Iron Maiden
Visions Of The Beast

THE REVIEW

June 2, 2003. The Beast returns to invade store shelves, and this time it seems more hallucinatory than ever... "Visions Of The Beast", which means 'The visions of the beast', is in fact the title of the first official complete videography, released by EMI, of the band from East End London. An appearance that seems to have as its sole objective the sincere desire to satisfy the longing cravings of the most ardent fans, without the nauseating smell of "cashing in" lingering heavily.

It is a double DVD, with a total running time of 180 minutes, containing all the official videos of songs released by the legendary Iron Maiden. For this reason, criticizing the tracklist is impossible; one cannot complain about excluding an "x" video while giving space to a "y" that didn't deserve it. The work is captivating from the moment the "Play" button on the remote is pressed. After a brief sequence of images of Eddie (sometimes matching album covers) accompanied by the song "The Number Of The Beast", and the appearance of the title of the work, a nice opening in computer graphics begins:

-In a dark and desolate atmosphere, a kind of essence with an indescribable shape (a sort of irregular sphere leaving a trail of the same color) detaches from the green fluorescent smoke emitted by a manhole on the street, starting to wander through the city's streets (it can be assumed to be London based on some elements) and appears to be searching for something. At a certain point, it stops in front of the outside of a window, beyond which Eddie is sitting on an armchair, watching on TV the recent (relative to the DVD release) "Rock In Rio" live of the Maiden. The "bright thing" then attempts for about a couple of times—also taking a run-up—to smash through the window and enter, only to end up squashing against it like chewing gum. Eddie, impatient, gets up, breaks the glass with a punch, extends his open hand with the palm facing up, and "welcomes" the "thing," which makes a skull sprout on each finger of the hand corresponding to the various voices of the main menu, plus another in the center of the palm, and another still in the top right. In short, a sort of genesis of the disturbing (so to speak) menu.

Moving on to more "technical" data, we observe that the music videos are arranged, as is somewhat natural, in chronological order. Those that seem not to be are because they were actually taken from live performances after the period in which the related song was released. It is also possible to watch them all in one go by selecting the "play" option from the main menu, or go directly to select the one we're interested in through the "Tracks 1-16" option in the first DVD and "Tracks 17-31" in the second DVD. Each song's video is preceded by an image with Eddie representing the same (song), along with the indication of the year it dates back to.

As in every respectable DVD, there are also extra content to pique fans' curiosity, or simply to entertain. Distributed between the first and second DVDs, we find six music videos in "camp chaos" version: these are the normal song videos mixed with animated sequences that encompass a mini-story based on the song's lyrics in question and feature the Iron Maiden themselves as protagonists, almost heroes. Example: 

- In the "camp chaos" version of "The Number Of The Beast" Bruce Dickinson appears as an exorcist priest going to exorcize a demon-possessed (in Eddie's guise), equipped with the classic prayer book. After vainly attempting to complete the mission using the mentioned tool, he engages in a real fight with the possessed, which ends with the latter's flight out the window of the room he was in, at the hands of the singer.

Other extras include a video of "Fear Of The Dark" extracted from "Rock In Rio," and a video track titled "Futureal Football": with the song "Futureal" as the soundtrack, a definitely soccer-fit Steve Harris is shown, leading to suspicions that he was only filmed during his few moments of soccer glory, strictly cutting out his "flop" moves or, as they say here on Debaser, his "human case" status, although I'm aware of his past as a football player in the "West Ham" youth team:). Other scenes of the same video also show other band members engaged in the ball game.

Some notes:

1. In the "Discography" section of the second DVD, it is possible to scroll through each of the band's disc releases, with relative credits, up to the anthology "Edward The Great."
2. In consonance with Iron Maiden's typical taste for the "Kinder egg surprise" effect, there are two hidden video tracks that can be unlocked after watching track no.6 of both DVDs three times, ideally composing the number "six hundred and sixty-six" which is the number of the little beast. These are, respectively, a fun version of "Man On The Edge", and "The Trooper" in "camp chaos" version.
3. The interactive DVD links are well done, allowing easy navigation among the various contents.
4. Being a work of a non-generalist nature, but aimed, in my opinion, at a specific target, namely "Maidenphiles" who love to engage in self-gratification thinking about their idols, my rating will be 4. If I had been a Maiden-addict, it would have increased to 5.
   

And here is the complete tracklist of "Visions Of The Beast":

DISC 1 (75 minutes)

1. "Women In Uniform"
2. "Wrathchild"
3. "Run To The Hills"
4. "The Number Of The Beast"
5. "Flight Of Icarus"
6. "The Trooper"
7. "2 Minutes To Midnight"
8. "Aces High"
9. "Wasted Years"
10. "Stranger In A Strange Land"
11. "Can I Play With Madness"
12. "The Evil That Men Do"
13. "The Clairvoyant"
14. "Infinite Dreams"
15. "Holy Smoke"
16. "Tailgunner"

            
Extras:

1. "Futureal" (Football Version)
2. "Fear Of The Dark" (Rock In Rio 2001)
3. "Aces High" (Camp Chaos Version)
4. "The Number Of The Beast" (Camp Chaos Version)

            
Hidden Feature:

1. "Man On The Edge" (Fun Version)

            
            
DISC 2 (79 minutes)

1. "Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter"
2. "Be Quick Or Be Dead"
3. "From Here To Eternity"
4. "Wasting Love"
5. "Fear Of The Dark"
6. "Hallowed Be Thy Name"
7. "Man On The Edge"
8. "Afraid To Shoot Strangers"
9. "Lord Of The Flies"
10. "Virus"
11. "The Angel And The Gambler"
12. "Futureal"
13. "The Wicker Man"
14. "Out Of The Silent Planet"
15. "Brave New World"  
    

Extras:

1. "The Wicker Man" (Camp Chaos Version)
2. "Flight Of Icarus" (Camp Chaos Version)
3. "Run To The Hills" (Camp Chaos Version)

            
Hidden Feature:

1. "The Trooper" (Camp Chaos Version)