martindavey87 Iron Maiden were on a roll. 1982’s ‘The Number of the Beast’ and 1983’s ‘Piece of Mind’ had shot the band to the top of the metal world, and if there was finally any doubters left that didn’t think the band belonged, then 1984’s ‘Powerslave’, the Brits’ fifth studio release, really established them as one of the top metal acts around. What followed was the “World Slavery Tour”, which saw Maiden embark on a trek around the globe with an elaborate stage show that encapsulated the energy and imagery of their music.

So what’s next? How about a live album to commemorate the tour? Which brings us to the first of many live albums the band would put out; ‘Live After Death’.

Split over two discs, the first recorded in California, USA while the second in London, England, ‘Live After Death’ highlights the energy and enthusiasm of the band in their early days. Featuring all the major hits from their first five albums, including ‘Aces High’, ‘Run to the Hills’, ‘The Trooper’, ‘The Number of the Beast’ and ‘Phantom of the Opera’, the performances and production are all of a high standard, however, the audience can be a little hard to hear at times, which kind of ruins the experience, but as a whole, this is a good live release.

Though, with that said, I’ve always preferred studio albums to live ones, and as it is, ‘Live After Death’ does seem a little outdated today, considering the wealth of live albums the band would go on to produce. Still, it has its moments and isn’t bad by any means, there just isn’t really anything to entice me to choose this over any of Iron Maiden’s studio efforts instead.

Warthur What do you listen to live albums for? Do you just want to hear a very similar rendition of a band's studio songs in a live context, or do you want to hear a different side of the material in its translation from the studio to the stage?

If you are after the former, the Live After Death is perfect: Iron Maiden not only hadn't released a bad album up to this point, they'd hardly even recorded a bad *song*, and this setlist is absolutely stellar.

If you want the latter, though - and that's the camp I'm in - then this will sound an awful lot like the studio albums you no doubt already on, with some overloud crowd noise on top if it. It's interesting hearing Bruce perform Phantom of the Opera - perhaps the one song from the Paul Di'Anno era which deserves Bruce's operatic treatment the most - but otherwise this is going to offer few surprises.

siLLy puPPy Universally cited as one of the absolute best live albums of all time, LIVE AFTER DEATH is the first live album / video release of IRON MAIDEN’s classic early Bruce Dickinson years and was recorded during their “World Slavery Tour.” Despite lasting a whopping 331 days, this double LP album only took two venues as their source for representing their electric live performances. The first 13 tracks were recorded at the Long Beach Arena in California, USA and the remaining five tracks were taken from a night at Hammersmith Odeon in London. While LIVE AFTER DEATH was released both as audio LP and video VHS in 1985, the two aren’t exactly identical in content. The audio LP originally contained 18 tracks (one of which is “Intro: Churchill’s Speech”) but the VHS visual experience only had 14 tracks. Unfortunately when LIVE AFTER DEATH was originally released on CD it was too long for a single disc and instead of simply issuing a double disc, EMI unwisely decided to cut the last five tracks which included the Odeon performance, therefore it is highly advisable to obtain the Sanctuary remastered version which was released as a double disc and retains the entire run of one classic song after another.

LIVE AFTER DEATH is the absolute perfect live album. I very rarely put live albums high on my list of favorites because more often than not something or many things prevent them from capturing my attention and worthiness as essential. If it’s not the weak production values then it is the inability of the band to capture the magic that is manufactured in the studio. That is not the case here. IRON MAIDEN was at the pinnacle of their creative prowess at this point and after several outstanding and classic albums to mine for material, they perfectly execute these live performances and offer every little ounce of excitement heard on the studio releases. Bruce Dickinson nails the vocals and the thundering trio of Steve Harris’ bass and the guitar synergy of Dave Murray and Adrian Smith accompanied by Nikko McBrain’s stellar drumming style doesn’t get any better. While most of the tracks are performed rather faithfully to their studio versions, there is plenty of live improvisation taking places as well. Standout moments include Bruce’s attempt to get audience participation on “Running Free” and another great difference can be heard on “Revelations” where the tempo is upped and Bruce changes the vocal phrasing to make the track sound different and refreshed.

The video release offers all the theatrical visuals of the tour. The “Powerslave” album was based on ancient Egypt and likewise the stage was Egyptified to the max with sarcophagi, hieroglyphs and a mummified Eddie embellished with ridiculous amounts of pyrotechnics. The tour was a smashing success and this release whether it be audio or video is the perfect testimony to the genius that went into every single detail. The sound and mixing is perfect as well as Martin Birch found the perfect balance of every cast member and delivered one of the most satisfying production jobs for a live release that i have ever heard. In the visual department Jim Yukich perfectly captured two nights in Long Beach showing a great band doing great things at the peak of their game. Another piece of perfection with this one is the brilliant cover art of Derek Riggs surpassing previous album themes of Eddie as the mascot by incorporating those themes of previous albums covers and then putting it all on steroids. The spread of the album is breathtaking in content and color with the boldness of the yellows and blues. Every aspect of talent on board with this release guarantees to wake the dead. I cannot find one negative thing to say about it. It is true that Bruce doesn’t hit every note exactly as on the studio version every single time but when he doesn’t he offers interesting new ways of interpreting the classics. This is simply one of the most perfect live releases i have ever encountered and even MAIDEN themselves haven’t even come close to achieving similar results. Masterpiece.

bonnek Live After Death was my introduction to Maiden and even though I loved this to death when I was 14, it's never become a personal favorite.

First of all I've never been much enthused about live albums. Unless a band manage to change, improve or extend the original material, live albums have as much appeal to me as 'best off' compilations with worse sound would have. And so fares LAD, the playing is superb, the tracklist is relevant and the sound good, be it inferior to the studio albums. Though live album fans may obviously enjoy the live ambience and crowd cheering. But it doesn't add much for me. Not one songs brings a new perspective to Iron Maiden and the Bruce Dickinson takes on the old Di'Anno songs is even annoying.

This is album is hard to rate. For me, owning all their classic albums, it doesn't add much and merely serves as a good addition, for Maiden fans it will obviously essential and for casual fans this might serve as an excellent compilation. Pick your choice.

friso Iron Maiden - Live After Death (1985)

THE Iron Maiden live album.

As one of the most important metal bands of history this moment had to come: the perfect live album. I've already written a review about the dvd, which I think is a masterpiece. This double lp is also a great addition to your record collection.

Iron Maiden's sound can be described as melodic, intense heavy metal. Their music is often song- or epic-based and there is little use of riffs. The double guitar melody with a steady bass-guitar is used way more often. Lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson is one of the most famous metal singers and for a good reason. His live-performance is intense, though I must admit I don't like all the vocals on this live album as much. The energy of the band is however enormous and I've never heard a more intense en well-recorded live album. The guitar-solo's sound amazing live!

The package of the vinyl record is very good. A fold-out cover with lots of photos, phoses on the protection papers around the disc and an extra booklet with more photo's, information and a an equipment list (which is interesting for musicians).

The track-listing of this Live album is very good. A lot of Maiden's best songs are played and in the second halve some songs from the first two albums still sound great. Most of the songs are played in a higher pace then on the original studio versions. This gives the songs an extra boost. Only Revelations seems to suffer a little from it's high tempo, the song used to have this peaceful mood I liked. Still a great song though.

Conclusion. This is an important metal live album. It's essential for fans of the band and it's highly recommended to fans of the metal genres. There are enough progressive influences in the songs and the musicianship is very professional and sophisticated. I will give it four and a halve stars, but I gave the dvd version five stars. Seeing the performance is even more interesting!