‘Scream for me Long Beach!’ Any metalfan, who doesn’t immediately think of Iron Maiden after hearing this, must have been living in a cave or something. It has been a part of heavy metal folklore since 1985’s Live After Death and now it finally has been released on the DVD format. Fans have been waiting a long time for this and now their getting their money worth after a shit load of live videos.

 

In august 1984, Iron Maiden embarked on their longest tour ever, promoting their new Powerslave album. The World Slavery tour as it was aptly named, almost resulted in Bruce Dickinson to quit the music business completely. Their year long trek around the globe took them to almost every continent and was extremely tough. They spent half a year in the US alone, but it wasn’t an ongoing party and all good fun. Adrian Smith later explained: “I’ll defy anybody who says that six months in a tour bus doesn’t drive you crazy.” At that time they had one of the most spectacular live shows on the planet with the Egyptian theme taken from Powerslave. During this tour they decided to record a live album which turned out to be the absolute classic heavy metal record Live After Death. Still to this day it remains the highlight of Maiden’s career.

 

The stunning live performance was recorded on 35mm film over a four night run at Long Beach Arena. On disc one it has been boosted up to the 5.1 sound. It is quite exciting to hear ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ like that. In the middle section the sound of the cracking ship really becomes creepy. Furthermore there is nothing much to say than most people already know about this video. It is superb and simply the best of Iron Maiden.

 

Whilst being already worthwhile buying for the classic concert alone, there is a number of interesting extras on disc number two. It continues with part 2 of the History of Iron Maiden series. This hour long feature reveals almost everything from that time. 

Included in this DVD is the hour long documentary Behind the Iron Curtain which was previously released on video in 1985. At that time the cold war was still going on and western bands hardly visited the eastern European countries. Iron Maiden was one of the first, if not the first, who took their entire production to a place like Poland.

 

I know that a review is not supposed to be an advert for buying, but this is definitely a must have for fans. Go and see the live recreation of this show this summer. It is the last chance to see the definitive Iron Maiden setlist. ‘Scream for me!’