IRON MAIDEN (UK) - Live At Donington (2 CD, EMI, 1993)

RATING: ****

In a sense, every live album from Iron Maiden since "Live After Death" is an exercise in redundance: no matter how good some of such releases turned out to be (and some of them are actually pretty bloody good), the fact is the band's ultimate live document, with the definitive line-up and all that, had already made its way to every self-respecting heavy metal fan's collection worldwide - and how can you expect to leave an even stronger impression when your definitive statement had already been made? To their credit, they never tried to sell the "Live at Donington" package as something to rival "Live After Death" in terms of relevance - the original release actually been presented and advertised as something of an official bootleg, two CDs housed in a fat box with tracklist, a few production details and not much else. Though recorded during their high profile appearance at 1992's Castle Donnington festival, Iron Maiden clearly didn't wanted to make such a big deal of the album's release - a stance in keeping with the more straighforward, back-on-the-streets approach explored since 1990's "No Prayer for the Dying", and also understandable in terms of business, as both "A Real Live One" and "A Real Dead One" had been released only a few months previously - in the case of the latter, actually, a mere 21 days back (I kid you not).

Now, I don't want to pretend this is something of an underrated classic or anything, but I have no doubt this is actually way better than the two live albums that preceded it, and perhaps one of the most enjoyable on-stage recordings from Iron Maiden's entire discography! For starters, it's clear for all to hear that the band sure delivered a powerful performance that night - something that, to be point-blank honest, wasn't really a usual occurrence during the truly confusing, often very tense days of 1992-1993. I'm sure the prospect of playing such a high-profile gig in their homeland, in front of nearly 80.000 fans, was more than enough for the band members to call a truce and focus all their collective abilities into delivering a strong performance, which was clearly the case that night. The instrumentation is muscular and tight, Bruce Dickinson signs quite well throughout, and everything flows remarkably well from start to end: nothing seems to drag along or overstay its welcome (even "Bring Your Daughter... To the Slaughter", a song that hardly ever works out fine in the live environment IMO, sounds pretty decent around here), and you'll hardly notice that nearly two hours had passed when the album is over, believe me on that. And there's even a (barely noticeable, to be honest) appearance from Adrian Smith himself, this being the (often forgotten) very first time the six-piece line-up we're all used to ever graced a stage, which surely adds a bit of curiosity value to the whole thing.

The setlist brings a good mix of old and new, including only the very best tunes from "Fear of the Dark" in such a way that it doesn't sound at all out of place among the undisputed classics from the past. The opening with "Be Quick or Be Dead" is actually one of the least impressive moments from the whole set - granted, they get away with it well enough, but it seems to me they never felt really comfortable playing such a phisically demanding song live - but things quickly recover with "The Number of the Beast", and it's all top notch from this point onwards. In fact, songs like "Tailgunner" and "Heaven Can Wait" greatly benefit from the live environment, sounding way more engaging than its studio incarnations. The decision to privilege shorter, punchier songs in the setlist also works remarkably well; in fact, if one had only this live record as evidence, would probably be inclined to conclude that Maiden were ready to remain strong well through the 90s, as this gritty edge sure had its place among the Painkillers and Cowboys From Hell from that era.

I personally tend to think that the most important quality a live record needs to offer is to sound like the real deal - I mean, it has to make a listener feel like being there. It doesn't really matter if it's full of overdubs or not, you know: albums like "Unleashed in the East" and "Live and Dangerous" are mostly re-recorded in a studio, but still they sound right, as they create the illusion one wants to feel when listening to a live record - something that many real-to-reel recordings simply doesn't capture to any enjoyable extent. It's hard to define, really: when it's there, you know it, and that's all. "Live After Death" has it in spades; "Live at Donington" may not be as bombastic, but it sure does have a fair bit of real live fire within its grooves. A good one to have in your collection to kick off a saturday evening, I'd say. And don't be too disheartened if you can't locate a copy from the 1st edition (or if you don't feel like paying good money on such a spartan package), as the 1998 reissue looks quite nice (with the original artwork from the festival's poster) and is improved by a remastered sound and some interesting multimedia material in the enhanced CD version.

As we all know by now, Bruce Dickinson's departure would be quite a traumatic one (his very poor performances during most of the 1993's European tour sure having a lot to do with that), and there was no love lost between the singer and the rest of the band when the final stand took place on August 28, 1993 - a special performance on Pinewood Studios, London that would be broadcast live on pay-per-view and later become the "Raising Hell" video from 1994. It's a fun watch if you're a fan, though far from being a particularly passionate delivery, and the tongue-in-cheek magic tricks (such as "amputating" Dave Murray's hands and "executing" Bruce in an iron maiden torture device), though cheesy as hell, are amusing enough to make for good entertainment. Whatever the case, I guess you'll excuse me for not writing a review, as it never received any audio-only treatment (and understandably so, as it was all tailored for TV in the first place), and this small corner of the internet is meant for discography-related releases only. Anyway, when it was over, it was clearly over - with some heavy words said by Nicko McBrain and Steve Harris giving strong indication that hell would have to freeze over in order for Bruce to be readmited. We all know how it turned out to be less than a decade later, but let's not rush things...

Bruce Dickinson (V), Dave Murray (G), Janick Gers (G), Steve Harris (B), Nicko McBrain (D). Guest appearance: Adrian Smith (G).

01. Be Quick or Be Dead (Dickinson/Gers) 3:53
02. The Number of the Beast (Harris) 4:53
03. Wrathchild (Harris) 2:54
04. From Here to Eternity (Harris) 4:44
05. Can I Play With Madness (Smith/Dickinson/Harris) 3:33
06. Wasting Love (Dickinson/Gers) 5:36
07. Tailgunner (Harris/Dickinson) 4:07
08. The Evil that Men Do (Smith/Dickinson/Harris) 7:51
09. Afraid to Shoot Strangers (Harris) 6:59
10. Fear of the Dark (Harris) 7:08
11. Bring Your Daughter... To the Slaughter (Dickinson) 6:12
12. The Clairvoyant (Harris) 4:21
13. Heaven Can Wait (Harris) 7:20
14. Run to the Hills (Harris) 4:16
15. 2 Minutes to Midnight (Smith/Dickinson) 5:42
16. Iron Maiden (Harris) 8:14
17. Hallowed Be Thy Name (Harris) 7:27
18. The Trooper (Harris) 3:52
19. Sanctuary (Harris/Murray/Di'Anno) 5:18
20. Running Free (Harris/Di'Anno) 7:56

Have you been involved with any of the bands mentioned here? Have any extra info and/or corrections? Please e-mail me (drequon@gmail.com) and let me know!