Although I am conflicted regarding the dark, compact overall sound and the somewhat fizzy guitars, at the same time, I really like the warmth that that is missing from Kevin Shirley’s production on all instruments. On the topic of “2 Minutes to Midnight,” I think Live After Death had the best version, sonically speaking. I don’t know how well Tony Newton would have performed in the studio, but I agree that the live album sounds amazing and just as good, if not better, than the studio counterpart. I recall many reviewers on Amazon saying that the live album sounds better than the studio album, and that they wished Tony Newton had produced the studio album, as well. The Book of Souls: Live Chapter is the exception to the rule that Tony Newton’s live productions are inferior to Kevin Shirley’s. It was therefore a surprise to find that the arguably overplayed 2 Minutes To Midnight got its greatest ever treatment on the En Vivo! live album: Although the pre-album part of their The Final Frontier world tour in 2010-11 featured a defiantly modern setlist, for most of the tour the set was back to an overly familiar form. #3 minutes to midnight band movie#But we beg to differ at Maiden Revelations.Īfter the artistic and commercial high of the Somewhere Back In Time world tour and the Flight 666 movie and soundtrack in 2008-09, there was something anti-climactic about Maiden’s next adventure. Many would argue that there is no better version of 2 Minutes To Midnight, not even the original Powerslave recording from 1984. Guitars and vocals alike benefit greatly from the more restrained groove, and Harris’ bass also comes nicely to the front in Birch’s mix. Recorded at Long Beach Arena, California on the Powerslave tour that awed the world in 1984-85, this is an example of the classic Maiden line-up’s live power before their tempos soared in the latter half of the 1980s. The opening riff is back in Smith’s hands, the drums and bass roll like thunder from the speakers, and the tempo is groove-perfect for a latter-day mature Maiden performance: Shirley returned for Flight 666, an album that features many of the greatest live performances ever captured of the band, including a killer 2 Minutes To Midnight from Melbourne, Australia. The Blaze Bayley era of Maiden was never likely to receive the live album treatment, but from 2000 and beyond there would be many. And new folks became fans because Rock In Rio delivered what should be expected of the best metal band on the planet. Older fans knew it back then, this is more like it. On the other hand, check out the solo section where Dave Murray opens and Adrian Smith takes over, leading into a breakdown where all three guitar amigos blend into the first live recording of that beautiful harmony line before the riff returns. The tempo is still a little faster than what Maiden would settle for a few years later, and there is cause for frustration that Janick Gers still plays the opening riff. Let’s just say that Harris’ mix left a lot to be desired, and 2 Minutes To Midnight was one of the casualties: The first sign of where this would lead was the batch of 1993 live albums that included Live At Donington, a recording of Maiden’s Monsters Of Rock appearance in England in the summer of 1992. In the mid-1990s, bassist and owner Steve Harris took over Iron Maiden’s recordings when producer Martin Birch retired. So here’s our ranking of the seven live album versions of the song that have been released from 1985 to 2020: We thought we should dig into it now that yet another officially sanctioned live recording is available for fans to buy on Nights Of The Dead, Legacy Of The Beast: Live In Mexico City. Even so it’s obvious that 2 Minutes To Midnight turned into one of the most important Iron Maiden songs of all time. It is no secret that Smith argued about tempos back in the 1980s too and got nowhere with it. Guitarist Adrian Smith wrote the music for 2 Minutes To Midnight, the first single from the Powerslave album in 1984.
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