One of the best live albums
djdjdjdjdjdj9 | Wisconsin | 06/10/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
""Live After Death," for any lover of heavy metal, is a necessity, along with live recordings such as Ozzy's "Tribute" and Zeppelin's BBC recordings. This is where the spandex 80s metal reached its high-point for British rock/metal. The album is wonderfully mixed and recorded. The remastered version is a step up from the original as well, and the songs are even spliced in different places for the remaster (the older cut did not include Bruce Dickinson's chatter before each song but rather at the back end of the previous song; also, on the older version, Churchill's speech was lumped in with "Aces High" but now it's a separate track). On the older versions, one only received the tracks up until "Running Free," but the double-CD remaster is faithful to the old vinyl and cassette versions of the album which include the final 5 tracks or so. Some reviewers are upset about Dickinson's ability to sing the older Di'Anno songs, but I wound up hearing this album before the old Di'Anno albums and frankly I like Bruce's vocals a bit more. Di'Anno sounds almost like a punk rock singer than he does a metal singer.
All in all, this set is necessary for any lover of metal. Maiden fans all across the board rave this album with little to no variation. Enjoy!"
It doesn't get better than this!
Osculum | Oceanside, CA | 07/06/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"There might be metal albums that equal this one's greatness, but there are none better. This is the most infamous live '80s metal album I can think of, and for good reason. It's Maiden live in their prime backing some of the best albums in history, period. The production is flawless, and with the newer re-releases of this CD, you can even get the five tracks that were not included in the original CD release. All killer, no filler, that's the best way I can think of to describe this masterpiece.Being born in 1982, this band is special to me. When I listen to '80s Maiden, I remember how we used to go over to my cousins house and they would listen to Maiden, AC/DC, Sabbath, etc. and my Mom wouldn't let me listen to it with them. I thought it was cool back then, and I think it's even cooler now. Iron Maiden will ALWAYS be a classic metal band, and no release by any band could ever think of topping the stuff they put out in the '80s. Now if I were you, I would start collecting as much of this stuff as I could, especially with all this bland, faceless, uninspired, not to mention poser, "nu-metal" corrupting the airwaves today."
One of the greatest Iron Maiden & live Metal albums ever
Patrick T. Grady | Palatine, IL | 06/26/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is, without a doubt, Iron Maiden at their peak. The recording is great and the song selection is excellent, too, although the setlist is heavy with tracks from Maiden's three albums prior to this one (Number of the Beast, Piece Of Mind, and Powerslave) and pretty light on the ones before that (only 3 songs from the debut album and one from Killers). Still, the performances are awesome, and its cool to hear songs that they probably haven't performed live in years, like Revelations, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and Powerslave. Anyone who has the original Capital Records version of this disc and is still a fan of it is best replacing that version with this, since that version contains only the first disc of this 2 disc set, so you're missing out on more great tunes like Phantom of the Opera and Wrathchild (which were on the original vinyl and cassette versions of Live After Death; I can't imagine why Capital left them off the CD). Iron Maiden was never better than this. The next couple of releases that followed were pretty good, but the band started to slide once guitarist Adrian Smith left, and they really fell off once vocalist Bruce Dickinson departed. The line up changes, combined with changing tastes and styles in the metal community really left the band hurting. Still, you can't disregard the quality of this album. A must for any Maiden fan and any fan of early eighties metal before thrash and glam took over and split up the scene."