Iron Maiden
Death On The Road

THE REVIEW

Iron Maiden... what can I say... there is really little to comment on: a piece of history, a formation that's brilliant in its own way, a monstrous career, a clan that despite their age still doesn't want to stop dreaming with their music and making others dream with their grandiose concerts.

An Iron Maiden concert is indeed something incredible, with gigantic Hollywood-style sets, great lighting effects, and most importantly: GREAT MUSIC. Following the line of Rock In Rio 2002, Harris & co. released in 2005 (although the DVD only came out in 2007) a new exciting concert: "Death On The Road". This took place on Monday, November 24, 2003, at Westfalhenhalle (Dortmund, Germany) and is part of the tour following the latest album Dance Of Death (2003). The all-medieval set that surrounds the arena already hints at what I consider to be the most fascinating Iron Maiden concert, tying with the unbeatable show the previous year in Rio De Janeiro.

Everything opens with very dark medieval tones, and after about thirty seconds the iron maidens explode with a hot track, even if maybe not up to what will follow: "Wildest Dreams", this piece mainly serves to warm up the cold German atmosphere at the end of November. Subsequently, the Iron Maiden continues to pour gasoline on the fiery stage with the most classic of classics, namely "Wrathchild" (belonging even to the era of Paul Di'Anno), and continues with "Can I Play With Madness", another emblem of the band. Following are, in my opinion, the two most beautiful songs of the show, "The Trooper" and "Dance Of Death"; there's little to say, the former is executed masterfully and appears even better than the song on the already insanely beautiful album; the latter is instead another emblem of the band's genius, starting very slowly and ending up playing extremely fast music with almost Irish tones (highlighting the immense performance of Bruce Dickinson). The subsequent "Rainmaker and "Brave New World" are a new rush of melodic energy, while "Paschendale" is a new dark masterpiece lasting nine minutes, introduced by a musical bomb launch (great lighting). The Iron Maiden closes the first part of the concert with "Lord Of The Flies" perhaps the only disappointing piece of the concert.

The second part opens with the beautiful "No More Lies", an extremely relaxing song despite the "unleashing" in the middle of the song; but this trend is immediately destroyed by the classic "Hallowed Be Thy Name", a very lively song played sublimely. Of course, the masterpiece "Fear Of The Dark" couldn't be missing (even if played less well than in Rio); then the Iron Maiden returns to warm tones with "Iron Maiden", subsequently relaxing the very large German audience with "Journeyman", a kind of truly fantastic ballad. It closes with "The Number Of The Beast" (with the introduction on stage of a gigantic Beast-shaped puppet chasing Steve Harris!) to which no need to dedicate too many words, I can only invite you to listen to it; The last piece is the one with which the Iron Maiden always close their concerts, I think you all know which one it is...

The concert itself impressed me a lot not only, as mentioned above, for the scenic aspect, but for the choice of pieces, the order in which they were played, and for Dickinson's capabilities, who even in his forties continues to deliver performances worthy of applause: technically, along with a few other singers like the one from Dream Theater, he is perhaps the most talented in the Heavy Metal genre. Compared to "Rock In Rio", "Death On The Road" is more or less at the same level and that's no small thing; it loses a bit in terms of the length of the show but makes up for it regarding the pieces played. Had it included some classics like "The Clansman" and "Be Quick Or Be Dead", in my opinion, it would have even been better than the performance in South America.