Customer Reviews

Iron Maiden: Live After Death

5 star:		(86)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

After a ten year wait Iron Maiden's classic home video release Live After Death has finally been released on DVD.

This isn't just a straight, barebones issuing of the concert on DVD, however. This is a SPECIAL edition 2 disc DVD set, which will also include bonus live footage and the History of Iron Maiden Part 2 documentary, picking up where The Early Years left off.

The official details:

Disc one contains the recording of this full 90 minute concert. Originally filmed on 35mm, the footage comes alive on DVD resulting in a visually stunning film. The disc also carries two sound options - the original concert audio specially mixed into 5.1 Surround Sound by Kevin Shirley, Maiden's producer since 1999, plus the original stereo sound track by Martin Birch, the band's producer from 1981 to 1993.

Disc two has Part 2 of the 'History of Iron Maiden', continuing on the Maiden story from "The Early Days" DVD, along with rare and unseen bonus footage in the form of BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN, ROCK IN RIO '85, and 'ELLO TEXAS, all in all giving a total running time of well over three hours.

The multiple audio mixes and new video transfer from the original 35mm elements should make this a fantastic DVD. While this has been a long, long wait for the official DVD release, it looks like it will be well worth it.

Ths Live After Death show itself was fantastic. The band plays with an amazing amount of energy, but also with great musical ability as well. The songs are all classics, and the stage set is one of the best from that era.

(Update: The video quality of the Live After Death concert looks better than either the VHS or LaserDisc versions that I have, and the sound quality is really, really good. The remastered stereo mix is incredibly, "In your face," and is just a wall of sound. The 5.1 remix? Meh. Kevin Shirley has the guitars too low in the mix. It's punchy and INCREDIBLY clean, but it lacks the power of the original stereo mix. The extras are really nice. The History Part II documentary has a lot of great info, and is a great continuation of the first part from The Early Days. The 1985 Rock in Rio, however, is a disappointment. Not because of the performance, but because the audio/video quality is so poor. The audio is a bit muddy - originally mastered on video tape it has aged poorly - but the video is the real shame. Herky jerky, jittery and jumpy, the original master tape was not stored properly and now has serious tracking issues. It's almost like watching Cloverfield. That's too bad, because the band gives another great performance. The other extras like 'Ello Texas and the extended version of Behind the Iron Curtain are a nice bonus, and make the set an even greater value than it already is. Overall, I'm very pleased with the set, but it is not without a couple flaws. It's clearly still a, "Must Have," DVD.)

Is this recording really 23 years old? Can it be? Has time slipped away that quickly. Some would certainly argue the opposite. In fact, all of us waiting to finally get a picture clean-up and an audio enhancement would probably say that it seems as though the wait has been forever or long overdue at best.

But here it finally is...Live After Death on two DVD disks. Disk one is the classic performance wrap-up of Iron Maiden's 1984/1985 World Slavery show in Long Beach, CA. This just has got to go into any Maiden fan's collection. The cleaned-up, full screen picture is better than the VHS, but it still makes you appreciate how much better the technology is today. The audio has been converted to 5:1 and sounds terrific. The Live After Death set list goes:

"Intro: Churchill's Speech"
"Aces High"
"2 Minutes to Midnight"
"The Trooper"
"Revelations"
"Flight of Icarus"
"Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
"Powerslave"
"The Number of the Beast"
"Hallowed Be Thy Name"
"Iron Maiden"
"Run to the Hills"
"Running Free"
"Sanctuary"

The show runs for about 90 minutes and captures a great performance and all of the energy that a Maiden show was back in the early days.

Disk two includes a lot more time than the DVD jacket suggests. The DVD jacket says that Disk Two runs for 150 minutes, but rest assured that, if you include the photo gallery tour, you get 231 minutes of Maiden stuff that includes:

1) "The History of Iron Maiden Part Two" - This is getting billed as the follow up to the 2004 release of The History Of Iron Maiden - Pt. 1: The Early Days, but don't expect the same kind of multi-year documentary here with Part 2. To be sure, Part Two is a 60 minute documentary of only the Powerslave, or should I say World Slavery, tour. So if you're expecting (as I was) that this is another multi-year documentary of Maiden that perhaps takes us into the Janick Gers/Blaze Bayley years, you'd be mistaken.

2) "Behind the Iron Curtain" - Apx an hour in total length, this chapter features some behind the scenes stuff as Maiden made their way through Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Hungary (in 1984 I think). You also get complete live performances of:

"Aces High"
"The Trooper"
"22 Acacia Avenue"
"The Number of the Beast"
"Hallowed Be Thy Name"
"2 Minutes to Midnight"
"Run to the Hills"

3) As if the above weren't enough, you get another 50 minutes of live footage from Maiden's 1985 appearance at the Rock in Rio festival. "Scream for me, Brazil!" The picture quality was beyond repair (by today's standards) for this, but the sound is pretty good.

"Aces High"
"2 Minutes to Midnight"
"The Trooper"
"Revelations"
"Powerslave"
"Iron Maiden"
"Run to the Hills"
"Running Free"

The good news is that if you wan't a high quality A/V Rock in Rio performance by Maiden, you've got it with 2002's outstanding Rock In Rio DVD.

4) Finally, you get another 49 minutes of stuff with:

- "'Ello Texas!" - Same songs (3 altogether), different time period. From 1983's World Piece Tour...'22 Acacia Ave', 'Flight of Icaris' and 'Iron Maiden'.
- Videos for "Aces High" and "2 Minutes to Midnight".
- A 20 minute photo gallery tour.

How could any Iron Maiden fan pass on this. Simple...a true Iron Maiden fan CANNOT pass on this. I predict that in conjunction with the 2008 Iron Maiden "Somewhere Back in Time" World tour, the boys will record a show and release it on DVD next year with History Part Three. Let's hope on the next DVD that they switch out some of those classics that we're so used to hearing for some great tunes like Murders in the Rue Morgue, Where Eagles Dare, Killers, Die With Your Boots On, and so on and so on.

... it could have been better.

I won't spend much time talking about all of the fantastic things about this video, because everyone already knows how great this classic concert film is. 2 things I will point out that I really like about the DVD release are:

- The 5.1 sound is great. Generally I prefer the stereo track on DVD concert videos, but this is an exception. The 5.1 mix is much better than the stereo mix on this release

- All of the bonus material on Disc 2 is great, and a lot of fun to watch for the first time.

Now on to why I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5:

- I was really hoping they would clean up the video quality for the DVD release. It looks like it was ported over from a slightly faded, grainy VHS tape. With that being said, I am watching this on a big 52" TV and that may be revealing more of the video limitations than a smaller TV will.

Also, just as a note, the preview video at Amazon clearly shows the LAD concert footage in a widescreen format. The LAD concert is actually in 4:3 format, and not 16:9 as shown in the preview. This is probably a good thing, though, as converting it to 16:9 would have resulted in the cropping of the original aspect ratio.

Even though I think that they could have done a much better job cleaning up the original picture quality, this is still a must have DVD for your concert DVD collection. After all these years, it's still at the top of the list as one of the best heavy metal concerts ever captured on tape.

Manager Rod Smallwood explained "The original video of Live After Death has not been readily available for a long time so its good that we finally got around to this. lt was one of the first full concerts to be filmed after the advent of video and of course the live album, recorded on a different night to the video, has long been considered to be one of the seminal Metal live albums and has sold millions since. Fans have been begging us to do this DVD for some time now but we wanted to wait until we were able to recreate that whole tour to go with it and also to make it part of a series of DVDs that we are putting together around the band's history. And of course we are making sure that now we have got to it we will be giving the fans everything we can find from that period!!"

FULL LIST OF CONTENTS

Disc 1 -- LIVE AFTER DEATH
Live After Death concert with Stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio (90 minutes)

Set list --
Churchill Speech/Aces High
2 Minutes to Midnight
The Trooper
Revelations
Flight of Icarus
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Powerslave
Number of the Beast
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Iron Maiden
Run to The Hills
Running Free
Sanctuary

Disc 2 -- DOCUMENTARY / BONUS CONCERT FOOTAGE

1.The History of Iron Maiden -- Part 2 (60 mins) -- Documentary.
Band members, crew, friends and associates talk about the period in the band's career which saw the writing, recording and release of the Powerslave album, and later Live After Death, and the subsequent massive touring. And not just the serious side!!

2. Behind the Iron Curtain ( 57 mins approx) Documentary and Live -- shot during Maiden's historic tour of Poland and other parts to the Eastern Bloc in 1984 featuring interviews, live and offstage footage capturing the atmosphere of this remarkable journey behind the Wall at the height of the Cold War.

3. Live Footage - Rock in Rio '85 (50 mins approx)
Highlights from the Maiden set supporting Queen on the first day of the first Rock in Rio in front of 300,000. A bloody and stirring performance!!

4. Ello Texas -- 15 minutes -- Interview and live. Caught by a film crew in 1983 at the Alamo and sound checking their show in San Antonio.

5. Artwork Gallery, Tour Programme, Tour dates and photo gallery

6. Promotional clips for Aces High and 2 Minutes to Midnight

Subtitles for All documentary footage --
PAL version -- English HOH / Dutch / French / German / Italian / Swedish / Portuguese / Spanish
NTSC Version -- English HOH / Brazilian Portguese / Latin Spanish

This video essentially captures a very refined selection of their first (commonly thought) heavier albums. The album is produced by the legendary producer Martin Birch who a.o. engineered Deep Purple's Made in Japan.

I personally think that Somewhere/Seventh Son was the first peak of their career, Brave New World being the 2nd, for most Maiden fans, LaD has all the old beloved songs, performed almost perfectly, and in one of my favorite Maiden themes: ancient Egypt. The list of musicianship awards that this album received would be longer than the Chinese Wall I guess.

I had the chance of owning the original 2-LP version of the album back in the days but there are many versions of it: 1cd, 2cd, 1cd+bonus, vhs, etc. The video is one of the better versions of the album. Alas, as in most Maiden videos, we don't get to see Nicko's "the world's fastest right foot".

Here is the corrected setlist:
1 Churchill's Speech
2 Aces High
3 2 Minutes to Midnight
4 The Trooper
5 Revelations
6 Flight of Icarus
7 Rime of the Ancient Mariner
8 Powerslave
9 The Number of the Beast
10 Hallowed Be Thy Name
11 Iron Maiden
12 Band Introduction
13 Run to the Hills
14 Running Free
15 Sanctuary

This album deserves the title of being _THE_ live album, having withstood the test of time, without any single doubt. Though I know many fine concerts (Fates Warning - Still Life, Ozric Tentacles - Live Underslunky, Rush - Exit Stage Left/Show of Hands, etc.) this video wins hands down. And after all, put everything aside, it's not easy to play in front of a few hundreds of thousands of people, is it?

This video is the ultimate Maiden. I also own the VHS 12 Wasted Years, Maiden England, and the DVD Rock in Rio (which is very good) but not as good as Live After Death.
It really is Iron Maiden at the height of their powers, and though it's VHS, the sound is very very good, prob because this video was produced by Sony Music.
I bought mine new in 1990 or so and still treasure it. The skill and musical talent of the lads is very apparent in this video. Every member of the band absolutely soars here.
SONY PLEASE PLEASE MAKE THIS A DVD!!
I saw them live in Honolulu, HI during the LAST SHOW of the World Slavery Tour in 1985. They ended the American leg of the tour in Honolulu, and Bruce announced during the show that Dave Murray would be getting married the next day in Hawaii.
The band members wore the same outfits as in the video and Bruce even had the mask that you see on Powerslave. I was just a teenager and it made a BIG impression on me. One of the best concerts I've ever seen and I just feel so lucky to be able to watch it again and again (from front row) in this video.
Up the Irons!!!

Live After Death, the live DVD by Iron Maiden.

INTRODUCTION:
The biggest selling British Heavy Metal band Iron Maiden had embarked on their biggest tour yet, The World Slavery Tour. It consisted of 193 shows, and 4 of them were sold out dates at Long Beach Arena in Los Angeles, California. They taped two dates, one for an album entitled "Live After Death", and another for a video with the same title. THe video sold so well that when the DVD revolution came around, fans had waited 11 years for LAD to come out. And now, LAD no longer stands for "Long Awaited DVD"!

I bought Long Awaited DVD... erm-- I mean Live After Death today after a solid 3 months of waiting after announcement. Man, it was sure worth the wait!


The tracklisting:

Aces High
Two Minutes To Midnight
The Trooper
Revelations
Flight of Icarus
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Powerslave
Number of the Beast
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Iron Maiden
Run To The Hills
Running Free
Sanctuary


THE GOOD:
-Comes with the options of LPCM Stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound. The Surround sounds AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!
-Revelations is much faster than on POM. Lots of energy, and the guitar playing rules.
-Comes with the "Rock in Rio 1985" show!!!! Now we can see Bruce accidentally smoking himself in the face, running off the stage, and coming back out and singing while bleeding!!!!! (Bruce, promise not to kill me. Please!)
-The "History of Iron Maiden" series is continued.
-The classic spandex outfits. Love 'em!
-And this is the DVD release we want. Not that crappy Raising Hell (God, don't get me started on how much I hate Raising Hell).

CONS:
None so far...

Anyways, I like the DVD purchase, in fact I LOVE it. If you're a harcore Maiden fan, this is a must own!!!!!!

THIS IS BY FAR THE BEST IRON MAIDEN CONCERT EVER MADE. THERE'LL NEVER BE ONE LIKE THIS ONE. THEY SING AND PERFORM THEIR BEST SONGS FROM THE EARLY EIGHTIES. THIS VIDEO CAN NEVER BE COMPARED TO THEIR RECENT ONES. TOO BAD THAT THIS VIDEO IS EXPENSIVE COMPARED TO THIER OTHER VIDEOS. I'VE CHECK EVERYWHERE ON THE WEB AND ONLY AMAZON HAS IT FOR THIS PRICE. GOOD LUCK:)

I First saw "Live After Death" probably around 1986. I rented it from a video store. I loved it. At that time it was still easy to find at stores and was a cinch to order. I bought one from a record store and watched it all the time. I made the mistake of letting someone borrow it and he moved away and I never got it back. Now this is a few years later probably around 1993 or 94. I couldn't find a copy of it anywhere to save my life. I ran into someone that had "Live After Death" and Dio's "Live at the Spectrum." Both videos were in nice shape. I offered him 60 bucks but he wouldn't part with either one. So, needless to say I have been forced to watch live clips on YouTube of Iron Maiden's legendary World Slavery Tour. Oh sure, there is a few clips on the CD but it's not the whole show. I know I also could have gotten a Brazilian DVD of the show but I knew Maiden was going to put out part 2 of the history of the band. So I waited and at long last we finally have "Live After Death." It was well worth waiting for this official release.
The concert is spectacular on DVD. It looks so crisp and clean. The colors are beautiful and the sound is awesome! It looks and sounds so good! We also have some assorted goodies from a little before the tour like: "Ello Texas", a documentary filmed during the World Piece tour. "Rock in Rio" from Brazil. A riveting, raw performance. I love rare stuff like this. Then, you get "Behind the Iron Curtain." This was a short glimpse into the rehearsal tour of Iron Maiden's first visit to some of the eastern european countries like Hungary and Poland during the cold war of the 1980's. They were one of the first bands to tour in that part of the world. If you grew up in the 80's, you should know what I'm talking about. Great live performances all around from this documentary. I have the video of this and what is on the DVD is different. The DVD version is longer and instead of live versions of songs I have the promo clips. The video is 38 minutes and the version on the DVD is and hour. Which, in fact, is very cool. The videos from the "Powerslave" album are of course included in this phenominal 2 DVD set.
When I look back in time to the year 1985 "Live After Death" is one of the things I remember the most. I would say that Iron Maiden were at the height of thier career. I remember being in grade school and hearing people talk about Maiden. Then, when I got to high school everyone liked them. The World Slavery Tour is a high point in the history of heavy metal. You don't ever see shows like that anymore. Could you imagine the work and manpower involved in putting on a show like that? Oh, I almost forgot! You also get to look at the tour book from the tour. Every page is hear and you are able to read all the text. What a great idea that was to include the tour book!
If you are a hardcore Maiden fan I'm sure you already have this DVD. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to see what a real heavy metal band is like. Up the irons!

Great concert! Wayyy better than the VHS copy I have.
If you look second row, center...guy with blonde hair in red leather jacket. That's me!!
I bought tickets to the Long Beach show for my girlfriends' birthday and it was the best Maiden show I'd seen since Nikko took over.