LEGACY OF THE BEAST 2019

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I think Bruce’s live delivery has gotten less consistent over time, but his ability to hit high notes seems to have improved over recent tours, and the LOTB show I saw in St. Paul is the best live performance I’ve personally seen out of the band (though Bruce & Adrian in 1997 were better).

Bruce’s studio performance seems to have gone downhill noticeably starting with The Final Frontier, and this is what really concerns me. We know he can still deliver the goods when everything comes together, so have the studio shortcomings been a side effect of lazy production (not doing enough takes), a side effect of the cancer (we haven’t yet heard any post-cancer studio material), or something else? Here’s hoping that album 17 reverses the trend.
 
Right, I saw them in 2016 on that tour and maybe I have to refresh some memories of the recordings especially from 2017. COTD didn't sound bad to me in concert..but then when I heard some chosen performances from The Book of Souls: Live Chapter I was bit surprised but it's not totally out of the question for Steve to pick some weird choices for live-albums taken from different shows. There has to better COTD ones from that tour, right? Tell me.

I have not re-watched the clip, but a professional singer I know sang (no pun intended) the praises of this one:

 
I think Bruce’s live delivery has gotten less consistent over time, but his ability to hit high notes seems to have improved over recent tours, and the LOTB show I saw in St. Paul is the best live performance I’ve personally seen out of the band (though Bruce & Adrian in 1997 were better).

Out of curiosity, which Maiden tours have you seen live? :)
 
Bruce sounded much stronger in 2017 yet most of the live recordings on The Book of Souls: Live Chapter are from 2016, the first tour he did right after surviving cancer. I sometimes wonder if Steve does not want to choose the best of Bruce's performances for Maiden live albums. That is probably not the case, but it certainly looks like that at times!
He's certainly not had it easy on the release front.

Dortmund '83 - End of the tour.
Live After Death - Well into a ridiculously tough tour, long after the damage had already been done to his voice.
Maiden England - Last show(s) of the tour.
Donington 1992 - Not nearly as good other performances from this tour, especially the South American ones.
Rock in Rio - Last show of the tour.
Death on the Road - Supposedly he had a cold, either way it was not at all representative of his voice at the time.

Even the cherry-picked DVDs like A Real Live Dead One, Flight 666 and TBOSLC have vocals bested by other performances, like Berlin 1993, Chile 2009 and Argentina 2016.

Edit: A few posts were made while i was writing this - I see we are in agreement about Argentina 2016!
 
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Bruce’s studio performance seems to have gone downhill noticeably starting with The Final Frontier, and this is what really concerns me. We know he can still deliver the goods when everything comes together, so have the studio shortcomings been a side effect of lazy production (not doing enough takes), a side effect of the cancer (we haven’t yet heard any post-cancer studio material), or something else? Here’s hoping that album 17 reverses the trend.
TFF was a pretty poor album vocally outside of “The Talisman”, but TBOS was much stronger IMO. Yes there was a lot of straining, but it seemed to fit in well to my ears and as a whole the huskier voice had a nice richness that I liked. Very much interested in hearing how he sounds in studio with the next album.
 
Bruce sounded much stronger in 2017 yet most of the live recordings on The Book of Souls: Live Chapter are from 2016, the first tour he did right after surviving cancer. I sometimes wonder if Steve does not want to choose the best of Bruce's performances for Maiden live albums. That is probably not the case, but it certainly looks like that at times!
Frankfurt 2003 comes to mind. Not his best vocal moment of the tour. Maybe they did not film other gigs back then.
 
Oh yeah, “Coming Home” was pretty great too. Still, 2/10 isn’t exactly the best number. Maybe TFF (the song) had some good bits too, but it’s the one album where they should’ve really put more effort into getting them right. That’s the big downside to a producer like Shirley.
 
Bruce is still the hero with the high notes most of the time, but I want to hear more low register, because it sounds better. It‘s music, not a competition (or as a great philosopher once wrote: “Naughty, naughty, very naughty”).
 
Ah yes, probably. The gig the DVD was taken from.

Recorded in Dortmund. I seem to remember Bruce had not completely recovered from the flu and severe laryngitis that led to the cancellation of some shows a couple of weeks before the gig that was filmed.
 
Out of curiosity, which Maiden tours have you seen live? :)
Fair question. Not that many, actually. I was more of a casual fan during the 80s and didn’t get more deeply into them until the early 90s when they were already in post-Adrian decline.

While I saw Bruce solo with Adrian in 1997, my first live Maiden concert was AMOLAD in 2006. After that I saw Maiden England 2012, TBOS in 2016, and LOTB In 2019. Out of those Maiden concerts, the specific LOTB show I saw in St. Paul was the best overall performance of theirs. I also preferred the performance overall to ARLO/ARDO, LAD, TBOS:LC, and even SBIT.
 
Fair question. Not that many, actually. I was more of a casual fan during the 80s and didn’t get more deeply into them until the early 90s when they were already in post-Adrian decline.

While I saw Bruce solo with Adrian in 1997, my first live Maiden concert was AMOLAD in 2006. After that I saw Maiden England 2012, TBOS in 2016, and LOTB In 2019. Out of those Maiden concerts, the specific LOTB show I saw in St. Paul was the best overall performance of theirs. I also preferred the performance overall to ARLO/ARDO, LAD, TBOS:LC, and even SBIT.

Thanks for the information. :)
 
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