Iron Maiden's World Slavery Tour had seen the band performing in 193 counties in just under a year (August, 1984 - July, 1985), from being the first band to take a full production into Europe's Eastern Bloc to performing in front of some 300,000 in the first Rock in Rio (January 1985) then to 1,000,000 North American heavy metal fans alone.
As the tour hit its eighth month it was now time to film this epic production, coming off the back of the mighty 1984 "Powerslave" album with its Egyptian themes and backdrops and powerful lengthy tracks as "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" to the shorter rock n' roll numbers of "Aces High" and "2 Minutes to Midnight". It's all good stuff, with live tracks taken from their, then, current studio works' "Iron Maiden" (1980), The Number of the Beast" (1982), "Piece of Mind" (1983) we hear their traditional key changes and power cords, twin lead guitars to historical and intriguing lyrics and the heavy, rhythmic bass line from its founding member Steve Harris.
Originally released as a 1985 double live vinyl album, side four being the London's Hammersmith shows, the first three being the US' Long Beach Arena concerts. This vinyl album alone is worth searching for, in its vinyl capacity, to appreciate its artwork, done by Derek Riggs, its booklet with photo after photo of the bands world tour and general all-out detailed output put into this vinyl package, an excellent production indeed.
Accompanying this double live album was the 1985 VHS release and it has now been updated and re-released in 2008, with two audio options; the original PCM Stereo soundtrack and an updated 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound version. To be fair, while the 5.1 is best suited to, now, modern technologies' the format to play here is most definitely its original format, the updated soundtrack sounds too sterile, too superimposed and clean.
This 2008 package is a treasure trove of Maiden memorabilia. Added is the now rare full-length footage of "Iron Maiden: Behind the Iron Curtain", a documentary of their visit to the Eastern Bloc and a exceptional glimpse into the now defunct Communist Europe when the Cold War was still very much in place and when a heavy metal band blew down the walls of segregation. With this, we also see an interesting short (15 minutes) of Maiden performing and being interviewed, at the Alamo no less, in San Antonio, Texas from their World Piece Tour of 1983 and a full one hours documentary "History of Iron Maiden part 2" (2008) as well as highlights from their visit to "Rock in Rio - 1985" and more.
"Iron Maiden: Life After Death" (2008) with all is glory of the 1985 Long Beach show plus its added extras is a must for lovers of the heavy metal genre and its spearheading band Iron Maiden, a great show and a very well thought-out package that fails to disappoint, this too, is also the Iron Maiden trademark.
