Kevin Shirley Defends 'Dance Of Death' Sound
IRON MAIDEN producer Kevin Shirley, who has worked with the group on their last two studio releases as well as the live album "Rock In Rio", has taken the unusual step of publicly defending the production on MAIDEN's latest CD, "Dance Of Death", calling it a perfect replica of the band's live sound.Writing to his [url=http://www.cavemanproductions.com/cavediary.htm]web site[/url], Shirley said, "I have been getting all sorts of e-mails (yeah I read 'em, but don't reply to them all) about the sonic quality of 'Dance of Death'. Now, I don't need to qualify anything, except it sounds like that 'cos it's meant to sound like that! The band love it! Nicko [McBrain] prefers the energy of the drum/guitar balance to 'Brave New World', which actually featured more drums (which he liked). Steve [Harris] says the bass finally sounds like his rig sounds. The three amigos love the guitars — including the odd amp crackle and distortion which is the sound of them live — and that, my friends, is Bruce singing like he sings! Not coaxed, and digitally enhanced, tuned and corrected. IRON MAIDEN — captured. The songs are great, but not necessarily reflective of nu-metal themes — because THEY ARE NOT NU-METAL! That is IRON MAIDEN, and no one is stopping you filling up your CD players with LINKIN PARK, LIMP BIZKIT or CHEVELLE, or whatever the hell you think is a fine sounding record. (they all sound sonically pretty similar to me, whereas NO-ONE else sounds like MAIDEN. I love the album. So, Up the Irons - and for the know-it-all detractors = Up yours!"
source: [url=http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/]Blabbermouth.net[/url]
13 Comments
Go on Kevin!
I don't like the band's live sound either. so I don't blame Kevin. Really. I blame the one(s) who are responsible for actual ive sound then. If it's Steve or Bruce, so be it.
Listen "Revelations" from Live after Death album, and then the verison from Gimme Ed tour. You'll get what I mean.
I want less reverb, more warm ambience, not this space filling stadium concert atmosphere boomy sound.
I want clear clingy STEVE signature bass sound (not this generic boomy sound) Clear and more treble guitar sound with raw but precise sound!
I want energetic, treble, raw power of first 5 albums!!!!!!!
I like how DoD sounds...
I think it sounds pretty good. In live after death, sometimes Adrian's guitar makes some terrible sounds! You know like Bzzzzzrrt or something like that. The sound is good on live after death but on DoD i like the maybe a litle better. And live sounds are pretty good also, but im not an expert on these things.
i like the sound of DOD.... the bass is much louder than what it was on BNW.... i think BNW is the only album where the bass was a little low....
[quote=Eddie-the-Killer,Nov 9 2003, 11:28 AM] i like the sound of DOD.... the bass is much louder than what it was on BNW.... i think BNW is the only album where the bass was a little low.... [/quote]
imo i think that in DoD the bass sounds lower than in BNW, i mean, listen to The Wickerman and listen to Rainmaker...(not comparing songs, just the bass volume).
in Twm you can hear Steve hitting those 4 strings like hell 
and in Rainmaker i can barely hear Steve...
maybe this doesn't mean anything to anyone but is what i think
Well, I like the DOD sound, although I can't hear any big differences. I think DOD is an overall better album than BNW, with better songs (not straight through, BNW has some great moments too) and better sound.
Hmm, is there any other word for better? 
[quote=Shadow,Nov 9 2003, 08:34 PM] Well, I like the DOD sound, although I can't hear any big differences. I think DOD is an overall better album than BNW, with better songs (not straight through, BNW has some great moments too) and better sound.
Hmm, is there any other word for better? [/quote]
well, i think that the bass track dissapears on some parts of the songs on BNW, maby it does that a bit becouse of that 'kin acustic guitar playing ecactly the same as steve on Dream of mirrors, they didnt need that one....
I love the sound of "Dance of death" and "Brave new world". Kevin is doing a great job with Maiden.
I think it sounds bloody great!!!!!! 
Well you can't complain about the production!
I think it's an excellent sound and wellproduced and written.
album sounds fine 2 me dunno wat the fuss is about