REVIEW: Iron Maiden – Flight 666 (2009 CD, DVD)

This is part 42 of my series of Iron Maiden reviews!  And we still ain’t done!

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IRON MAIDEN – Flight 666 (2009 CD, DVD)

In lieu of releasing a live album from the A Matter of Life and Death tour (where Maiden played all of the new album live front to back), they instead chose to document their Somewhere Back In Time tour with a movie, directed by Canada’s own Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn (Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage).   A live soundtrack was released not long after the film.

My buddy Peter and I got our tickets and got in line to see the movie the one and only time it played in town.  Turns out that Tom and Meat were there too.  Of course they were — who would want to miss this?

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The film itself documents Maiden’s massive undertaking of the tour — resurrecting the Powerslave stage and a lot of the old songs.  More important than that, it chronicles the logistics of singer Bruce Dickinson doing all the piloting himself, aboard the private charter jet lovingly known as Ed Force One.  23 concerts, 5 continents, from Mumbai to Toronto.  Nobody had ever done that before.  Due to regulations about a pilot’s rest time between flights, this is something that will probably never happen again.

Regardless of historical nature of this tour, some people bitched and complained.  Another Maiden live album?

Yes, another Maiden live album, and this one with classics available on Live After Death and elsewhere.   It’s still relevant.

Ever since Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith returned to the band in 1999, I feel Maiden have never been stronger. The way the three guitars of Smith, Dave Murray, and Janick Gers have meshed is something to behold. I really enjoy listening to the three-guitar version of Maiden, and once again producer Kevin Shirley has provided a strong mix where you can hear every nuance of those three guitars. Not to mention Bruce’s vocals, Steve’s bass, and Nicko’s steppin’! In other words, this album sounds great.

As for the track listing itself, it sure is great hearing all 13 minutes of “Rime Of The Ancient Mariner” once again. I never thought Maiden would ever play “Moonchild” or “The Clairvoyant” again either. “Powerslave”, “Wasted Years”, “Heaven Can Wait”…so many classics! As Steve Harris notes in the liners, some of these songs may never be played live again, so it’s great to have this document. Some fans will wish there were more old tunes such as “Flight Of Icarus” or “Running Free” instead of more common songs like “Fear Of The Dark”. Another tour, perhaps?

Worth mentioning, each song is taken from a different live gig from the Somewhere Back In Time tour. There’s some fade-in and fade-out between songs. Don’t let that bother you though.  The whole idea was to give fans the sense that, “Hey, I was there!”

When Flight 666 was released on DVD, it went to #1 in Canada and almost every other country it was released in.  The DVD is a great package, mixed in 5.1 by Kevin Shirley, but also including a hell of a bonus feature.  Just in case you wanted a straight Maiden live DVD without the songs being truncated by the documentary, it’s all here.  Every song from the movie can be viewed complete, in sequence, on the bonus DVD.

It would have been nice to see a new Eddie painting on the cover…but if you look closely he’s still there.

5/5 stars (both CD and DVD)

Part 156: Value

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RECORD STORE TALES Part 156:  Value

The art of buying and selling used music mainly hinges on two factors:  condition, and re-sell value.

Condition can be subjective.  Is it slightly scratched?  Heavily scratched?  Do those minor marks from wiping the CD count as scratches?  Our upper management tried to give us consistent guidelines to follow on condition.  The customers didn’t always agree, but we tried to be consistent – not an easy task when you have dozens of buyers!

Value, on the other hand, could get very subjective.  For example, let’s say the year is 1996.  You went out and bought yourself a brand-spankin’ new copy of Live Through This, by Hole.  You paid $23.99 for it at your local store.  You played it a couple of times and didn’t like it, and they won’t take it back without the receipt.  So, you come to see me with a mint condition copy, only played twice.  You’re hoping for good money.  You paid $23.99, maybe you’d like to cut your losses and get $10 back?

Well, it never worked that way.  We’d never pay that much for a single regularly priced CD for many reasons:

  1. If you paid $23.99 for Live Through This by Hole, you still paid way too much, even in 1996. You could have got it cheaper elsewhere.
  2. We have to make a profit on it too.  Whatever we pay, we’d generally have to double it to make a profit, after the overhead of running a store are considered.
  3. What if we already had a couple copies, that have been sitting here for a month or two?  Do I really need a third to sit there?

These are all factors that came into play.

The next thing the customer would often say was this:

“I’m not looking for my money back, just another CD.  Can I just trade this to you, one for one?”

Well, again, no.  There’s no profit in that either.  I’m just swapping your disc for my disc and not making a dime on the transaction.  Essentially, I’d be doing you a favour and that’s all.  And chances are, you’d want to trade it for something better than Live Through This!

One time, while having this very same discussion, I explained to a customer why I couldn’t pay him $10 for his CD.  “Because that’s what we sell it for, I wouldn’t be making any money on it.”  He shrugged and said, “That’s your problem, not mine.”  No, it’s your problem, since I won’t be paying you $10 for your disc.

Another reason that people expected more money for a disc was rarity.  If something was considered rare, yes, we would generally pay more.  But who decides if something is rare?

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I remember a guy holding up a copy of Big Game by White Lion, saying, “This CD is worth over $50!”  Well, maybe somebody was asking $50 for it somewhere, and maybe somebody was willing to pay that.  So yes, to those two people, it’s worth $50.  But if you look, you could definitely find it for under $10, guaranteed.  Even in 1996.  All you had to do is hunt a little.  I did, and I got my copy for under $8.  It’s a title that was not in demand.

Some things that WERE considered rare:

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The Traveling Wilburys – Volume I.  We asked $50 for that one.  It was out of print for many years.  Out of print Bob Dylan is worth a lot more than out of print White Lion!

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Metallica – Garage Days Re-Revisited.  Also out of print.  We asked $50 for that one too, until it was reissued as a part of Garage Inc.  Reissues would usually kill the value of an our of print disc.

Some things that were NOT considered rare:

A lot of old soundtracks.  Soundtracks were a tricky thing.  You might be the only person in town that gives a crap about the Operation Dumbo Drop soundtrack for example.  Maybe it’s out of print, and maybe you collect soundtracks, but maybe I already have a copy priced at $5 that has been sitting there half a decade!

We tried to be as fair as possible, but it’s not always easy to see when I’m giving you $4 for a CD that you paid $24 for.  You can’t please all the people all the time.  Still, it was better than a garage sale!

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REVIEW: Foo Fighters – Live In Rio 2001

Next in line of my reviews from Record Store Excursion 2012!  Check out the video below if you missed it.  This one bought at Sonic Boom Music at Bloor and Bathurst.

MIKE AND AARON GO TO TORONTO

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FOO FIGHTERS  – Live In Rio 2001 (2012 IMC Music Ltd.)

This is sort of an oddball release, fully 11 years after the concert itself, on some weird label called Immortal.  This is probably taken from the Rock In Rio 2001 broadcast.  Bootlegs from that show are pretty common.  I have a Guns N’ Roses bootleg from the same concerts.  I believe they were on pay-per-view.

I’ve heard some people complain that Dave Grohl screams too much live, and he certainly does scream a lot in this show.  If you’re not into it, I get it.  It doesn’t bother me personally.  His vocals are a bit shaky, as it sounds like he’s doing a lot of jumping around.

Sound quality is decent.  I look at these as really well made bootlegs.  Don’t expect anything that sounds like a flawless modern live album.  It’s perfectly listenable though.  You can hear all the instruments clearly enough (although bass is a bit muddy) and Dave’s vocal/screaming is up front and loud.

The setlist is jam packed full of early Foo classics.   13 songs, plus a little bit of “Happy Birthday” as the following day (Jan 14th 2001) was Dave’s birthday!

Amusingly, Dave dedicates “Monkey Wrench” to Guns N’ Roses who were playing the following day.  Dave says he’s never really seen Guns N’ Roses before.  Well, isn’t that Kurt’s fault, Dave?  You could have opened for them on the 1992 tour with Metallica!

There’s one weird flaw with the CD.  At the beginning at track 14, “Everlong” (not even listed on the CD), the wrong song begins.  Instead, it’s “Stacked Actors” which is also track 6.  This goes on for over two minutes, and finally it fades into a truncated “Everlong”.  I have no explanation.

3/5 stars

Part 155: Sarge

RECORD STORE TALES Part 155:  Sarge

As I mentioned in an earlier chapter, I had once explored the world of piercings.  It was a part of record store culture and I’ve since moved on, but I did make many friends in that world.

One of those friends was Lemon Kurri Klopek, who I also mentioned earlier.  Lemon Kurri was the bass player for the Niagara Falls based punk band, The Legendary Klopeks.  Through the magic of the internet, Lemon Kurri and I befriended a guy named Sarge, “the best piercer in all of southern England”.  Sarge came to visit Canada on a couple of occasions, and in fact helped the Klopeks play their first overseas gigs.

Sometime in the 1990’s, Sarge opened his shop, Metal Fatigue, in Bournermouth.  His reputation grew and he became quite successful.  “I can’t move in my local rock nightclub for people the shop has pierced, the running joke is about the scrap value in titanium every Saturday night!” said Sarge.

On one of Sarge’s visits, I had the chance to witness his work up close and personal.  And not just something standard like an ear or nose piercings, I had the chance to witness a really unusual one.

A local girl had seen Sarge’s clavicle piercing on the internet and was interested.  It’s a very unusual piercing that involves going underneath the collarbone.  Yes, underneath.  There’s a piece of jewelry made of flexible plastic and two metal balls, and that’s how it’s done.  Sarge was one of very few people who did it.  This girl eventually emailed Sarge about getting one done, not realizing he lived across the ocean.  However, Sarge was planning on coming and visiting his Klopek friends that summer.  The Canadian could have her clavicle piercing after all.

It was quite a sight to watch.  “The clavicle piercing (under the collar bone) is probably my ‘trophy’ piercing now, its really dangerous,” says Sarge.  “If I hit anything untoward, someone may die.  I have had loads of criticism from various piercers for even thinking about doing one. Saying that, I have now done 8 and they all love them so much!  I have stopped doing them now, as we are into unknown territory, watching them heal, working around possible problems with them.  So far everything has been hunky dory.”

I still have some pictures from that day.  The gentlemen in the photos are Lemon Kurri and Sweet Pepper Klopek, the bassist and singer from the Legendary Klopeks.  I have no idea why Sweet Pepper is all bruised in the face.  With them was a Scottish chap named T-Bone who took photos.  And of course Sarge and his client!  And Sarge’s boots.

Sarge, T-Bone, some girl
Sweet Pepper, Lemon Kurri, Sarge & T-Bone
Lemon Kurri & Sweet Pepper
Lemon Kurri & Sweet Pepper
Sweet Pepper & Sarge
clavicle in action
clavicle complete
Sarge’s boots

To get us back onto the subject of music, Sarge tells a great story of some rock encounters in his travels across the pond.

“I met Jon Anderson from the band Yes when I was working at a hotel once!  Had a beer with him after work, he was doing some book signing thing, I think I still have his autograph somewhere, he signed a copy of a (Yes cover artist) Rodger Dean art book for me!”

But my favourite story involved his meeting with one of rock’s most notorious frontmen.

The year was 1986.  Sarge was out at the bar.  Although he had no way of knowing, Philip Lynott from Thin Lizzy had died that day, and the bar was playing his music in tribute to the fallen rock hero.  Sarge, however, was not a fan.  When he openly criticized the music of Thin Lizzy with some choice words, a large man with “bad teeth, long black hair and a low gruff voice,” told the young Sarge to fuck off.  This was Sarge’s first and last meeting with the infamous Lemmy Kilmister!

REVIEW: Rush – Sector 2 (box set)

This one goes out to Rich from KamerTunesBlog, a great, informed site that you should check out.

I got the other two Sectors for Christmas, but this is an older review.

RUSH – Sector 2 (2011 box set, 5 CD + 1 DVD)

Damn you Rush.  Damn you!

If it wasn’t for the fact that I liked their past 5.1 mixes so much, I wouldn’t have bought each of these albums again in this box set.  And the fact that only one album (A Farewell To Kings) has been mixed in 5.1 really grinds my gears.  Because you know more is coming.  2112, recently released as a part of Sector 1, in normal stereo, is now coming again in 5.1.  It’s obvious Rush are going to continue to issue 5.1 mixes of their albums, in seemingly random order, which will probably make these box sets completely redundant in the future.

Rich Chycki did the 5.1 mix once again, and once again, it’s a pleasure to listen to.  In particular I found “Cygnus X-1” to really benefit from the treatment.  The swirly opening section made me feel as if I too was aboard the Rocinante, wheeling through the galaxies.  The album sounds three dimensional, clear, shimmery.  I’m very happy with the 5.1 mix.

Farewell is included on a standard stereo remastered CD, and also in stereo on the DVD.  I have read online that there are flaws with the stereo mix of this DVD but I’ve never played it.  I’m not that much of an audiophile that I would really care to, when I already have a CD.

The other CD’s included in the set, aside from A Farewell To Kings, are:

  • Hemispheres
  • Permanent Waves
  • Moving Pictures
  • Exit…Stage Left

…all of which I have now bought more than once.  In Moving Pictures‘ case, three times now, since they just issued that as a deluxe edition with a 5.1 surround blu-ray last year!  (Reviewed here.) Bastards.

I’m not going to review each individual album in this set.  That comprehensive task would require separate blog entries of their own.  They’re all great, of course.  Some (Moving Pictures) more so than others (Hemispheres) in my own personal opinion.  And of course, within this box set you will get such classics as “Closer To The Heart”, “The Trees”, “The Spirit of Radio”, “Freewill”, “YYZ”, “Limelight”, and “Vital Signs”.  In addition there are plenty of brilliant album tracks like “La Villa Strangiato” and “Natural Science”.

The box itself is attractive enough, and if you’re sucked into buying all three, then they all fit together on your shelf as one handsome library.  But you already own some of these albums, if not all, don’t you?  The bait is that 5.1 mix of Farewell.  And it pisses me off that Rush would treat their fans in that way.  Why not just remaster and re-release these albums on their own and in a box set?

The individual album packaging is nice enough too, mini record sleeve reproductions, with a nice booklet with lyrics and liner notes for the whole shebang, all taken from the albums.  As far as the booklet goes, there’s no exclusive essays or other content that is new to me.

And as for the new remastering?  I can’t tell the difference between this and the 1997 remasters.  I can’t.  Sorry.  I’m sure an audiophile would call me an idiot for saying so.

I probably won’t buy Sectors 1 and 3, not unless the prices drop dramatically.  I was able to re-gift my original Rush remasters off to other people, which is one way of dealing with the duplicates, but I’m not going to be getting rid of my deluxe Moving Pictures, since it has the blu-ray and a David Fricke essay.  So I’ve got two copies of that, and people who collect 5.1 mixes and have Sector 1 will end up with two copies of 2112.  Nice eh?

A Farewell To Kings 5.1 mix:  5/5 stars

Sector 2 box set:  1/5 stars

REVIEW: Iron Maiden – Somewhere Back In Time (2008)

Welcome back.  This is part 41 of my series of Iron Maiden reviews!  As mentioned when we talked about The Essential Iron Maiden, we are now in the compilation years.  I won’t spend as much time on these hits discs as I did studio albums.

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IRON MAIDEN – Somewhere Back In Time (2008)

Once again, Maiden have geared a hits disc to the newbies who have never bought anything by the band before.  The overall concept was cool.  As they did on the Eddie Rips Up the World tour, Maiden chose to take a look somewhere back in time, and only play songs from a certain era.  This time, the band brought back the Powerslave imagery, and chose only to play songs up to Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (and cheating by also playing “Fear of the Dark”.

I personally felt this was a very smart move, since many fans (whiners) had complained that on the A Matter of Life and Death tour, the band had played that entire album.  You want oldies?  Well now you got them so stop yer whinin’.

To promote the tour, Maiden issued this Somewhere Back In Time disc.  All songs feature Bruce Dickinson on lead vocals, so that means live versions where the old Di’Anno material is concerned.  Like it or not, you can at least understand Maiden trying to promote the singer that the newbies were going to be seeing live.

I loved the touch of kicking off the album with “Churchill’s Speech” as I don’t think they have ever devised a better way to open a Maiden concert.  Then, into the Live After Death version of “Aces High”.  It seemed an odd choice for opening a hits album.  From there, you’re into a non-stop onslaught of Maiden classics.  “Two Minutes”, “The Trooper”, “Wasted Years”, even “Children of the Damned” and “Phantom of the Opera”!  I can’t find too much fault with the overall track selection, or sequence.  Those who dislike live versions are getting four:  three Di’Anno songs, plus “Aces High”.

Sure, you could argue for certain inclusions.  “Where Eagles Dare” or “Heaven Can Wait”, perhaps?  “The Clairvoyant” is also missing.  These are nitpicks.

The album also comes with full lyrics, descriptive liner notes, and even a cool poster with new artwork on it.  The poster I have is for the Canadian tour — don’t know if other countries got their own posters, or none at all?  It’s hard to fit the poster back into the jewel case once opened.

Good value for new Maiden fans, old fans only need to own if they’re looking for “the complete collection”.  But even for new fans, this is really only a starter.  Eventually you should really get the albums.

2.5/5 stars

Motherlode of Christmas Rock!

I have 31 discs of music to listen to now.  And a whole lotta other goodies.  Here we go!

First up – books.  Peter Criss’ Makeup To Breakup, and the latest from Ripley’s Believe It or Not and Guiness’ Book of World Records.   I’ve leafed through Peter’s book — all he seems to do is bitch about Paul and Gene.  Review will come.

Next, Queen.  A total of 8 discs of awesome remastered Queen to listen to:  The Miracle, Jazz, A Night at the Opera, and Live Killers!

Next up, Rush.  6 discs in each of these two Sector box sets, including 2 DVD’s in 5.1 surround, plus 2 discs of 2112.  Awesome.  (I already have Sector 2 and have a review of that coming in the next few days.)

And the rest:  The 4 disc Cult Love Omnibus Edition.  Thin Lizzy’s Life Live (2 discs), Jon Lord’s Concerto for Group and Orchestra, and the new Rage Against The Machine XX edition (2 discs plus a DVD).

But that’s not all.  Check out this Kiss lunchbox, these movies and vintage G1 Transformers 1988 “Bugly” action figure.

Lastly my folks got me this neat Joby camera tripod.  This is going to come in handy when I make my next Transformers stop motion animated movie.  I did a brief 15 second screen test — check that out too!


Hope your Christmas was filled with happiness, love, joy, and rock!

REVIEW: Bob & Doug McKenzie – Great White North (1981)

Good day, eh?  This will be the last post before Christmas!  LeBrain’s Blog will be taking a rare break for Christmas.  We’ll be back soon, so don’t worry eh?

I would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and happy holiday whether you celebrate it or not, but most importantly a safe holiday.  Be careful on those roads.

And now for Christmas, I leave you with a very special review. Enjoy!

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BOB & DOUG McKENZIE – Great White North (1981)

Cooooo, loo coo coo, coo coo coo coo!

Merry Christmas, eh?  All Canadians (aka, “Hosers” for my international readers) celebrate Christmas every year with the classic tune, “Twelve Days of Christmas” by our national treasures, Bob & Doug McKenzie.  A sample lyric?

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:
5 GOLDEN TOQUES!,
4 pounds of back bacon,
3 french toast,
2 turtlenecks,
and a beer, in a tree.

Twisted Sister, eat your hearts out.  This is the best version (ever!) of this Christmas classic.  All Hosers should know the words off by heart, just as well as they know “Oh Canada”.

This Christmas classic can be found on Bob & Doug’s album, Great White North.  A spin-off from their successful SCTV segment, Kanadian Korner, it wasn’t long before somebody at Anthem records thought the boys should make an album, eh?  Basically half an hour of rambling about back bacon, smokes, donuts and beer, it’s not much of an album.  Bummer.  It doesn’t sound like it was scripted.  It’s hard to stay tuned in for the entire length, although it did somehow go to #1 in Canada.  Much of the album is taken up by welcoming to the listener to different segments, and the boys fighting over what in fact they should be talking about.

One of the funnier segments is regarding “Elron McKenzie” and his church.  The sermon that day was about not killing bugs.  The sermon was a big success, even though people had to drive through 8 feet of snow, eh.

Disappointing was “Black Hole” which features a backwards message.  Using the magic of Audacity, I did play the segment backwards.  I was hoping for something a little more mindblowing, like a recipe for the perfect donut or back bacon sandwich, but no such luck.

All of this is offset not only by the Christmas tune, but perhaps one of the greatest songs in Canadian history:  “Take Off”.

“Take Off” features lead vocals by Geddy Lee, of Canada’s Rush.  Geddy did the single for the princely sum of ten bucks.  This song is not only a must for all Hosers, but all Rush fans worldwide.  The incredible lead vocal may blow your speakers.  As Geddy himself says on the track, “I’m a professional, eh?”

5/5 stars for the two singles

but only 2/5 stars for the album

Part 154: Cassettes Part IV – LeBrain’s Tapes (What Remains)

RECORD STORE TALES Part 154:  

Cassettes Part IV – LeBrain’s Tapes (What Remains)

I used to have a lot of tapes.  So many, that T-Rev converted my closet doors to shelving, just to store my numerous cassettes!  It was quite a feat of engineering on his part.

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If you’ve read the other three parts of this series on cassettes, then you’ve already seen some of the awesome artwork that T-Rev used to come up with for his tapes.  Doing those articles got me nostalgic, but very few of my own tapes remained.  A year or two before I met Mrs. LeBrain, I briefly dated this one girl who was getting into hair metal.  I had succeeded in replacing most of my tapes on CD (although still incomplete; I need a copy of Live Fast, Die Fast by Wolfsbane, and Phenomenon 1).  All my tapes were redundant, and I gave her boxes and boxes full of them.

God knows where those tapes are now.  I doubt she took them back home to Thunder Bay when it was all over, they probably ended up in a landfill.  No big loss really, the only shame of it is that, like T-Rev, I used to make a lot of my own custom artwork.

Mrs. LeBrain and I were visiting her mom yesterday, and I found some of my old Beatles tapes that I had made, at her place!  Her dad drove a delivery van with nothing but a tape deck inside.  He was more than happy to receive my old Beatles tapes, and he loved them.  And there they were, still at the house, complete with my computer generated J-cards.  Nothing elaborate, although I did paste the cover for Abbey Road onto that tape.

This inspired me to dig through some boxes here, and see if I had any of my own tapes left.  Surely there must be something here, with some of my own custom cover art!  There was just a handful left, stuff that I wouldn’t have parted with at the time, and lo and behold, there was my old artwork.  These sure brought back memories!

Back in the early record store days, cassette was my primary medium.  They were portable, you could leave them in the car and not worry about them getting banged up, so I recorded everything onto cassette.  It wasn’t until I had left the record store in 2006 that I got my first car with a CD deck.  Before then, I had one of those adapter kits to play a discman in the car, but it sounded shite.  I was glad to find the following treasures tucked away in a box!

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Ahh, Spinal Tap.  A Spinal Tap Reunion was recorded from a 1992 TV special.  Unavailable on DVD today, as far as I know.  That’s a shame.

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I bought Grande Rock by The Hellacopters on vinyl, to get that bonus track “Angel Dust”.  Or, more accurately, one of my record store compatriots got it for me at Orange Monkey Music in Waterloo.  I dutifully recorded it to cassette without making elaborate packaging, but I did put some effort into the cassette spine.

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You Fat Bastards by Faith No More was the full show that was released on CD in truncated form on the Live at the Brixton Academy CD.  This was from a VHS release.

Guns N’ Roses did a couple cool TV specials.  I recorded Live at the Ritz off T-Rev, who stuck on some demos for bonus tracks.  The cover was made by adapting an old Appetite For Destruction J-card.  I think this turned out pretty cool.  Invade Paris! was a TV special from 1992.

These two Maiden tapes were from VHS releases.  It’s a shame that Raising Hell was never released on a CD.  Here’s hoping the band will put that out on a future box set.  It was Bruce’s “final” show.  I just edited out the crap sections with “magician” Simon Drake.   Maiden England is also taken from VHS, but this is the full show.  The CD release omitted two songs:  “Can I Play With Madness”, and “Hallowed Be Thy Name”.  My cassette didn’t!  I thought my J-card for Maiden England turned out pretty cool, using an old Seventh Son cover as its basis.

Unfortunately, this is all that remains of my old cassette art.  I did some much more elaborate things, which Thunder Bay Girl probably tossed out.  One was for Savatage’s Dead Winter Dead.  When I recorded that one to cassette, I actually painted the gargoyle onto a J-card.  Wish I kept that one.  Rush’s Test For Echo may have been the most elaborate one I’ve done.  Using some old cardboard and a full-page ad for the album, I created my own digipack for that cassette.  It would be nice to still have.  Ahh well.

It seems funny, in today’s age of mp3 files and players, that a format as crappy as cassette was anyone’s main format.  But there you go.  Before I could play CD’s in the car, they were the best way to bring music with me.  I’ve always believed a music collection was for showing off as much as listening to, plus I enjoyed making the artwork.  I’m glad some still survives today!

REVIEW/GUEST SHOT: Iron Maiden – A Matter of Life and Death (by Meat)

Photo0637This one arrived too late to slide into the schedule when I posted my own review of A Matter of Life and Death.  Better late than never!  Here’s the infamous Meat with his take on the album.  A more seasoned take, perhaps.  Enjoy!

That’s the Meat Man on the left, in case you didn’t know.

He’s a pretty big Iron Maiden fan…

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IRON MAIDEN – A Matter of Life and Death (2006)

The Reincarnation of Iron Maiden

To semi-quote a good friend of mine,  “I have seen Iron Maiden live…I have seen Iron Maiden live…a lot”

  • November 30, 1984 –Maple Leaf Gardens- World Slavery Tour (Twisted Sister opening)
  • July 20, 1999 – Massey Hall – Ed Hunter Tour
  • May 5, 2003 – Molson Amphitheater –  Give Em’ ‘Ed Til I’m Dead Tour (Motorhead and Dio opening)
  • August 3, 2005 – Air Canada Center – Eddie Rips Up the World Tour
  • October 16, 2006 – Air Canada Center – A Matter of Life and Death Tour
  • March 16, 2008 – Air Canada Center – Somewhere Back in Time World Tour
  • July 13, 2012 – Molson Amphitheater – Maiden England World Tour

I was 15 when I first saw Iron Maiden live.  I remember standing outside Sam the Record Man downtown Kitchener to get the tickets. Took one of those party busses up to Toronto for the show. When I saw Maiden this last July, it was hard to believe that the first time I saw them was 28 years earlier.  While there are specific memories from each and every one of those shows, the aforementioned A Matter of Life and Death Tour holds a special place in my concert-loving heart.

Having seen Maiden four times previous, I was obviously excited for another great show, but was also expecting another “greatest hits” tour with a dabble of new material.  What I and the other 15,799 concertgoers got was something else. I have seen a shit load of concerts.  But never have I seen a band come on stage and literally play their new album to a sold out crowd… from track 1 to the end.  I didn’t really even know the album that well going into the show.   But it was one of my favorite concert experiences ever.  I can imagine that rehearsals for this tour were quite extensive.  It’s one thing for them to get together and polish up “The Prisoner” or “Clairvoyant”. It’s another thing to rehearse all your new material and get it  ready for touring.  And this album especially…for these reasons…

  • The shortest track on the album is 5:08  (“The Pilgrim”)
  • This may be the band’s most progressive album, song-structure wise.

With all due respect to Dance of Death and Brave New World, I believe Iron Maiden had not released something this relevant since 1988’s Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. A Matter of Life and Death sees Maiden finding a seamless way to connect hooks within unpredictable progressive grooves. This band has always been linked with Thin Lizzy in several ways, but never more than this album.  There are moments where you start to actually appreciate Thin Lizzy more by listening to it, which I suspect may have been a conscious or sub-conscious goal in the creation of this album.

There is not a weak track on this album. There are several A++ songs. The opening track, “Different World” is as such and is and was a great song to start off a show.  “For the Greater Good of God”, the longest track on the album, sees Maiden showing heavy chops while somehow staying bluesy. “The Longest Day” might be the most progressive Iron Maiden track of all time. Also my favorite track on the album, “Brighter Than a Thousand Suns”, hypnotically kicks  ass with melody. Hey, that pretty much defines the band itself doesn’t it?

A Matter of Life and Death is indeed “Brighter Than a Thousand Suns”; one of the most important albums in the Maiden canon.

5/5 stars

Meat.