IRON MAIDEN
Death on the Road
Sanctuary Records 2005
www.ironmaiden.com

What’s the 4-1-1?
Iron Maiden’s Dance of Death World Tour is captured on this two CD set with their November 23rd, 2003 show in Dortmund, Germany.

Genre
Heavy metal / NWOBHM

The Good
Disc one: The songs are pretty good here for the most part. The song selection mixes up the Maiden catalog nicely. I loved hearing the crowd assisting with a thunderous clamor during “Wrathchild.” Oddly enough, the two best sounding performances on this first disc are the newer songs “Dance of Death” and “Paschendale.” Each song really came through the recording very well. “Brave New World” also sounded great.

Disc two: This disc was actually not too shabby either. The performance of “Iron Maiden” was excellent and it’s not truly a live concert from Maiden without “The Number Of The Beast.” I don’t care how the rest of a concert from the band goes, when they start the voiceover introduction to the song, the audience just blows the roof off the place. “Hallowed Be Thy Name” turned out surprisingly good as well.

The Bad
Disc one: I don’t know what happened, but the opening song on the album “Wildest Dreams” seems to find Bruce Dickinson really strained in his delivery. The rendition of “Can I Play with Madness” is just awful. The tempo of the song is off, and the vocals are just bad.

Disc two: “Fear of the Dark” is probably one of the newer songs to be considered an Iron Maiden concert staple. It’s just a great song, and it’s true here as well. The only thing I didn’t like was that the opening portion of the song with the spoken word intro sounded too “affected” to be taken seriously. I’ve heard that part performed in person and on other live CDs and they were all better than how it came across here. The rest of the song was outstanding though. I’m just not a big fan of the song “No More Lies” so I didn’t find much to get excited about as that track opens the second disc. The concert ending song was of course “Run to the Hills.” Musically it sounded great, but vocally it came across kind of screechy.

The Verdict
I’m a Maiden completist when it comes to their officially released material. If they release it, I’m going to buy it. For the most part I always enjoy listening to a new studio album, compilation, or live album from the band. They are just one of the all time standard bearers for true heavy metal. The first time I listened to this album, I wasn’t listening with the intent of doing a review. I was listening to it in a disconnected manner.

I initially thought the album was kind of mediocre. When I decided to do the review I listened again, quite intently, and found my first impression was incorrect. While there are some decidedly awful sounding tracks this time around, it’s still a great encapsulation of the band’s most recent world tour. It’s not in the same category as their classic live release Live After Death, but it holds it ground. Whether it’s long time fans or newbies to the band, the album is worth adding to your collection!

Did You Know?
Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain has a side project called McBrain Damage.

Rating: out of 5

-- Jay Roberts