Iron Maiden — Flight 666: The Original Soundtrack

Flight 666: The Original Soundtrack

EMI

Aaron Brophy (CHARTattack)

06/09/2009 1:20pm

While Flight 666: The Original Soundtrack borders on a redo of the classic 1985 Live After Death record, there are three reasons it succeeds.

The first is Bruce Dickinson's voice. It's starting to show some cracks and imperfections, like when he has to go just a little bit lower on "Wasted Years." We're not talking Chris-Cornell-level-complete-inability-to-sing-live imperfections here — the man still has it — but rather than take away from his performance, these little moments let you know you're listening to someone who's real.

The second is the setlist. The 17 songs here are pulled exclusively from the albums made during Maiden's creative peak in the '80s. That means The Number Of The Beast, Piece Of Mind, Powerslave and Somewhere In Time all get repped. There are a couple Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son tunes on here as well, but absolute perfect decision-making is a lot to ask of anyone.

Finally, Flight 666 succeeds because, quite simply, Iron Maiden still rock. They haven't gone soft, they haven't slowed down and they haven't abandoned what got them to where they are.

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