplants, believe that the vinyl edition sounds quite delightful.
 
I don’t think NotD sounds nearly as bad as folks make it out. The singing and sound is still a good deal better than A Real Live Dead One.

I, Chaosplants, believe that the vinyl edition sounds quite delightful.
It's always fascinating how subjective we see things. I'd take ARLDO any day over NOTD.
It's a good thing though, otherwise we wouldn't have anything to discuss, which would suck for a forum :D
 
I don’t think NotD sounds nearly as bad as folks make it out. The singing and sound is still a good deal better than A Real Live Dead One.

I, Chaosplants, believe that the vinyl edition sounds quite delightful.
I have to say i dont see whats so bad about it. Its not their best live album but the version Sign of the Cross alone is worth it. Granted Bruce sounds strained on a few songs but irs not a bad experience listening to NOTD especially on vinyl.
 
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