Customer Reviews

Iron Maiden: Death on the Road

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

The 2007 release of Death On The Road is actually a third attempt after the first release attempt back at the beginning of 2006 had a plethora of disc problems ranging from audio mis-labels to manufacturing defects. The second attempt at releasing Death On The Road died in September 2006 for reasons unknown by me.

So here it is. One year later and you can finally buy 2003's Death On The Road tour on DVD. Make no mistake...this DVD is NOT a performance associated with 2006's A Matter Of Life And Death tour; it is a performance from 2003's Dance of Death tour...clearly there could be some confusion on that matter.

The Death On The Road DVD gives you:

1. Wildest Dreams
2. Wrathchild
3. Can I Play with Madness
4. The Trooper
5. Dance of Death
6. Rainmaker
7. Brave New World
8. Paschendale
9. Lord of the Flies
10. No More Lies
11. Hallowed Be Thy Name
12. Fear of the Dark
13. Iron Maiden
14. Journeyman
15. The Number of the Beast
16. Run to the Hills

6 of the 16 are from the 2003 Dance of Death CD.

Of the remaining 10 songs, 8 are on Rock in Rio. Leaving only Can I Play With Madness and Lord Of The Flies as new classic entries since the 2002 Rock in Rio release (which incidentally is on my Amazon Listmania list of The Best Hard Rock DVDs With High Quality A/V...click on my name above and visit my profile to check it out).

Dance of Death was not as strong as Brave New World (The Brave New World tour is chronicled on the 2002 Rock in Rio DVD), and Dance was also not as strong as 2006's A Matter Of Life And Death. So if the Dance Of Death CD wasn't one of your favorites and you don't own the Rock in Rio DVD, I highly recommend going the route of 2002's Rio instead of 2003's Death On The Road.

If you've got Rio already and have got to own everything Maiden, then this certainly is another opportunity. I'm counting on a future DVD release that perhaps switches out some of the classics (please guys, how about a nice high def update of say Flight of Icaris, 22 Acacia Avenue, Murders in the Rue Morgue, Where Eagles Dare and the like?).

The rating is for the product it self, not the actual content! I picked up the offical release on the day it was released. And I wasn't sure what to expect after reading some of the other reviews. Well, they were right!!! The first problem is the sound. There are three discs, two of which are the concert each containing a different sound. Disc 1 says dolby digital 5.1 and disc 2 says stereo. These discs are mislabled, the one reading dolby digital 5.1 is in-fact in stereo. And the one reading stereo is in-fact in dolby digital 5.1... The other flaw with these discs is kind of annoying. And it happens on both disc 1 and disc 2 (the same problem in the same spots) The concert plays fine up until the end of song 6. dance of death. When that song ends the disc pauses for a split second like it is going to swich
layers, but it doesen't it goes to the track selection menu. It also does this after each of the next two songs, rainmaker and brave new world. So after going to the menu a total of three times (and you must go to the main menu and hit play all and then jump to were you left off. Because, from the track menu, if you select a song -any song- it will only play that song, not continue on to any song that may come after)you get to finish the concert finally!!! The problem with this situation is it is a manufacturing problem, and that means you can't just return it and get a new one, because they all have the same problem. I hope that someone from iron maidens camp finds out the problem and does something to fix it, and post the solution on their website for all of us that are now stuck with this product, or nothing at all. I do not blame iron maiden or their crew, but I know if they knew about the quality of their product they would take care of it. They have always taken care of their fans, and I should know I have been listening to them for 23 years!!!!!
I would have rated this 5 stars because the content is great and I don't mind the quick cut editing. It just gives it a faster pace.

I'm among the people who thought Dance of Death was a much stronger album than Brave New World, so I was really looking forward to this DVD -- unlike some, even moreso once I heard what the setlist would be.

However, finding out that Steve Harris was editing it again made me fear for actually being able to work out what was happening on stage, like the Rio DVD -- and I'm afraid I have to say that, as far as I'm concerned, it wasn't a baseless fear. If anything, the editing is faster than Rio: rarely do we stay with a shot for more than a second, and many (most?) cuts are a fraction of a second in length. When your audience (me!) wishes they could look through just one camera -- pick a camera, any camera! -- for a few straight moments, maybe you're overdoing it a bit on the AVID.

Don't get me wrong: I love the setlist, I love the audio (much better than Rio, IMHO), but the video is pretty much wasted on me. Maybe I'm getting old, but I long for the days of Live After Death (and, for other bands, Rush's _A Show of Hands_ and Pink Floyd's _Pulse_ or _Delicate Sound of Thunder_), where you could actually remember individual songs -- hell, individual shots! -- and even have favourite ones, 'cos you got to see the band members doing their thing for more than a tenth of a second at a time.

It's harsh, but my feelings are honestly this: 'arry is a really talented guy, but we had to suffer through his audio mis-production on about 4 Maiden albums and one live DVD before he got that right. I sincerely hope we don't have to go through another two live DVDs before Steve figures out how to edit video; maybe the next time will be the charm.

Hope springs eternal...

After a year-and-a-half wait for the corrected version (the first run had major technical issues) to be released in the U.S., I finally got to sit down and watch this latest live DVD from The World's Greatest Metal Band Ever. Man, was I ever disappointed. I had heard bits here and there about how people didn't like how (Maiden bassist) Steve Harris had edited the footage, but ordinarily I find it's never as bad as people make it out to be. I was wrong. It's that bad. The whole concert is put together with a rapid-fire pace that might be cool for a video single, but not for an entire live show. No shot is ever held for more than 2 or 3 seconds, except between songs.

If you have the CD's you know this is Iron Maiden in their finest live form, but on the DVD you'd never know to look at them, because you can barely see them.

The bonus stuff on disc 3 is pretty good if you're a Maiden diehard like me, but nothing new, really.

All in all, buy the CD, stay away from the DVD, and join me in waiting not-so-patiently for a DVD release of Live After Death, Maiden England and Live at Donington.

I am very disappointed with the quality of this DVD set. I am not going to repeat the technical issues, but everything that you read here is true.

My biggest complaint and the reason I hate this DVD set:
FAST CAMERA ANGLE SCENE SWITCHING!!! The scenes switch so fast that you can not enjoy what you see. It has a strobe light effect that I can not live with. The warning at the beginning of the DVD states,

"WARNING: The Live concert footage contains prolonged periods of fast flashing imagery and light patterns which may cause a small percentage of people who suffer Epilepsy to have seizures."

I don't have Epilepsy, but that warning is no joke with this DVD set. I hate fast camera angle scene switching because it covers up overdubbing. The new producer Kevin Shirley even admits it during the documentary. You wont find too many close-in and tight video shots on guitarists hands while playing...like in the old Maiden DVD's. This new guy Kevin Shirley exaggerated the overdubbs and covered them up with fast video scene switching so that careful observers (like true Maiden fans) couldn't tell that the guitarist weren't "jiving" with the music. That's my opinion....agree or disagree....this is the worse Maiden DVD and it was not worth the wait.

But that is about it. Again another great concert destroyed by the fact that video editors seem to think we like watching concerts at 200 different camera angles a minute. Packaging claims to put you in the front row, well it does that as well as the back, the sides, the balcony, floor and stage a few times a minute so much so it is unwatchable.
But the music itself is awesome, great mixing and quality.

Someday I hope that those making concert videos will take the time and watch them themselves, it really ruins a good show.

Bottom line music is classic powerful Maiden.
Video, with all the great camera angles they had to work with I wish they would have slowed down the transitions at least a little so we could enjoy them.

I live in England, so I just got this where it came out today. I've just watched it and it is incredible. Some of you are concerned about a "boring" setlist - It's really not. The theatrical nature of the gig adds something new to the old songs and the new ones are great. If you don't like the new stuff, then maybe you won't like this. But if you do, then you'll love it. The live versions of Dance of Death and Pascendale are incredible, and the quality of the sound mixes is great. The transfer rate is constantly pushing the limitations of of the DVD format, and you can tell by the great picture and sound. This is definately a really special set. If you're tired of live albums from "the Maiden", then maybe this will cange your mind. If not, then don't get it... I personally love their live albums and DVDs. After all, they belong on stage, because, as this DVD shows, that is where their songs come to life.

This release is excellent. Get it as soon as you can!

I've been waiting several years for this release. They only played 2 locations in the U.S. for this tour and the date I had tickets for got cancelled. Now I can finally see the show. The sound and performance of this DVD are of the absolute highest quality. I love the 3 guitar harmony on The Trooper. It's a little hard to watch sometimes because the camera never stays in a shot for more than one second. The stage show is exactly what you'd expect. I think the last 3 studio albums are some of the best Maiden recordings so far and anyone who agrees should get this.

Sorry - there is no forgiving the editing of this DVD. It is in a word infuriating. There is no way to connect with the living, performing musicians on stage "captured" (presumably) by the cameras. The editing is an object lesson in how to wreck performance footage. I find it hard to believe that the creative forces behind Iron Maiden talked themselves into this massacre of the footage.

Add to that (or subtract rather) that the sound is thin and I guarantee I will never watch it again. I didn't even make it thru once. This product should be taken off the market and redone. Period.

Great performances and great picture quality are marred by Steve Harris' super-fast editing and the DVD's technical defects.

First of all, the editing is insane. People say the million cuts a minute heighten the energy of the show. I think the performances, the staging, the lighting and all the running around by the band should heighten the show's energy. But it's impossible to appreciate any of those things when no shot lasts longer than three seconds. Hopefully, when they finally get around to releasing "Live After Death" on DVD, Steve doesn't take it upon himself to re-edit and "heighten the energy" of that show, as well.

The US version of the DVD (which I bought here on Amazon, before it was pulled) has all of the defects mentioned in the other reviews -- including mislabeled discs, the messed-up playback, and the "out of phase" 5.1 mix that one other reviewer talked about. (I don't really know what "out of phase" means, but if it means you can't hear Steve's bass or Nicko's kick drum and the rest of the band sounds like they're playing in a tin can, then yeah, the 5.1 mix is "out of phase".)

All of which is a shame since, all in all, this was definitely one of Maiden's best shows and the picture quality and the playing are all fantastic. If only Steve didn't mess up the picture with crazy editing and the 5.1 sound wasn't messed up by the manufacturing defects.

Also, another review claims that the super-fast editing was used to mask the overdubbing of the audio performances. I think this is a mistaken assumption. When the producer Kevin Shirley talks about overdubbing, he's referring to how they recorded the studio album (a combination of playing "live" together in the studio and then editing specific sections with overdubs). He's definitely not referring to the live performances on this DVD. As far as I can tell, the only real purpose of the super-fast editing is to give me a headache.