Iron Maiden's Reviews

A Real Live One

Good tracklist, terrible sound quality

After nearly eleven years in the band, word was out: Bruce Dickinson was leaving Iron Maiden to pursue his solo career. But, before leaving he'd have one last hurrah: A world tour, with two live albums coming out afterwards. After the tour the albums did come out, which were titled A Real Live One and A Real Dead One. With the 1998 and 2002 re-releases of Maiden albums, they are now together on one two-disc release: A Real Live Dead one.

The first thing to discuss is the album cover (which was the A Real Live One cover originally). Without question Eddie has never looked this cool. Using blue on the band's logo instead of the usual red also gave it a boost. Then there's the back cover (which was the A Real Dead One Cover.) Here we've got a DJ Eddie in a dark studio. He's even wearing the Killers shirt (which was a stupid choice assuming Killers doesn't have a single song here.) A cool concept though. Inside the booklet there are awesome pictures, and even a chart of the history of Iron Maiden members! Who would've thought Paul Di'Anno, after leaving Maiden, would have Frank Noon (famous for his work on the Def Leppard EP) on drums?

The next issue is the tracklist. Overall, these were great song choices. Disc one covers songs from 1980-1984. 6 tracks from Iron Maiden, 3 from The Number Of The Beast, 2 from Piece Of Mind and 1 from Powerslave. Sadly, those 6 tracks from Iron Maiden originally featured Paul Di'Anno on lead vocals, and Dickinson doesn't do a great job at them. His own tracks he seems to do fine on though. Disc two covers songs from 1986-1992. 1 track from Somewhere In Time, 3 from Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, 2 from No Prayer For The Dying, and 5 from the recently released Fear Of The Dark. Because these are all Dickinson originals the singing quality is improved over the first disc. He even has the audience sing back a few lines (most evident in Heaven Can Wait and Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter.) Song choices could have been better, but I'm not going to complain.

Where it all implodes is production quality. You'll fast notice the sound quality in general is nowhere near as good as most Maiden releases. Why? To make things worse, the fading between songs was done poorly. You'll hear the audience screaming one second, and hear them screaming the next second, but they'll sound radically different because it's actually a whole different audience. Also, Dickinson's infamous "scream for me" line is present here, and after it he'll always say the name of the city being played in. And because this was recorded in several places it's NEVER CONSTANT! If you didn't read the insert you're gonna be confused there.

Because of the shortcomings I recommend this for die-hard Maiden fans only. If you get one of the two live CD Maiden albums with two full-length CDs get Rock In Rio. The sound quality is better as is the variety of material explored. Plus, Dickinson's voice sounds a lot better. The best live album is Live After Death, but it and Live After Donington only feature about 5 tracks on the second disc. So get Rock In Rio if you want two full length live CDs. If you don't mind an extra CD with only about 5 tracks then get Live After Death. If you decide to get this album, get it used. I almost guarantee your local used CD shop will have a few copies for a relatively low price. But, you're better off getting the other live albums.

Buy this album on Amazon at $22.98