Iron Maiden - Rock in Rio Disc 1 of 2 Review

Disc: 1

1. Intro - Arthur's Farewell
2. The Wicker Man
3. Ghost of the Navigator
4. Brave New World
5. Wrathchild
6. 2 Minutes to Midnight
7. Blood Brothers
8. Sign Of The Cross
9. The Mercenary
10. The Trooper

Review:
This live double CD was performed at the Rio Rock Festival in January 2001 in Brazil over two days (I think). The album was recorded during their legendary "Brave New World" album tour in front of 250,000 fans.

The album starts with a great orchestral Latin song called "Arthur's Farewell" (which Maiden don't actually play for obvious reasons) to get the crowd 'ready' for Maiden. When this song is done, an ear piercing guitar riff intro for "The Wicker Man" gets blasted out from all three Maiden guitarists which sends the crowd into ecstasy. The very vocal crowd 'show their presence' early on in this song by screaming out the chorus with Bruce Dickinson (lead singer). This song is the base of what turns out to be a very good live album.

After this fast opening song, Maiden play the slow paced "Ghost of the Navigator and Brave New World" which is one of my favourite songs on this album. In every song, the crowd sing a long with Maiden which is quite clear to hear on the CD and this song is no exception - true quality and class in each song!

"Wrathchild" is from Maidens first self titled album and sang by a different lead singer, but the current lead singer lives to his expectations and sings yet another great song.
"2 Minutes to Midnight and "The Sign of the Cross for me were major disappointments as these songs kicked ass of their respective albums but Bruce Dickinson just wasn't at his best for these songs.

Now "Blood Brothers" is a great song off this album. The singer gets the crowd involved in the song by telling them to chant the chorus "were blood brothers" over and over again - the sound of the crowd singing on the CD is immense.

"The Mercenary" is one of the least well known songs Maiden has ever written, and it showed with the crowd's reaction. But to counter this, the band stops playing half way through the song and the lead singer starts to 'play to the crowd' to get them right where they want them. This works and after an improvised guitar riff (which is truly awesome) the song ends with the crowd 'screaming for more.'

The day ends with "The Trooper." Now this song has an amazing intro and if you haven't heard it, listen to it as it will blow you away. The song is by far their best performance of the evening and Maiden leaves the stage on a high.

Rating: 9/10

This part of the double disk album was good but lacked some their great well known songs like in disk 2. Despite this, this half of the album still manages to make me listen to it again and again. As I said, you can really hear the crowd sing a long with the lead singer, which makes songs sound even better than before. This album is a must have as most of Maidens songs live, some how sound better than on their studio albums.

Record Label: EMI