This well done live album is Iron Maidens"best" live album.Live afterDeath will also introduce you to the songs and albums at Iron Maidens peak. If you are new to Iron Maiden, I highly recommend this as your 1st Maiden Voyage.
This live album covers Iron Maiden, Killers, Number of The Beast, Piece of Mind and Powerslave. This album is a better best of Maiden than their album Best of The Beast.

Iron Maiden was the premier metal band of the 80's. Shortly after their demise, metallica took over as the premier band.I am Bay Area born and raised and, saw this coming.During the early to late 80's Metallica, Megadeth,Exodus,Testament,Slayer, and Anthrax made big gains in the metal world. The opinion at that time was a metal band should play their music at 200 miles an hour. As a result,there were alot of crappy bands out at the time playing to the same speed metal beat. Most of these bands were coming from the Bay Area including( not the crappy ones) the above mentioned except Slayer who are from L.A. and Anthrax from NYC.
The Bay Area was the premier metal scene at the time. What I can tell you is even though this movement was going on, Iron Maiden was always the best metal band out there. Nobody ever missed a Maiden show!! If Metallica were in town, sure we would all try to make it, but if something came up, we did not mind missing them. The same was not true for Maiden. You simply did not miss a Maiden show.

Iron Maiden is the last of the true great heavy metal/rock show bands. Their theatrics havent been matched before or since, although bands like White Zombie have tried.They also gave us some of the greatest heavy metal songs of all time,without having to play at warp speed.

The album opens with "Aces High". A fast paced song thats not warped and is about world war 1 fighter pilots. This song along with"2 Minutes To Midnight","Power Slave" and"Rime of The Ancient Mariner" are off their masterpiece album "Powerslave" album."Mariner" is a very long song but,any one who has read the Samuel Coleridge poem of the same title will see the brilliance of this band right away.
The poem will take you about 2 hours to read but, Iron Maiden delivers it(not all but they convey the main points brilliantly) in under 15 minutes. I have never seen a poem more beautifully represented in song. You actually feel like you are out on the ocean with the melodies they are making. The next songs to discuss are from the album"Piece of Mind"."Die With Your Boots On","Flight of Icarus","Revelations" and"The Trooper" are represented."The Trooper" is perhaps Iron Maidens most famous song of all time. People I run into that don't know Maiden still tend to know "The Trooper". Personally my favorite song from "Piece of Mind" is not represented. That would be"To Tame A Land". From Number of The Beast we have"Run To The Hills","The Number of The Beast","Hallowed Be Thy Name","Children of The Damned" and my favorite from the album;"22 Acacia Avenue". All are classics with maybe the exception of "22".Go figure thats my favorite from Number of The Beast. From the"Killers" album we run into one song only. Why? I don't know. Although "Killers" and "Iron Maiden" would have been better albums had Bruce Dickenson been the lead vocalist at the time. From "KilLers" we have"Wrath Child". Not a bad song but, not great either. It lacks bassist Steve Harriss' wicked bass lines from other songs. Sounds very raw as both "Iron Maiden" and "Killers" do. From "Iron Maiden", you are given"Iron Maiden"(sounds like Motor Head),"Running Free"(all time great rebel song)and,"Phantom of The Opera". Phantom is another great achievment for this band.Beautifuly done, you can picture this song done with an orchestra. It sounds even better with Bruce on vocals:)

Without question this album has best sound quality of their live albums, but I challenge others to find a better sounding live album. I will inform you of which album to buy next but, this is the one to start on.

By the way, Maiden puts their videos from each album on their cds. This is some thing I hope to see all bands do in the future.On "Live After Death" you will have 3 live performance videos and one tease when you pop the disc into your computer. You will be able to see live performances of"2 Minutes To Midnight"' "Power Slave", and "Aces High".
The tease is an excerpt of "Revelations".

The line up for"Live After Death" is Iron Maidens classic line up.
Steve Harris-Bass and back up vocals
Dave Murray-Guitar
Adrian Smith-Guitar and back up vocals
Bruce Dickinson-Lead vocals
Nicko McBrain-Drums

You have to definately read sleestakks
review on this album. He saw this tour, and has very good insight into the album. I will give you the best opinions on Maiden, but suggest reading sleestakks feeds on Maiden also. You will have a double feed on Maiden that will inform you of all you need to know! Honesty is my only excuse!! This also describes sleestakk very well:)

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Hanging With Friends