Check out the photo gallery below for a gander at all 19 Iron Maiden “Eddie” figures by Super7. This is their line of 3 3/4″ ReAction figures. Same size and articulation as classic Star Wars. For a little bonus content, check out the video instead. Some havoc broke loose during the photo shoot.
The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano
Episode 59.5 – Iron Maiden Super 7 Reaction blind box unboxing
Wanna see every Iron Maiden figure that Super 7 has ever released in their Reaction line? Unboxing starts at 2:00 PM E.S.T., Saturday April 10. This surprise episode is brought to you by Obsessive Compulsive Disorder!
FINAL TALLY:
Great show tonight with your co-hosts Harrison the Mad Metal Man, Aaron from KeepsMeAlive, and Superdekes! We talked the Nigel Tufnel Top Ten Iron Maiden Covers/Artwork (that’s a mouthful) and it was awesome. We took a close look at: albums, singles, T-shirts, Reaction figures, MacFarlane figures, and the Neca Powerslave Eddie. If you like Iron Maiden, you automatically love their artwork. Ergo, you need to watch this show!
First we unboxed some brand new Reaction Eddie figures. Go to 0:16:50 of the stream.
Then we wished Steve Harris a Happy Birthday, and commenced with the lists! Go to 0:24:00 of the stream.
After the conclusion of the Maiden lists, we had a freeform chat covering Queensryche’s Operation: Mindcrime, and a newly unearthed Black Sabbath track called “Slapback”. Go to 2:22:45 of the stream to check that out.
Thanks for watching, and if you just want to know what Maiden art we picked, check out Aaron’s hand-written list below! See ya next week!
The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike Ladano
Episode 54 – Best Iron Maiden Cover Art
Time to chill out with a more laid-back show this Friday! We’ve had some serious lists, and serious guests in recent weeks. This week is almost like a vacation. Join Harrison the Mad Metal Man, Aaron from KeepsMeAlive, and Superdekes with myself here tonight as we share our favourite Iron Maiden artwork.
The art of Derek Riggs, Melvyn Grant, and many talented coversmiths including Hugh Syme will be up for examination tonight. No disqualifications: albums, singles, whatever! As long as one of us likes it, we can list it. Each of us will have our own rules and criteria.
BONUS: Iron Maiden ReAction figure unboxing! While it would be nice to have a complete set, I could only order four. These Eddies, based on Iron Maiden cover art, will definitely be on topic for this show!
7:00 PM E.S.T.
Facebook: MikeLeBrain YouTube: Mike LeBrain
Next week: The 1 Year Anniversary Show with giveaways and special guest Brent Jensen!
IRON MAIDEN – Nights of the Dead – Legacy of the Beast – Live in Mexico City (2020 Parlophone)
I feel a bit like a jackass reviewing this, because so many people I know caught this tour, or at least one of the recent tours, and I’ve never seen Maiden live. I only have these live albums to go by. But what I like about Iron Maiden is that they take the time to document almost every single tour since the Bruce reunion era began. (Only three tours did not receive a live album.) The Legacy of the Beast tour was in support of a video game, and featured a sort of “legacy” setlist, heavy on the old classics with a small smattering of more recent material. This prevents too much crossover with the prior live album, The Book of Souls – Live Chapter.
Without going track by track, I can tell you that Nights of the Dead was pieced together from three shows in Mexico City, much like Live After Death in Long Beach and Hammersmith. Even so, Bruce’s voice only tends to get stronger as they go further down the setlist. By “Hallowed” and “Run to the Hills”, it sounds like the man is just warming up!
The setlist is a delightful mix of hits, deeper cuts and the odd recent classic. “Where Eagles Dare” from Piece of Mind whips the throng into immediate hysteria. “Revelations” from the same LP has a certain contemplative gravity that it brings to any live album, and hearing it here is sheer nostalgic delight. Two Blaze-era songs return to the set in “Sign of the Cross” and “Clansman”, both lengthy epics. Enhanced by the three-guitar lineup and the Air Raid Siren, can we say these versions challenge the originals for supremacy? Though it wasn’t written for Bruce, “Sign of the Cross” has more dynamics with him at the microphone — he adds a few high notes for embellishment. Not to mention the depth that the third guitar adds to a song that was always a bit thin sounding.
Reunion era Maiden is cut back, leaving only “Wicker Man” and the always welcome “For the Greater Good of God”. Both deserving songs. Stuff like “Wicker Man” (and the earlier “Flight of Icarus”) really pump up the adrenaline levels by keeping it short, sharp and unshackled.
Then you have the stuff that you have to call “the hits”: songs like “Aces High”, “2 Minutes to Midnight”, “Trooper”, “Beast”, “The Evil that Men Do”, “Iron Maiden”, “Fear of the Dark” and “Run to the Hills”. These are the Maiden standards; a serving of essentials that everybody has connected with at some point in their life. Some of them float in and out of setlists, and some always remain.
A word should always be said about the packaging and artwork of any Iron Maiden album. The Mexican-themed Eddie can be found in a couple pieces of art inside and out. Manager Rod Smallwood wrote the included liner notes, explaining that the live album came to be when the world came to a halt due to Covid-19. Yay Covid? Joking aside, Smallwood’s notes are always informative to read while rocking along to the CD. There is even a mini 2021 tour poster (let’s hope!) included, with the Trooper version of Eddie surrounded by iconic imagery from prior Maiden artwork. Icarus, the mushroom cloud from “2 Minutes to Midnight”, a crashed Spitfire…have a look. Finally, a sticker sheet is an added bonus though most of us will be keeping the stickers intact, I reckon.
Perhaps it’s just giddy glee that there’s a new Maiden live album to cap off this year, but Nights of the Dead is so good that I wouldn’t change a thing.
5/5 stars
GETTING MORE TALE #869: Piece of Mind
Trying to remember exact details is a bit like filling in the blanks, but here are the facts that I know I can state with confidence:
I think it had to be the summer of 1985. I remember being on vacation at the cottage. I was just getting into heavy metal. I know the basics but not the details. Being away from home, I missed my best friend Bob, but I looked forward to getting him a birthday present. I wanted to get him an Iron Maiden album. I thought that he didn’t own Piece of Mind, and there it was in stock at this little music store on the main street of Kincardine. I got it for him, or, more likely, I picked it out and my parents paid for it. I was 12 turning 13.
For some reason, I think the record did not come sealed. Again, memories are hazy here. I might have known two songs: “The Trooper” and “Flight of Icarus”. I seem to remember looking at the credits and wanting to tell Bob about these two guys pictured inside named Martin “Black Night” Birch and Derek “Dr. Death” Riggs. Bob knew the names of the band members, sure, but did he know these two guys? I actually didn’t note that it was spelled “Black Night” instead of “Black Knight”, nor would I have caught the Deep Purple reference if I did.
On the other side of the inner sleeve, I thought Bob would love the photo of the band at the banquet table, Bruce wielding a mean looking blade. At that point, I at least knew who Bruce was. I also recall that the neighbour kids liked Dave Murray least because they thought he looked kind of goofy. Meanwhile, Adrian Smith appears absolutely flabbergasted at the feast before them.
I looked forward to giving Bob the record, but there was a hiccup of some kind. Either he already got Piece of Mind, or the LP format wasn’t good for him anymore. He would have had to play LPs on the living room stereo rather than his own bedroom’s tape deck. It could even have been both those things. Either way, because of that well-intentioned gift, I ended up with my first Iron Maiden.
I consider myself lucky to have this record so early in my life.
By ’86-87, I was spinning it pretty regularly on the turntable. I was lucky enough not only own this album as a young teen, but to even have a turntable in my own bedroom. My parents weren’t going to use it anymore, so they handed it down. Any time they wanted to hear a song from their records, I would tape it for them.
I can recall studying for exams in the 9th grade playing Piece of Mind, and a Triumph single, in constant rotation. Although I should have had my mind on other things, I ended up memorizing the lyrics of the Dave Murray tune “Still Life” instead. It was one of my first love affairs with a deep cut. I mostly memorized “Sun and Steel” too. I practiced singing these songs in my bedroom.
I had the writing credits committed to memory. I liked all the songs. It was an extraordinary album to me. Few were the albums where I truly liked all the songs. Some more than others, (“Quest For Fire” is perhaps not as good as “Revelations”, yeah?) but I liked them all for their own reasons. Even the twisting, complex “To Tame a Land” was a cool Iron Maiden epic, though certainly not as accessible as “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” or “Alexander the Great”.
20 years later I went full circle back to Piece of Mind once again dominating a time in my life. I had finally quit the Record Store and was working a blissful job in the mail room at United Rentals. I had just started reading Frank Herbert, starting of course with Dune. This led me right back to Piece of Mind and “To Tame a Land”. And finally, I memorized those lyrics too. “He is the Kwizatz Haderach, he is born of Caladan, and will take the Gom Jabbar”. I finally understand what the shit those words meant! Insofar as a layman in the Herbert world, anyway. The lyrics are a bit ham-fisted, but did it matter? No, of course not, as I sang the words over the incessant rattle of that mail machine.
It was a contraption of aligned (or mis-aligned more often than not) components, at least 10 feet long. Place a carefully sorted stack of invoices in one end, load a handful of windowed envelopes somewhere in the middle, and in theory, the thing would fold, insert, seal and stamp all the mail. In reality it required constant babysitting at almost every step, but I soon became its master. And I sang away in victory:
The time will come for him
To lay claim his crown
And then the foe yes
They’ll be cut down
You’ll see he’ll be the
Best that there’s been
Messiah supreme
True leader of men
And when the time
For judgement’s at hand
Don’t fret he’s strong
And he’ll make a stand
Against evil and fire
That spreads through the land
He has the power
To make it all eeeeeend!
Even over the clanking of that machine, I could still be heard. I knew that, and I kept singing anyway. I actually loved that job and wanted the world to know it. I was so happy to be free of the Record Store.
Playing back Piece of Mind today is like putting on an old familiar T-shirt. It fits just right, no adjustments needed. Eventually you forget that it’s there, except that for persistent smile on your face. Peace of mind indeed.
GETTING MORE TALE #631: The Locker Door
Before the first day of highschool even began, I had selected the posters I was going to hang up inside. For my first locker ever, at the beginning of grade nine, I chose Gene Simmons. It was a weird picture of him from the Asylum era, no makeup, and his tongue pinned to the neck of his bass by the strings. I was truly disappointed that girls found the picture repulsive and didn’t want to talk to me. I’m still proud that I was flying the Kiss flag right from day one. For some reason, I also had a picture of Mr. Mini Wheats, from a box of the same-named cereal.
Meanwhile, my best buddy Bob had something cooler. It was a poster of Bruce Dickinson, circa 1986, standing next to the giant stage Eddie from Somewhere in Time. Everybody seemed to agree that the new Blade Runner Eddie was the coolest one yet, and that poster was the envy of the hallway. When he was done with it, Bob passed the locker poster down to me. I was thrilled — so much that I used it again the next year.
Bob moved on to Samantha Fox. She took over from where Eddie and Bruce once were. “Hey, that one’s topless,” remarked the English teacher Mr. Payette as he strolled past. She was covering her modesty with her arms, but she was indeed missing her top.
In grade 10, Bob and I did something sneaky. On the first day of school, he advised me to bring an extra lock, and see if I could snag an extra, unoccupied locker. I did — right next to my own, in fact. So that year, Bob and I had this spare locker that we shared right next to mine. He had this little Nerf basketball set. You could hang a net from the locker door. We also had gotten into remote control cars. We stashed them in the spare locker and played with them during the lunch hour. We got caught by the stern science teacher, Mr. Branday. “Take this to the gym!” he shouted at us.
Branday was a weird guy. Every year, he began his science class with the same line. “Science is a tool of the mind. With it, one can open more doors than with the bare hands alone!”
Bob and I had such a good time, that year of the two lockers. A fresh succession of posters went up, although I hung onto Bruce and Eddie until it was literally falling apart. One I liked a lot was a cardboard cut out of ZZ Top’s Eliminator car, from a Monogram model kit I built. I always wanted to rig up a Walkman with a speaker in the door of that locker, but we figured if the racing cars got us in shit, music would even more.
Locker posters usually came from magazines such as Hit Parader, but it had to be a vertical poster. A horizontal one would only be good for home. A kid down the hall, Michael Wright, had a picture of a computer in his locker one year. I tended to stick to rock stars. Def Leppard went in there, and so did a rare picture of Vinnie Vincent in his Kiss makeup.
Some of the posters that survived
I tried to take care of my posters so I could use them again. They seemed like a big part of my identity. I brought my posters to school on the first day every year, so my locker would never be bare. Nobody but Bob seemed to get that. I always enjoyed carefully packing them up on the last day of school before summer holidays. Except for the last year of highschool, when I knew it was the very last time. There would be no more lockers. The very last locker posters were coming down, for good. I hated the feeling, the finality of it. Knowing life was about to change and almost all my old friends would be gone doing their own things. It was a…lonely feeling. The lockers were always a communal place. You’d chat with friends before or between classes. Life really felt different afterwards.
Somewhere in this house in an old video tape, of my grade 13 year circa 1990. Bob and I rented a camera one weekend, went into the unlocked school and did a tour. On that video is a detailed look at my locker posters of 1990-1991. One day I’m going to have to get a USB VCR and take a look.
RECORD STORE TALES MkII: Getting More Tale
#367: Greatest Hits 2
A sequel to #364: Greatest Hits
The last time we talked about greatest hits albums, I listed seven reasons that die-hard fans usually shun them. Readers came up with some of their own, and also arguments to defend greatest hits albums. I usually advise fans to buy key studio albums rather than compilations, depending on the person. Yet I still own a few hundred greatest hits albums. There have to be good reasons.
And what about you? How many do you own? What are your favourites? Why did you buy them? I asked myself those three questions too. #1. I don’t know. #2. There are many, but Double Platinum and Killers by Kiss are up there. #3. Let’s talk about that in depth…I broke it down into seven points:
1. There are some artists that I barely know. Neil Diamond or Kenny Rogers, for example. There might be a handful of songs I like, but not enough that I have heard to take the plunge and buy an actual album. Or, I know it’s an artist that I don’t want many albums from. I have a feeling that I only want one or two CDs, so one of them is usually a greatest hits. I collect a lot of music, but I can’t collect everybody. Sometimes I’ve done the research to know that I need one or two CDs and nothing more.
2. Exclusive tracks are often dangled as bait. But sometimes greatest hits albums are stuffed with exclusive radio edits and remixes that aren’t obviously credited. Kiss’ Double Platinum is one such album. Aerosmith’s Greatest Hits had a number of special edits of songs. Collectors like myself often look for such versions. They make for an enjoyable way to hear a familiar song with a slightly different slant.
3. Artwork. Younger folks might not understand why this matters, but I come from the age of physical product. With some bands, you don’t want just the music. You want all the album covers too; they are sometimes as important as any other aspect of the music. Iron Maiden is the first, obvious example. I own several Iron Maiden greatest hits discs simply because I wanted to own all the Eddies. There is a certain satisfaction in viewing them all lined up in order.
4. Historical importance. Some greatest hits albums are just historically important. Best of Van Halen Volume I for example – even if I didn’t buy it for the two new songs, I would have wanted it for the significant role it played in breaking up Van Hagar! You might want to own Their Greatest Hits by the Eagles for the fact it’s the top selling hits album of all time.
5. Sometimes, I actually do listen to greatest hits! Sure, not often by comparison. But if I’m in the car with the Mrs., she might prefer a Deep Purple greatest hits set to a 5 disc version of Made in Japan. I own ‘em, so if they’re good I may as well play ‘em. Also, If I’m going somewhere and I only have an hour or so to listen to music, a greatest hits album often scratches whatever itch I have.
6. Gateway music. My entrance into the world of Thin Lizzy was one CD (Dedication: The Very Best of).
That point is the most important one. Using a greatest hits album to delve further in the discography is such an excellent experience. My first two Deep Purple’s were greatest hits. Now my Purple collection is of a prodigious size. I don’t even know how many I have. 100 maybe? More? And it keeps growing!
My first Floyd? Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd. My first Rush? Chronicles. First ZZ Top? Greatest Hits. See where I’m going with this? These are bands that, today, I am still collecting. I still buy whatever’s coming out. Which brings me to my last point.
7. Personal history. I’ve developed a relationship with some of those greatest hits albums over the years, even if they have been superseded by better ones. Something about the familiarity, I suppose. But even though all my first greatest hits albums were on cassette, I still went and bought CD copies of them all. In some cases, vinyl too!
What are your favourites? Does it bother you to own multiple copies of the same songs? If your favourite band came out with a greatest hits album tomorrow, would you consider buying it? Let me know!
I collect toys. Lots of toys.
DREAM THEATER: The Number of the Beast (2002 Ytsejam Records, Covers Series)
For the most part, Dream Theater is a band you either love or you hate. Some Metal fans are put off by the keyboards perhaps, while many others find Dream Theater hard to listen to because of the effeminate tone to the voice of singer James LaBrie. On the other hand, music fans who are not into the sensibilities of progressive music would label Dream Theater as “pretentious,” or which have you. Most music fans though can appreciate the musical talent of everyone involved. They are also a very busy unit, often branching out into different projects between DT albums and tours.
While still in the band, and then after his departure from DT in 2010, Mike Portnoy has been the busiest of all the DT members. So much so, that while researching to do this review of Dream Theater’s Official Bootleg: The Number of the Beast, I was blown away with how many projects Portnoy has been a part of that I truly love. Simply said, Mike Portnoy comes off as the biggest music fan in the music business. On top of his resume of original music, his obsessively accurate tribute projects can only be pulled off by someone who is an authentic “music geek super fan”. Sound familiar, LeBrain? So yes, this review has morphed itself into a bit of a Mike Portnoy love fest. Check out this list of his accomplishments outside of Dream Theater.
LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT – The two studio albums with John Petrucci, Jordan Rudess and Tony Levin are fantastic albums. Their self-titled CD is one of my favorite progressive rock albums. With three subsequent live albums with that lineup and two albums with a name change to Liquid Trio Experiment, that makes seven albums with the great Tony Levin alone.
TRANSATLANTIC – Four studio albums and four live albums with this Prog super group along with Roine Stolt (The Flower Kings), Neal Morse(Spock’s Beard, Flying Colors) and the bassist from one of my favorite bands…Marillion…Pete Trewavas.
AVENGED SEVENFOLD – After the death of their drummer, Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan, during the writing of a new album, Mike Portnoy stepped in and played drums on their 2010 CD titled Nightmare. He also joined them for a few shows over in Iran and Kuwait for American troops overseas.
ADRENALINE MOB – Two albums with this band consisting of members from Symphony X and Fozzy. I honestly do not think I have heard it so can’t say much really.
FLYING COLORS – One studio album and one live album playing with my favorite musician of all time… Steve Morse. Consisting of Neal Morse again and others, including the incredible Steve Morse Band bassist Dave LaRue. Maybe you should just read LeBrain’s review of this band right “here”.
WINERY DOGS – With a more straight ahead rock and roll approach, the Winery Dogs is his current gig with bassist Billy Sheehan and guitarist Richie Kotzen. [Check out Jon Wilmenius’ excellent review here — LeBrain]
And that’s just the original music he has been a part of. He has gone to great lengths to put together live shows recreating the concerts of, and playing the music of, his favorite drummers. He has arranged one for Led Zeppelin called Hammer of the Gods. He has also done one for Rush called Cygnus & the Sea Monsters. I actually learned about these while researching the review that I haven’t even got around to yet (yes this has become a much larger project than initially thought), so I am curious to search these out. You should be as well. The one I can comment on is his Beatles tribute called Yellow Matter Custard, named from a lyric within the song “I Am the Walrus”.
Consisting of Matt Bissonette, Paul Gilbert and Neal Morse and himself, this unit recreates what it would have been like to see The Beatles live. A lot of the songs were never played by the Beatles live. I listened to this with a good friend of mine who himself is a great musician and huge Beatles fan. Listening to it brought the Beatles super-fan out of him, most especially loving the somewhat obscure tracks performed live by the band. I highly recommend checking this out if you are a Beatles fan. So that pretty much means everyone.
I can’t believe I am now just starting the intended review, but here goes. In 2002, while touring for the album Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, Dream Theater went on a short club tour in Europe where they played a different album in its entirety, track for track. Among the albums covered in this tour were Master of Puppets – Metallica, Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd and Made in Japan – Deep Purple. (Who covers a live album? And one of my favorite live albums of all time? Dream Theater does, that’s who).
On October 24, 2002 DT played a small club called La Mutualite in Paris, France. The album on the menu that night was The Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden. From the sound of the enthusiastic crowd you can clearly hear throughout the album, this was a well-appreciated re-creation of one of the greatest Metal albums of all time.
The show starts off with album opener “Invaders”. My first impression was how great it sounded. Lively version and a thick guitar sound. Another thing I quickly realized is this: say what you want about James LaBrie and his effeminate style. Not many singers, including Bruce Dickinson himself can sing these songs live. I have seen Iron Maiden play several of these songs live, and even in a reduced key it is a struggle for Dickinson to sing the songs how they are recorded on the album. The opening track just left me looking forward to the rest of the set.
“Children of the Damned” was a joy to listen to, again mostly because of the vocals. This is probably his best singing on the album. Bruce Dickinson would have to get himself on a Lance Armstrong-like drug program to ever have a chance of singing this song in this key again. This song is also where I first really noted one of the truly great and original things about this album. Iron Maiden is a classic two-guitar fueled machine. DT is doing this with one guitar and a keyboard. Check out the twin guitar/keyboard solo in this song and hear throughout as the guitar and keyboard trade solos. A magnificent treat for the ears and surprisingly seamlessly done.
The crowd revs up as the classic Patrick McGoohan intro to “The Prisoner” plays as it is on the album. Chanting along with the intro just before Portnoy launches into the classic Clive Burr drum beat, this makes for a great listen, hearing the energy of the crowd and their appreciation of this show. Awesome version as well I must say.
“22 Acacia Avenue” is another track that is a treat to hear live. Live favorites “The Number of the Beast” and “Run to the Hills” follow. These two Heavy Metal anthems go over with the crowd extremely well as you would think they would. A case could be made that these back to back songs are the two most popular Iron Maiden songs of all time. Agreed? Discuss….
Coming next is their amazing version of “Gangland”. This is easily the most ambitious moment of the show. Kind of making the song their own, they begin the song off as a piano ballad and then make a left turn and turn it into a progressive, almost jazz fusion-ish groove as the song closes out. Absolutely brilliant and is probably my favorite track on the album. The show ends with a perfect version of “Hallowed Be Thy Name”, and the performance is over.
This is not just re-hashing of a great album. This was a well thought out and rehearsed celebration of this album, allowing true Maiden fans to hear what these songs may have sounded like when the album was toured in the 80’s. A friend of mine scoffed at the idea of DT covering this album and I may have shared some of his trepidation before I heard this recording. After listening to it now several times it has become obvious that this is not only a very relevant capturing of Number of the Beast, but it makes a very simple statement. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the players in Dream Theater have a higher level of musicianship than really any of their peers in popular music. And as listed earlier, it seems that everything Mike Portnoy does comes from the heart of just another music fan like you and I. So who is gonna come along and play one of Dream Theater’s albums track for track? Well Dream Theater of course. Who else possibly could? Good luck with that, Three Days Grace.
5/5 stars
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