antiMusic.com: Iron Maiden - Flight 666 Review

Iron Maiden - Flight 666

by Kevin Wierzbicki

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The footage for Flight 666 was filmed during the first leg of Iron Maiden's 2008 Somewhere Back in Time World Tour and although that tour was by no means billed as a farewell tour it is unlikely that Iron Maiden fans will ever have a better snapshot of their heroes in action than that provided in this film. The Somewhere… tour was patterned after the band's mid-'80s World Slavery Tour and the set list here is much the same as the DVD shot during that tour and released as Live After Death. And that was exactly the idea; the band knows that this era was their heyday so they dusted off oldies like "Aces High," "2 Minutes to Midnight," and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" for this stroll down memory lane. Many of the songs performed here hadn't been performed live for over twenty years but footage of the audience finds fans mouthing every word in English; an amazing fact considering that most of the film was shot in non-English speaking countries like Argentina, Japan, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico and India (one song per stop is included.) And every performance is flawless; singer Bruce Dickinson belts out his lyrics and races the stage like he's still 25-years-old and the triple guitar attack from Adrian Smith, Dave Murray and Janick Gers is without doubt one of the tightest in the business. So while all of these songs have been heard many times before (favorites "Run to the Hills," "Iron Maiden" and "Can I Play With Madness" are included too) they have not been heard (and seen) like this before. Iron Maiden is at the stage in their career where you would expect them to be losing their chops but they are clearly veterans at the top of their game. This double-disc DVD package has all the potent concert footage on one disc but fans will be just as mesmerized by the documentary on the second disc. The band flew to their Somewhere… tour stops aboard a customized Boeing 757 (dubbed "Ed Force One" after their monster mascot Eddie) that was piloted by Dickinson himself and the documentary captures nearly two hours of life aboard the giant jet. These guys are way beyond the usual on-the-road tomfoolery by now but they clearly have a ton of fun aboard the plane, meeting with their fans pre-show and of course on stage. Flight 666 is not only a must-have for every Iron Maiden fan right now but it is destined to be forever deemed "essential."

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Iron Maiden - Flight 666
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