Iron Maiden, undoubtedly one of the most influencial bands ever to play heavy metal.  Since their first album over 20 years ago they have had a total of 10 members, 12 studio albums, 6 live albums and I lost count of the singles.  Rock In Rio is their 7th live release, it sounds like a lot, but the last live album was actually 10 years ago.

Brave New World was a good album I thought.  Not spectacular but still good.  This live album really makes those songs come alive a lot more than they did in the studio.  Every song is played fantastically and Janick Gers' solos stand out above the rest.  This is his best performance yet and he proves that he is the most talented musician in the band with every song.  Bruce Dickinson's voice is as good, if not better than it was in the 80s when he first joined Maiden, and the rest of the guys are great too.  However I do think Nicko McBrain is not as good as he was, but he is still amazing.

Overall this is an excellent album, but I do have one major gripe about it.  The production is not good, which is why it doesn't get a perfect 10.  There is buzzing on some parts of the songs, and sections of the vocals have been copied and pasted onto other areas where it was just the crowd singing.  Steve Harris admitted this on the official website and it was plainly obvious to me in some parts (I won't say which, I don't want to spoil it).  The sound quality wasn't as high a standard as I thought it could be, dispite that, I think this is very close to being as good as the 1985 live double, Live After Death.  But Live After Death didn't have Janick Gers, who makes this album twice as good as it would have been without him.  The three guitars really add something new to older songs such as The Evil That Men Do and The Trooper.

I don't usually care about covers, and this one isn't very special apart from the fact that the sky is red or blue depending on what angle you look at it, I thought that was cool.  There is also two enhanced videos, a video of Brave New World on side one and A Day In The Life on side two which is a behind the scenes look at the gig.

Stand-out songs are Ghost Of The Navigator, The Mercenary, Sign Of The Cross and The Clansman.  But there isn't a dull moment in this whole album.