IRON MAIDEN - Visions of the Beast
July 9, 2003, 21 years ago
(Sanctuary)
Sit through 31 Iron Maiden videos from 1980's 'Women In Uniform' to 2001's 'Brave New World' and you can't help but appreciate the fact that these road warriors know that their strength, through good albums and bad, has always lain in their amazing live shows. And, as such, they mostly leave the high-concept videos to others and basically give the people what they want: tons of concert footage shot around the world. Visions Of The Beast collects every one of the band's promotional videos onto two DVDs, with a running time of more than three hours. In addition to previously unreleased videos, like 'Tailgunner' and a Blaze-fronted live version of 'Afraid To Shoot Strangers' that is perhaps even more poignant today, there are Camp Chaos animated versions of six classic tracks. What is unfortunate about this collection is the lack of Paul DiAnno material: only 'Women' and 'Wrathchild' represent that era. However, since those early albums basically predate music channels like MTV and Much Music, it's easy to see why the band didn't make many promotional videos. In contrast, four tracks each from both Seventh Son Of Seventh Son and Fear Of The Dark are included. It's nonetheless pretty amazing to be able to watch the band evolve and mature, both musically and personnel-wise. Bruce appears, Bruce leaves and then returns again, minus about three feet of hair! A terrific collection of (mostly) amazing music and energetic footage.
