Customer Reviews

Scream for Me Brazil

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4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Recorded during the Chemical Wedding tour, Scream for Me Brazil is a beast of a live metal album. As you would expect, the performances are scorching. Bruce is an awesome live performer, with his eminent stage presence and charisma. Adrian Smith and Roy Z. are a fiery guitar duo, and the rest of the band is just as tight. The sound quality is a bit muddy on the instrumental side. Bruce sounds great though, and the twin guitars are mixed in stereo so you can distinguish Smith's playing from Roy Z.'s. The band's energy overwhelms any gripes about the sound quality, though. The songs are great too...mostly Chemical Wedding songs, but also three from Accident of Birth and two from Balls to Picasso (including "Tears of the Dragon", one of the best songs). The beginning is awesome...you hear heady murmur of the crowd, then an air raid siren is played over the PA (Bruce fans will understand the significance of that). Then the snarling, opening riff of "Trumpets of Jericho" is unleashed. It's SOOO intense. Really!

What makes this a truly amazing live album, however, is the Brazilian crowd. It sounds like there's a hundred thousand people out there. They're loud and clearly soaking in the music's energy. On "Book of Thel", their deafening chants nearly drown out the main riff. After griping about a cold draft, Bruce introduces "Tears of the Dragon" and the crowd goes wild! Then they go on to sing every word to the song in unison with Bruce. I'm subdued by a staggering tingling sensation during this track...it's so powerful with the audience involved. They also sing along with the opening melodies of "Darkside of Aquarius" and the aforementioned "Tears of the Dragon". It's great. You very rarely hear so much enthusiasm from a crowd on a North American live album. I guess we must not appreciate music as much! In Europe and South America, there seems to be more energy surrounding the music, all in all.

Also, Scream for Me Brazil has a good set of liner notes. There's great pictures of _every_ member of the band and cool crowd shots. I love the picture of Smith on the 12-string guitar, and the one where Bruce has one foot up on the monitor with the green light behind him...I want posters of these pictures! The packaging for live metal albums is usually really boring, but it's cool that this release is an exception.

For Bruce fans, there's no question...you should have this.

Some people have complains about the mixing, personally I find it superior to the way Iron Maiden's Live After Death was mixed (I mean honestly, trying distinguish the guitars on that!). Bruce is in top vocal shape and all the great songs are played here: The Chemical Wedding, The Tower, Tears of the Dragon, Road to Hell, Accident of Birth.

Get this and if you can find a copy of Beast over Hammersmith (released in Iron Maiden's Eddie's Archive box set), you'll have hours great live performances.

Consisting mostly of songs from his last two (and best) solo albums, this is a great album and the atmosphere are very evident with the crowd way up in the mix (not to high though). No Maiden songs, and no songs from his Tatooed Millionare album but just the highlights from his 90's solo career. In my opinion Bruce made much better music in the 90's than Maiden did with the godawful Blaze Bailey. It's not the best sounding live album I've heard, but the band including Adrian Smith on guitar are top notch and Bruce's air raid siren voice is crystal clear. Highlight is the fantastic version of Tears Of The Dragon with the crowd singing along and knowing every word. If you liked Accident Of Birth and Chemical Wedding this album is a must have!!

simply stated, if you are a fan of bruce Dickinson's solo work, then this album will rock you. the crowd sounds kinda loud in the mix and sometimes it's a bit distracting...but it's cool to hear the crazed fans screaming along with the lyrics...hence the album's title.

My opinion about this masterpiece is definitely biased, because I was there, in the audience, listening to what became one of the greatest metal live albums ever. Everytime I listen to this album, I get transported back in time to a place that only loud metal, air raid siren, great solos, etc matters, and that is what you get here. This is an awesome live album from the best metal singer in history, who sings for the best metal band in history, so it's A MUST.

Some reviewers complained about the sound, but I think it's perfect. Others mentioned the loud audience participation, but I am certain it was actually tuned down during the mixing. And if the crowd was loud during Bruce's solo material, it was definitely louder when he played Two Minutes, Powerslave and other Maiden classics. A pity Bruce opted to leave the Maiden stuff out, but we have to respect his decision of not living over the his past (and present now) there.

About the album in detail, Bruce is in great shape, jumping, screaming, talking to the audience. Adrian is a guitar god, he is responsible for most of Maiden's classics. Roy Z is also a great axeman (let's replace Janick with him in Maiden also) and the rest of the band is quite good.

Trumpets is a perfect start, kicking a** opener with a marvelous riff and you can listen the crowd when Bruce enters the stage. King In Crimson is a heavy, doomy song, perfect for the Scream for Me trademark. From them on, it's like fighting against a boxing champion, one blow after another. Chemical Wedding (crowd goes wild), Gates of Urizen, Killing Floor (Sataaaan, has left his Killing Floor), the Book of Thel (I love so much this one, with all its variations), Tears of The Dragon (audience singing every word), Laughing in the Hiding Bush (crowd goes wild again), Accident Of Birth (Journey back to the dark side, back into the womb, back to where the spirits...), The Tower (audience sings to Bruce), Darkside of Aquarius (a song that fits in any Maiden setlist) and Road to Hell (a heavenly way to end this masterpiece).

In short, this album rocks and is a must for any metal fan. And, if you like the Brazilian fans participation, also check Maiden's Rock In Rio, Rush's Rush In Rio, Edguy's upcoming DVD or the live albums from Angra and Shaman.

JUST LIKE ALL OF THE WORK BRUCE HAS DONE IT IS GOOD,BUT THE RECORDING OF THE CD IS NOT IMPRESSIVE,IT SHOULD BE A LITTLE MORE
CRISP,BUT HIS SOLO STUFF IS THE TOPS.