Czech Gig Review In Metal Hammer
Review by Chris Ingham of Metal Hammer.Iron Maiden are experiencing something of a re-birth if the wider media is to be believed. Mentions in tabloid papers and even quality broadsheets would give the uninitiated the impression that somehow Iron Maiden have grown old gracefully and are now 'part of the establishment'. What utter bollocks....
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I put the entire article here so that it stays in our archives.
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06/01/2004 Czech gig review by Chris Ingham (Metal Hammer)
Iron Maiden are experiencing something of a re-birth if the wider media is to be believed. Mentions in tabloid papers and even quality broadsheets would give the uninitiated the impression that somehow Iron Maiden have grown old gracefully and are now 'part of the establishment'. What utter bollocks. Obsessed with The Darkness and their retro fun it seems that anyone with long hair, a loud Marshall amp and a headbanging attitude can now be deemed cool. Fuck 'em and their patronising approval. Iron Maiden and the 16,000 sweating Czechs that fill the former Stadhalle tonight couldn't give a shit about that approval and neither will you when you finally get to glimpse this enormous rock beast come December.
It's a given that bands who tour with the productions the size of Iron Maiden are going to run the risk of early tour screw-ups and unintentionally hilarious gaffes when inflatables and robots fail to materialise on cue, indeed for many, it's all part of the fun. But this is the well-oiled metal machine that is Iron Maiden and even tonight, just three dates into their massive European tour, the band's attempts to suspend reality and pull the crowd into their theatre of the macabre is already paying huge dividends.
Maiden have long been an easy target for sneering journos and obsessive music fascists comfortably cocooned within their own world of assumed musical superiority and, for a while in the Blaze years, you had to worry that it really all was slipping away as a gasping Bayley struggled to keep an audience's attention. But now with Bruce Dickinson firmly back in the hot seat and holding onto a crowd's imagination like a lockjawed bulldog when he asks you to join him as Maiden 'take you to a different place... to the dance of death' it almost seems like a stroll down Putney High Street (minus the turds). With a theatrical swish of Brucie's hand it all becomes really quite simple: if you aren't prepared to 'believe' in the fun then just sod off and don't bother buying a ticket.
Those who are going to see the band over the next month can expect to see a set packed with the classics but one that finally also sees Maiden strike an appropriate balance between the old ('Wrathchild'), the new ('Rainmaker/No More Lies') and the downright shocking ('Lord Of The Flies').
Opening with newbie 'Wildest Dreams', a suitably ragged old school sounding charge of the finest denim hue, its then into 'Wrathchild' and another welcome surprise 'Can I Play With Madness'. 20 minutes in and the lights dim as Bruce exhorts the crows to folow the dance and he's off back into the shadows only to emerge sat in a very metal rocking chair clad in an odd looking cape and cowl for 'Dance Of Death'. It's at this point that even the die-hards have to wonder what's coming next, as Maiden have never felt the need to use costumes as a means of communicating the reality of one of their more epic songs before? Bruce didn't don an early nineteenth century seaman's outfit for 'Rime Of The Ancient Mariner' for fear that no one would 'understand', did he? When the juggernaut hits the show's most poignant set piece with the breathtaking strains of 'Paschendale', the stage is hastily transformed into a WW1 battlefield, complete with barbed wire and mashed bodies. Bruce again strides around in a distracting duffel coat and stormtrooper helmet like an estranged member of Marilyn Manson's Weimar gang. It's fun for sure, but it's also dangerously close to being stoopid too.
Musically though, Maiden are on a complete and utter roll, possibly the very finest one of their entire careers too. Pleasurable and entertaining as it always is to hear such immortal tunes as 'Hallowed Be Thy Name', 'The Trooper' and 'Number Of The Beast' the sheer thunder and glory of the giant 'Paschendale' wins the night.
9/10
[img]http://www.ironmaiden.com/media/images/IID00001502.jpg[/img]
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Cheers