Band:	Iron Maiden
Album:	A Real Live Dead One
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	March 22, 1993
A review by:	Pierre Tombale

Disc I [A Real Live One]
01. The Number Of The Beast
02. The Trooper
03. Prowler
04. Transylvania
05. Remember Tomorrow
06. Where Eagles Dare
07. Sanctuary
08. Running Free
09. Run To The Hills
10. Two Minutes To Midnight
11. Iron Maiden
12. Hallowed Be Thy Name

Disc II [A Real Dead One]
01. Be Quick Or Be Dead
02. From Here To Eternity
03. Can I Play With Madness
04. Wasting Love
05. Tailgunner
06. The Evil That Men Do
07. Afraid To Shoot Strangers
08. Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter
09. Heaven Can Wait
10. The Clairvoyant
11. Fear Of The Dark

Originally released as two different live albums with two different covers this is a combined version of 'A Real Live One' and 'A Real Dead One' featuring both concept live albums. The concept behind the whole thing is, 'Dead One' (12 songs) contains only songs from 1980 - 1984, while 'Live One'(11 songs) contains songs from 1986 - 1992. All of those songs were recorded during a massive world tour ( the european part of it) in 1992 and 1993, right before Bruce Dickinson left to continue only his solo career for the next 6 years. The actual LiveDead One got the cover from the 'A Real Live One' album which featured lots of band photos, equipment lists and a note from Steve Harris. 'Dead One' only got a small booklet with a crew list and the thank list?

Now into the topic:

A Real Live One:
Being quick on the introduction only few seconds will pass from the screaming crowd into firing off the very first song 'Be Quick Or Be Dead', which was back in 1992 released as the first single from the 'Fear Of The Dark' album. Quite a good opener for the Fear Of The Dark tour cd release. Next is another 'Fear Of The Dark' track 'From Here To Eternity' (second single), good one, too, but I had definitely preferred to have Judas Be My Guide as a live version, because it's a really great song, but rarely played live. Number three 'Can I Play With Madness' I wonder who played the keyboards on this track, because it's evident there is someone playing the keyboard in the background underlining the chorus, or should it be one of the guitarists playing an effect? I always wondered that, but I guess it doesn't help for this review. So what's up next? Bruce Dickinson introduces the next song 'Wasting Love' to the crowds in Paris, a whole minute of fucking good french! What else can we expect from master Bruce, who is also a well-known britsh fencer, an author and frontman of the metal-flagship of Great Britain? I don't know maybe he's going to be the next pope freely reciting the urbi et orbi in all languages? Anyway 'Wasting Love' is Iron Maiden's first real ballad marking a strange, but wonderful point at a live performance. 'Tailgunner' is very well performed, nearly close to the album version. 'The Evil That Men Do' is the absolute highlight on this disc. It's played quite a lot quicker than on the album making it a true burner. Despite that I had expected some technical difficulties playing the song so fast, but it's Iron Maiden, what do we expect? It's handled perfectly.
I don't know if 'Afraid To Shoot Strangers' is inspired by the war in Iraq in the early 1990ies, but the lyrics and the musical atmosphere transport the message easily, all the worries of a simple man that is drafted and will be drawn to war for his country.
'Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter' (Helsinki performance) is one more of all the live classics on this album, going over to 'Heaven Can Wait', where the music seems to run away from Dickinson's singing at times, over to two great performances of 'The Clairvoyant' and the main track 'Fear Of The Dark' also both celebrated before the masses of fans in Helsinki.
All in all quite some pearls of Iron Maiden can be found here, minor technical flaws a good atmosphere and the choice of songs make this one an 8 (8,2) (judging the solely the A Real Live One)
Interesting is the fact that on the two different disc versions is a major mistake made, because in the tourdates list on 'A Real Live One' it says on June 5th 1992 a concert was played in Reykjavik, but at the same time the 'A Real Dead One' states that on this particular day a concert was played in the Isshallen in Helsinki. I don't believe that two conerts were played on that very same day in two locations so far away from each other.

A Real Dead One:
Woe to you oh earth and sea? these famous words open the way for 'The Number Of The Beast' song number one to 'A Real Dead One', in general a good performance, but the first solo is complete drowned in the rest of the music, what a pity! Then solid performances of 'The Trooper', 'Prowler' and the great and very first Iron Maiden instrumental 'Transylvania'. 'Remember Tomorrow' I really love best sung by Paul Di'anno, especially the screams can't be copied, not even by Bruce Dickinson, but this performance marks a real good effort and one of the strongest attempts to do it. Referring to the movie Dickinson screams the following words to the fans in Arnheim: No matter what the problem is Clint Eastwood is gonna fix it, 'Where Eagles Dare'!!! With the same fury of those screams it is played afterwars, well done guys, respect. On 'Sanctuary' Dickinson takes a short break to introduce the musicians to the crowd. I wonder if this was ever necessary after 12 successful years of Iron Maiden? Everybody should have known? but quite funny indeed. 'Running Free' captures the great amtosphere of the Lausanne fans singing and screaming along on this track. The following tracks take the same path, showing great live atmosphere, reaching the highest and final point in 'Hallowed Be Thy Name'. In a whole a good 9 (8,6) for the 'A Real Dead One'.

Counting A and B together we have a rounded 8 (8,4) for 'A Real LiveDead One', definitely an album to own, not only if you're a fan of Iron Maiden. Though in a whole it falls behind other live albums concerning the quality. Especially those live albums produced in Japan are hard to top, but in general there are also better ones that have been produced in Europe. Besides this the two discs catch a good feeling of what Maiden sounds like live.