August 2003 Archives

CDs, Ranka Recordings 2003

Track list: Kaunis kotkan käsi - Rauta-airot (Iron Horse/Born to Lose) - Lyhdyn nään syttyvän (Blue Chatou)

Viikate has a new album and this is the first single from it. Sounds good. "Kaunis kotkan käsi" is among the best of the rocking Viikate tracks. "Lyhdyn nään syttyvän", a cover of a Japanese classic instrumental song is more on the sad and quiet side and a perfectly good example of that. Motörhead cover "Rauta-airot" is also a fine track. All in all a good single, but it's made 2/3 obsolete by the coming album. ***

2xDVD, EMI 2003

Track list: Women in Uniform - Wrathchild - Run to the Hills - The Number of the Beast - Flight of Icarus - The Trooper - 2 Minutes to Midnight - Aces High - Wasted Years - Stranger in a Strange Land - Can I Play with Madness - The Evil that Men Do - The Clairvoyant - Infinite Dreams - Holy Smoke - Tailgunner - Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter - Be Quick Or Be Dead - From Here to Eternity - Wasting Love - Fear of the Dark - Hallowed Be Thy Name - Man on the Edge - Afraid to Shoot Strangers - Lord of the Flies - Virus - The Angel & the Gambler - Futureal - The Wicker Man - Out of the Silent Planet - Brave New World

It's a massively impressive track listing, I'd say. But the coverage of this double DVD is good: it features every Iron Maiden promotional clip from 1980 to 2001. In addition to the videos, there are few extra tracks ("funny" animated versions), but they are not significant. However, I wouldn't really recommend this DVD to anyone else but die-hard Iron Maiden fans. You see, the videos aren't really that great. Iron Maiden was never a video band, really. Most of the videos are live recordings and those that are not are generally pretty bad. Not to mention the 80's heavy metal fashion... But for Iron Maiden fans, this is a must-buy document of the band's history. ****