7.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.3 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
‘En Vivo!’ was filmed on 10 April 2011 in front of 50,000 ecstatic fans at the Estadio Nacional in Santiago in Chile, during the "Round The World In 66 Days" leg of the band’s mammoth "The Final Frontier World Tour".
Starring: Bruce Dickinson, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, Janick Gers, Steve Harris (IV)Music | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
Subs for extras only
English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Hindi, Swedish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Would Phileas Fogg have been a rock star had he been alive in current times? Jules Verne’s legendary hero, the lead character of Around the World in 80 Days, seems in a way to be the perfect paradigm of a touring musician, hopping from continent to continent, touching down to sample the local culture, and then taking flight again to some new exotic (or maybe not so exotic location). Verne’s book is actually referenced by Iron Maiden’s manager Rod Smallwood who talks about the logistical nightmare of planning a tour, but states one of his inspirations was Fogg and his travels, and the he wanted to see if he could book the band on a world tour that would come in under that vaunted eighty day timeframe. In fact Iron Maiden’s Final Frontier World Tour release managed to come in under seventy days, and yet the boys still managed to touch down on several continents and play venues as disparate as Transylvania (spooky!) and the locale where this new Blu-ray performance was captured, Santiago, Chile. Iron Maiden takes the stage in Chile’s enormous (actually an understatement) Estadio Nacional before some 50,000 fans in a high octane show which was evidently captured by some 22 HD cameras as well as an Octocam which flew above the proceedings for a bird’s eye view of what was going on. It’s kind of interesting to contrast the recently reviewed Alter Bridge: Live at Wembley. Both discs offer arena rock with some fairly traditional bells and whistles, but (and Alter Bridge fans are sure to contest this assessment) as much as Alter Bridge ”assumes the position” of a bunch of touring Rock Gods, there’s little doubt that Iron Maiden seems to actually be “living the dream”, something perhaps made more believable (for want of a better term) by dint of the fact the band has been around for decades thrashing through high energy tunes and perfecting its stagecraft.
Iron Maiden En Vivo! is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Music Group with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Though there was evidently a battery of 22 HD cameras capturing this concert, the somewhat disappointing fact is a lot of this high definition presentation is on the soft side, especially a lot of the far range shots, including some of the Octocam shots taken from high overhead, where fine detail all but disappears and we're privy to little more than inchoate blobs bouncing around in the distance. Even some of the midrange shots here are on the fuzzy side, with little of the fine detail ardent videophiles are going to be expecting. Some of the footage does pop quite nicely, including an upstage camera shooting over McBrain's shoulder toward the audience, as well as some of the onstage cameras which are able to get really up close and personal with the band members. Colors are generally quite good, though shadow detail is just as often negligible. Once again some of the intensely saturated stage lighting effects, notably some in blue and red, lead to a quasi-posterizing effect and as usual when the cameras face lights that are aimed squarely at the lens banding is clearly in evidence.
Iron Maiden En Vivo! features three audio options, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, an LPCM 2.0 mix and a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. The two lossless mixes are quite good, with certain caveats. This is an incredibly noisy concert due to the almost unimaginable amount of people in attendance. It's therefore next to impossible to get away from the impinging sounds of the crowd, which include pretty much nonstop screams, yells, and singalongs, not to mention out of synch clapping. This gets to be fairly problematic in a number of places where Dickinson simply can't be heard adequately over the roar of the crowd and the aural onslaught coming from the band itself. These issues aside, which may in fact have more to do with the mix than anything, both lossless tracks provide sterling fidelity that is especially impressive in the all important low end. The 5.1 track is suitably spacious, though the crowd noises tend to be more in evidence on it than on the LPCM 2.0 track.
Iron Maiden En Vivo! probably would have been more enjoyable had it not had so many distractions like the split screen elements and especially some of the quick cut editing style. It's hard to concentrate on a band when you don't know exactly where to look (as in the split screen elements) or indeed aren't even able to look (as in the quick cutting elements). On a purely musical and performance basis, though, this concert shows the boys are still in great shape, musically speaking, and crank out high energy rock with the best of them. The immensity of this venue means there's probably a little more audience participation than die hard fans who only want to hear the band will like, but overall this is a fitting document of one of the great rock bands of the past several decades kicking it into high gear and then staying there (with a couple of breathers). The supplements here are quite good, and while video is a little lackluster, audio (despite some mixing issues) is fantastic. Recommended.
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