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August 9, 1984, Warsaw, Poland: after five studio albums culminating in the release of "Powerslave," Iron Maiden begin their World Slavery Tour. If we were talking about an epidemic, the venues affected by the band's concerts would have left humanity no chance, and today no one would be here writing yet another piece about them. Three hundred and twenty-two days, one hundred and eighty-seven concerts, one hundred thousand miles traveled, seven thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight hotels, thousands of strings, picks, and drumsticks used, tens of thousands of cans of beer, sodas, orange juices, and pints of milk consumed. A year lived dangerously, at the limits of human musical possibilities, and ending in Los Angeles after touching Japan, Brazil, Hawaii, and Australia.
Putting their live performances on a vinyl album that year was at least necessary, given that the group would never again release such a long sequence of albums on the edge of perfection, for what was called the new wave of British heavy metal. Here, we speak only of the version released for CD, capturing tracks from the four evenings held at the Long Beach Arena in Los Angeles, but there is also a double version, with the addition of five tracks played at London's Hammersmith.
From the introduction to "Aces High" with Winston Churchill's speech to the British nation, through Chesterton's English anthem that kicks off "Revelations," to the recited and sung verses of "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Coleridge, this live album contains all the hallmarks of their deep-seated Anglo-Saxon identity. Everything is recorded perfectly considering the year of release, with a substantial reworking done during the mixing phase by expert Martin Birch, which almost makes you feel like you're inside a recording studio rather than in the typical pandemonium of their evening. And this might not be a good thing for a live album and for those who love to recognize their idols' flaws, even if only to feel them more human and closer to you who have been under that stage or dream of being there.
Nonetheless, all twelve pearls present here remain in the mind, generational anthems for millions of exuberant youngsters dependent on Topexan, as well as the guitar phrases of Murray and Smith chasing each other without interruption, for example, in a masterpiece like "The Trooper," and the vocals of Dickinson intent a moment before exhorting the crowd with the shout of "...scream for me Long Beach!!!" at the attack of "Flight of Icarus." A necessary live album, perhaps even too perfect, but which over the years, along with its iconic, stellar cover, has transcended its real nature to become the manifesto of an era and a musical genre.
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