Which live album best represents Iron Maiden

If Adrian Smith played it any faster, our mere mortal ears would disintegrate. He is showing mercy on us.
 
Mosh said:
I don't expect perfection, but I don't want to hear sloppy renditions either.
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I don't feel like we've had many sloppy renditions, I don't feel like any of the work on Live After Death, Maiden England etc are sloppy...Perhaps on the Real Live/Dead albums...but if they're sloppy it's for a reasons, at least on behalf of Bruce (because he didn't really give hís all....)..The Wasted Years song that was cut from that album and later released as a b-side (on Wasting Love singe I think?!) is perhaps the most sloppy I've heard them...
 
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Bruce sounded really good on Rock in Rio for sure except you could tell he was worn out. Not sure why the band always makes a live album from a show at the end of the tour. They seem to always do this.
 
SirRobbins said:
Bruce sounded really good on Rock in Rio for sure except you could tell he was worn out. Not sure why the band always makes a live album from a show at the end of the tour. They seem to always do this.
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Yeah, i think right at the middle of a tour would be the best. A perfect bridge between tightness and energy. Also, it would give the producer more time to work on the album and, probably, release it right after the tour while the public's memory of the tour is still fresh
 
One thing that always confuses about Rock In Rio video, is the footage from the base of the guitars and Bruce's mic, because in the shots after them ,they're nowhere to be seen.
 
Oh, the editing on Rock in Rio is ludicrous. But the sound is great and Bruce kills it. Absolutely my favorite live album by them.
 
Maybe it's because I'm so used to it and didn't know any better at the time (for a long time it was the only concert video I had seen), but I love the editing for Rock In Rio. Not just tolerate it, but love it. I think it captures the energy and intensity of that concert quite well. Plus it doesn't go overboard like Death On the Road. Now that's a video with seizure inducing editing.
 
My bad if someone else has already mentioned this, but I think there's a subtle error happening here. The thread is titled "which live album best represents Iron Maiden" (yes I know it started otherwise) but we can't treat Iron Maiden like some monolithic entity. They change over time. What they intend or purport to represent changes with them.

On that basis, I think Live After Death is still perfect. The band had a faster and brighter sound in the 80s overall, and comparing the production of Rock In Rio to LAD isn't quite valid. Don't think of it like two producers trying to capture the same subject; the subject in question has grown and changed in the interim, and we shouldn't expect the albums to sound the same.
 
That's a valid point, SMX. But personally, I think Bruce's performance on LAD leaves a lot to be desired. I'd go with both "introducing Bruce to the world" live albums: Beast Over Hammersmith and Rock In Rio.
 
I love Beast over Hammersmith and Live After Death because of their significance. The Hammersmith show sees a very young group just on the verge of doing their first US headline tour and establishing themselves as the band they would become in the 80s. Live After Death sees them at the peak of that accomplishment. Love both of these but I still prefer an album like Maiden England because they had more albums under their belt at this time and as an album it closes an era for the band, AND it's their best set list ever..... well IMO ;)
 
*raises hand*

*raises it a higher for A Real Live One than for A Real Dead One*

I know these albums aren't loved much, mostly because of Bruce's rough voice (I didn't have a big problem with it myself) but also probably because Adrian is not on it. I especially digged A Real Live One because of the new songs on it. It is a rough, energetic and pure sounding album, containing mindblowing performances of ATSS (beautiful to hear these guitar lines live), The Evil (the speed, the bass drums!), Bring Your Daughter and yes here it comes: Fear of the Dark. All the others are great as well. Can I Play With Madness is also special because I was in the crowd. Speaking of crowd, I like the way the audiences change in between the songs, they've done that pretty neatly.

I rate this album higher than Death on the Road, on which I don't like Bruce's performance. And Lord of the Flies sounds messy. For the rest: one of the worst setlists in Maiden history.
 
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A Real Live One (& A Real Dead One) & Live at Donnington 1992 was the Maiden live sound I grew up with. I had just got into them ~'92 & these were the first live albums I bought (I'm not even sure if I'd even heard of Live After Death at the time); and while I appreciate the quality of newer live releases like RiR (I literally never listen to Death on the Road), these 90's releases are the quintessential Maiden live sound for me. That version of Prowler on A Real Dead One is probably one my favourite Dave Murray lead lines of all time, encapsulating everything about why I fell in love with the band. It also sits at a sort of crossroads; looking back into Maiden's past at the time, Brucie on the verge of moving on, etc. I get all nostalgic every time I listen to it...
 
Nicely described Cried. Actually, it's not far from how I felt at the time. I too was very busy with Bruce leaving, and also appreciated the albums soundwise (a good representation of that era), plus I've seen the FOTD tour which isn't unimportant.

There is a difference and that is that I got into Maiden one year earlier and Live After Death was the first Maiden album I owned! Before I heard it, I had only heard the debut album, taped for me by a friend. So, LAD functioned as a catalyst to discover more albums (to be honest I also liked the songs and the sound the most, and of course it got me into Maiden solos; LAD is a great way to learn what Adrian and Dave are doing).

A Real Live One was a document of "current" Maiden (1993), which felt equally as important. Also, the latter has extra emotional (dramatic) value. In 1993 I was ill and was not able to attend Bruce's farewell gig. In that sense this one plus A Real Dead One felt as important, last resort documents.
 
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Aye, well put Foro.

Like you, I also first heard Maiden on a tape; mine was Led Zep. + Maiden's debut all mixed together. I definitely heard this well before FotD came out; in fact I'd definitely been listening to it around late '90 early '91, as I distinctly remember Bring Your Daughter being announced as #1 in early 1991. I started playing guitar around this time. However, being pretty young, a didn't really follow the band. I don't remember the launch of FotD; although, again, I recall seeing things like the video for Be Quick Or Be Dead on the old Saturday morning ITV Chart Show. Either way, I didn't seriously get into following what they were doing until late '92 (after FotD's release, I guess), when other guys I knew at school started listening to them & my sister started going to their gigs (& telling me about it!) Like everyone, I have an era: the early 90's was mine.
 
I gotta go with Live after death. I remember when that came out, that got so many more people into Maiden and so many fans bought that album before they had any of the studio albums. The sound is just incredible and really captures that magic of those earlier albums. If I tried to pick a second favorite I don't think I could. a tie between Rock in Rio, beast over Hammersmith, Maiden England, and flight 666 I guess. lol
 
Agree with @CriedWhenBrucieLeft and @Forostar. "A Real Live One "was the first Maiden album I picked out myself and bought. My first era of Maiden was from 1993 - 1997 or so...Lost interest in them when Virtual came out, partly because I wasn't really feeling that album and those years were also years of other great musical discoveries! But hell yeah I listened to those three 90s live albums, Real Live/Dead One/Donington, over and over...And of course discovered all of the back catalog in those years as well.
 
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I'd say no live album better captures the era more than Live After Death. Others may have sounded better, or had better playing, but LAD represents the band at their pinnacle, with a killer setlist. Plus, the video was amazing, without the ADD editing that epitomizes much of today's live videos.

However, I wish there had been a live album for the 99 reunion tour--AKA Ed HunTour. The setlist they had was an amazing mix of the classic and newer, the familiar and the more obscure. It would have been worth it alone just to hear a live version of Stranger in a Strange Land, one of my favorite songs, which was played early in the tour.
 
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