Next up, a combo of Somewhere Back in Time/Flight 666.

Somewhere Back in Time was a best of album they released, Flight 666 was the album of the tour to support it and also a fantastic documentary about the tour and the whole Ed Force One Deal.

The documentary is a must pick up for most any rock fan, it was really well done and showed a functioning band (an anti-Some Kind of Monster) with a lead singer as a pilot, and a fanatical fan base. The concerts in South America were incredible to see.

Somewhere Back in Time


Tracklist
1."Churchill's Speech" - 0.50
2."Aces High (Live)" (Steve Harris) - 4.36
from Live After Death; Originally from Powerslave
3."2 Minutes to Midnight" (Bruce Dickinson, Adrian Smith) - 6.00
From Powerslave
4."The Trooper" (Harris) - 4.11
From Piece of Mind
5."Wasted Years" (Smith) - 5.06
From Somewhere in Time
6."Children of the Damned" (Harris) - 4.35
From The Number of the Beast
7."The Number of the Beast (Harris) - 4.53
From The Number of the Beast
8."Run to the Hills" (Harris) - 3.53
From The Number of the Beast
9."Phantom of the Opera" (Live) (Harris) - 7.21
From Live After Death; Originally from Iron Maiden
10."The Evil That Men Do" (Dickinson, Smith, Harris) - 4.34
From Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
11."Wrathchild" (Live) (Harris) - 3.07
From Live After Death; Originally from Killers
12."Can I Play with Madness?" (Dickinson, Smith, Harris) - 3.31
From Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
13."Powerslave" (Dickinson) - 6.47
From Powerslave
14."Hallowed Be Thy Name" (Harris) - 7.12
From The Number of the Beast
15."Iron Maiden" (Live) (Harris) - 4.50
From Live After Death; Originally from Iron Maiden


Flight 666


Churchill's Speech
Bandra Kurla Complex/Mumbai, India
February 1, 2008

Aces High (Steve Harris)
Bandra Kurla Complex/Mumbai, India
February 1, 2008

2 Minutes to Midnight (Bruce Dickinson/Adrian Smith)
Rod Laver Arena/Melbourne, Australia
February 7, 2008

Revelations (Dickinson)
Acer Arena/Sydney, Australia
February 9, 2008

The Trooper (Harris)
Makuhari Messe/Tokyo, Japan
February 16, 2008

Wasted Years (Smith)
Arena Monterrey/Monterrey, Mexico
February 22, 2008

The Number of the Beast (Harris)
The Forum/Los Angeles, USA
February 19, 2008

Can I Play with Madness (Dickinson/Harris/Smith)
Foro Sol/Mexico City, Mexico
February 24, 2008

Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Harris)
Izod Center/East Rutherford, USA
March 14, 2008

Powerslave (Dickinson)
Saprissa Stadium/San Jose, Costa Rica
February 26, 2008

Heaven Can Wait (Harris)
Palmeiras Stadium/Sao Paulo, Brazil
March 2, 2008

Run to the Hills (Harris)
Simon Bolivar Park/Bogota, Colombia
February 28, 2008

Fear of the Dark (Harris)
Ferrocarril Oeste Stadium/Buenos Aires, Argentina
March 7, 2008

Iron Maiden (Harris)
Pista Atletica/Santiago, Chile
March 9, 2008

Moonchild (Dickinson/Smith)
Coliseo de Puerto Rico/San Juan, Puerto Rico
March 12, 2008

The Clairvoyant (Harris)
Pedreira Paulo Leminski/Curitiba, Brazil
March 4, 2008

Hallowed Be Thy Name (Harris)
Air Canada Centre/Toronto, Canada
March 16, 2008



Videos


Trailer

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Kzl49Itd-m8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Wasted Years
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TmAnjlQbRSE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The Clairvoyant
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HyTzHotDeNs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Flight 666 was a very good documentary. Sounded great on Blu-ray. I got the soundtrack on vinyl because the vinyl was a set of picture discs, and they look awesome.

Same here, all the albums Brave New World on were released on Picture Disc (I have them all and they are cool).

I saw the "Flight 666" rockumentary last year - as part of an Iron Maiden night on one of the BBC channels. It really was very good and showed all parties in good form. And, yes, when I watched half of the "Some Kind of Monster" film there were one or two whiny spoilt/selfish kids in that band that I just wanted to slap!

I don't have the heart to watch Flight 666. I missed seeing this tour in NYC by one day, and it didn't play here. I was unable to go to the Powerslave Tour in 85, and it's always been my biggest musical regret.

In fact, I never saw them live at all until last summer, and it was a hell of a show. Most of the setlist was from the post-2000 albums, and that gave me a much better appreciation of them. I had purchased Brave New World and Dance of Death, but they never got a lot of play. Put all four "new" albums in the car CD changer after seeing the show, and I have a much better appreciation for them now.

That's not to say they're perfect. They seem to be following two or three basic patterns for every song, and a lot of the songs are pretty much interchangeable. You could select 10 random songs from these four albums and it would be easy to believe that they were all recorded at the same time. It's good stuff, but they don't seem to be capable of writing anything like "The Trooper" anymore, but that's okay.

Next (and last up) .. The Final Frontier. Another really good post reunion album. The Isle of Avalon is about as good as prog-metal gets. I love that song. Talisman really stands out as well (looking at the live clips, it sounds awesome live as well). The faster songs like El Dorado and The Alchemist are solid. Maiden does some intersting thigns on the album, the intro is cool, there are some almost physcodelic riffs on some of the later songs Also, with the exception of the title track, the repetitive refrains are gone.

My main complaint is they did not release singles in a physical form. I pretty much have them all on vinyl (and CD for Wasting Love and some others with more tracks). I miss the art work and the B-sides.



Tracklist
1. "Satellite 15... The Final Frontier" Adrian Smith, Steve Harris 8:40
2. "El Dorado" Smith, Harris, Bruce Dickinson 6:49
3. "Mother of Mercy" Smith, Harris 5:20
4. "Coming Home" Smith, Harris, Dickinson 5:52
5. "The Alchemist" Janick Gers, Harris, Dickinson 4:29
6. "Isle of Avalon" Smith, Harris 9:06
7. "Starblind" Smith, Harris, Dickinson 7:48
8. "The Talisman" Gers, Harris 9:03
9. "The Man Who Would Be King" Dave Murray, Harris 8:28
10. "When the Wild Wind Blows" Harris 10:59


Single (download only) El Dorado



Video

Final Frontier
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kSQVU5V1-No" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The Talisman (Live)
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/yGxY3Tq80a4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Isle of Avalon (sadly not live)
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/DeinEpKtlng" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I've listened to this a few times, and think it's a step up from Dance of Death, but not as good as Brave New World or A Matter of Life and Death.

Coming Home is the best song on the album. It's better than the 2 previous, but not by much.

If I wanted to listen to prog I'd listen to Dream Theatre.... Give me Killers or Piece of Mind anyday.

This album really did nothing for me. I've listened to it 4 or 5 times and can't get into it at all. It's boring Prog-Maiden.

You don't need to be a Maiden fan to enjoy the documentary for Flight 666. One helluva ride!

I traveled up to NY and hopped a bus to see the March 2008 show in East Rutherford NJ. So I'm in the crowd during "Rime of the Ancient Mariner". Was worth it for me. I saw the band on the Powerslave tour in 85 (Hollywood Sportatorium! w00t!) and had to see that stage set again. Plus they weren't coming anywhere closer so I figure that was my only shot.

13 months later, they played 5 minutes from where I'm typing this now. Still no regrets.

Anyway re: The Final Frontier... I *like* it. I don't love it but it's probably a better listen than any of the 2000+ albums. It's sort of half classic Maiden, half proggy Maiden.

My thoughts exactly. Here's what wikipedia has on the album's production: In order to provide a more "live" sound, the album was not mastered. Producer Kevin Shirley said, "Spoke to 'Arry (Steve Harris) on Friday, who has decided against mastering the Iron Maiden album... It means that you will get to hear the new album exactly as it sounded in the studio, no added EQ, compression, analog widening, etc., and I must say, I am pretty happy with the end result."

I for one, hope for a remaster (but in this case I guess there is no "re" involved in mastering it) some day soon as there are some really great songs.

I'm a little late to the game on this but for the record, here are my fave Maiden albums in order...

1. Brave New World -- seriously, I think this is the best pure metal album ever made...not sure why people have any doubts about this sterling platter of heaviness...
2. Seventh Son -- the end of an era...Infinite Dreams and Evil That Men do just friggin' crush...
3. Number Of The Beast -- classic...nuff said
4. Powerslave -- 2nd best album cover ever after NOTB...pretty good album music wise too!
5. A Matter Of Life and Death -- not digging the mix (why the big falloff in production quality from BNW to DOD and everything else after???)...but it has some great songs riff-wise and is definitely a strong album top to bottom.

Final thoughts: I really can't quite understand why BNW is so crushingly awesome and then the next three "modern" Maiden albums are glaringly weak by comparison...what happened? It's like they make a massive statement and then forget to back it up. Good stuff on all three subsequent albums (Final Frontier is by far the weakest though) but nothing on par with BNW in total. Weird.

Final final thoughts: best recent metal albums I can think of are Pyramaze's three albums thus far (amazing!) and Bloodbound's first four albums thus far (equally amazing!). Seriously, I'm really more into the post-melodic death metal/power metal thing so factor that into my rankings.

Bumping as I am currently having an album by album Maiden marathon, and well, because they're the greatest metal band ever.

(bump) Up the Irons!

anyone have any current comments on them or their albums? new insights?

Any word at all on anything new coming? They're playing (literally) a handful of US dates this summer.

They are playing the Maiden England Tour in Europe, South America, and a few US dates this summer. I read somewhere that they may come out with a new album in 2014 .. not sure how reliable that is. The Maiden England Tour is great. I caught the show in Dallas last summer, I will be in Gdansk this summer when they play there and later in the year I'll go see it in Austin.

Does Iron Maiden have plans to release a new studio record next year? It seems that many signs are pointing towards “yes.”

In an in-depth interview on Talarforum.se, Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson discusses his pre-fame life as well as other topics of discussion. ”In addition to upcoming tour plans, the band to record a new album which, if all goes as planned, is scheduled for release in 2014.”

If Iron Maiden does have a new record planned, it would be the group’s sixteenth studio album. Many had feared that their last record, ‘The Final Frontier’ would be their final record. This was due to a statement reportedly made by Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris who said they would make 15 records and then pull the plug. Thankfully, Harris later went on the record stating the group’s position on that matter had changed.

They are unbelievably playing in Nashville this September. A friend and I have GA tickets on the floor. Haven't did that since the 80's. As a matter of fact, I had Maiden tickets back in '85, but I was making out with a girl in the dorms and didn't want to break away in case things went further!

Ok, I don't know if you are my hero or certifiable lol. You had tickets to the Life After Death Tour but you didn't go because there was a chance you were going to get laid? I'm not judging you but this girl must have been out of this world!

It's better than my reason for missing it, which was I didn't have a car and all my friends were lame-asses.

Lol, I know the feeling. Actually back then, I always had people wanting to go. For about the last 10 years though, I go to lots of shows solo. Not many people want to go to the thrash shows I still go to like Destruction and Death Angel. The other issue is the ticket prices. Not many people want to shell out $100 for 90-120 mins of entertainment. Honestly, i cannot remember why I missed the show, the only thing I can imagine is that it fell on a school night and I was only a sophomore in high school.

I wish I could say I went and got laid on the night of the Powerslave Tour ... but I just went to the show.

Meh, I was more of a Priest fan back in the day. Number of the Beast was the only Maiden album I owned back then.

...and the sad denouement: Didn't go all the way, and ended up crashing my Nova driving home in the snow.