I'm very sorry to hear about your vision. That's interesting about The Beatles CD. True, if someone wrote a book about such oddities it would be a great guide. Kiss' Creatures of the Night original 1986 Japan CD used the 1982 tapes, but everything from 1987 up to the 1997 remasters, including Japan, unfortunately then used the 1985 reissue tape (with the remix of the title track and low-end cut on everything else). The 1997 remaster went back to the 1982 tape. I wish I could get an '86 Japan, but it's way way up there.
Why are the Iron Maiden B-sides still not available digitally as well as box set with all the BBC recordings and the Soundhouse Tapes? I don't get it. They re-released the B-sides quite a bit in the CD era but now they just re-release the regular albums every few years with garbage remasterings. They should just burn the Castle 2CD reissues onto streaming and be done with it. Also, Virus isn't available either! They really should just follow Def Leppard's lead on reissues. And where is the next volume of the History of Iron Maiden. Stop putting out new live albums and get going on the back catalog!
They really dropped the ball on part 3, SIT-Seventh Son, the era I was most looking forward to! The documentary was way too short and had this weird ‘picture within artwork’ look to it. There must be tonnes of tv footage from 86-89 (nothing from Somewhere On Tour shows I know) but it was just the bare minimum, promo vids, docu, 12 Wasted Years (Nice to have for the Derek Riggs/Paul Di’Anno clips) and Maiden England. At least with Parts 1 and 2 there was some effort gone into tracking down tv footage.
After the History Of parts 1 & 2 with everyone involved, past and present, and all having their say (refreshingly so for a band & managment that can be tight lipped and sealed at times), apart 3 was a huge disappointment. Rather than the in depth pieces to camera from the first two parts, it smacked of interview footage grabbed on the fly whilst on tour. Was there really nothing from the interview sessions from parts 1&2 for this era? And it does looked to have ground to a halt. I was looking forward on hearing about the 1990s, not from a dirt dishing point of view but with an honest assessment from all involved. Would have loved to have heard from Blaze as we did from Paul in earlier parts, and thought it would have happened given that Blaze is rumoured to have remained on good terms with the band post reunion era (there were suggestions that he was invited in a non-public capacity backstage at 2008 Twickenham stadium Somehwre Back In Time date. ah, what could have been….
It's quite sad to think that the Original CD's & vinyl pressings are the best we are going to get for Iron Maiden's catalogue. The last number of years they have been more focused on endless touring cycles and beer sales. I would love to see their entire catalogue re-issued in Hi-Res with dynamics intact but the reality is that's not in Steve Harris' interests. He calls the shots and I don't see that going away anytime soon.
This is why I said Steve shouldn't be involved with any future projects regarding the catalogue. The catalogue would be in such a better state if he wasn't involved with every aspect. I'd apply this to Zeppelin as well with everything seemingly needing Jimmy's direct involvement.
Anyone watch the video in Abbey Road where they were transferring the Maiden tapes for hi-res? I know it was posted here or in another thread. It's so cool to see tape boxes and it seemed like they had respect for what they had in front of them, but what they say doesn't match the results, so it was painful knowing they were doing all of that only to totally crush them, which made it all pointless. They mentioned sometimes the master tape not being as good as a copy and the tapes were in different countries. Some of the video comments echo what members here say. One said that someone like our host should have done them. That would have been cool. However, someone said Killers and Powerslave have a lot of dropouts, and POM has clicks, so what tapes did they actually use for each? For me, all I had to do was listen to the hi res samples and I could hear how the dynamics, atmosphere, and separation were gone. Iron Maiden Remaster Project 2015 - Behind The Scenes - YouTube
Maiden England isn't even on Spotify. I have the CD but still. David Coverdale seems like the only hard rock artist who gets how a reissue should go and figured out how to master them well.
To be fair to Steve Harris he’s probably completely oblivious to ‘The Loudness Wars’ and knows nothing about sites like this that discuss various masterings of a band’s catalogue. I know for myself ignorance was bliss when I was happy out with my complete collection of 1998 Maiden remasters - in fact that’s how I discovered this place, decided to Google how great that series were and was shocked reading the posts here about them. Decided to check out the ‘95 ‘Somewhere In Time’ to see what all the fuss was about and couldn’t believe the difference in sound quality, the drums on Wasted Years were the real give-away, there’s a lovely ‘smack’ to the original and a dull thud on the 98.
They're all pretty compressed though aren’t they? At least that Rock/Blues/Love trio of albums have been.
I'll join those who are sad the History DVD series stopped dead and it seems there's no more coming. At least I'm happy that we got a full doc devoted to the Powerslave era on part 2 - Powerslave/Live After Death is my absolute favourite Iron Maiden point in time. What they did with that sorry doc on part 3 was very disappointing. And just as sad and disappointing is the fact that they seem to have abandoned video releases altogether. Their live shows are a big part of why we're fans of this band, yet they don't appear to be interested in putting out any more video material. Tragic, considering how much of their old stuff could/should still be upgraded to dvd or bluray, and how great their recent tours have been. The documentaries on Flight666 and EnVivo were fantastic as well and well worth the purchase. It just makes me sad they haven't put out any more dvd/blurays since Maiden England in 2013. I was convinced Donington '92 was coming too. Alas.
The drums on Somewhere In Time are yet another reason why I worship at the altar of St Martin Birch. It's not just how wonderful Nicko sounds on the album, but also how we were spared them going full-80s and those great songs aren't marred by synthetic crap like Turbo.
Completely agree, as with Rush I would buy every video release. How many tours have they missed videos for? Maiden England (2013 tour), Book of Souls (another great show), Legacy, let’s not forget the Amolad tour which was filmed but never released. Shame.
Yes, the greedy Maiden fan in me wants all of them. I feel the same about Rush too, their shows are never nothing but excellent. I'd love to have one from every tour at least.
AMOLAD is the one CD/Video release I am really holding out a fools hope for. One of my all time favorite albums, not just favorite of the Maiden albums.
I think they are OK. The Slip, Unplugged, and Slide It In boxes I think sound fine. The comps are probably mastered and mixed a bit more hot for the masses.
I take it you mean the anniversary sets for Slide it In, Whitesnake and Slip of the Tongue as well three comp albums from last year?
I've watched those on YouTube and the first two parts are amazing. Then you hit the third one and it feels like such an afterthought.
Yes correct but excluding Whitesnake 87. Different mastering guy there. Unplugged, SII, and SOTT used Chris Collier who has done a nice job.
I have the expanded versions of SOTT, SII and Whitesnake in my Discogs want list. When I get an urge to buy some Whitesnake I'll pull the trigger.
Since we're on Whitesnake, can anyone recommend the best LP version of 1987? I have fond memories of that album and would love to reconnect with it/them again.
How many times is he going to do Slide It In, WS87 and Slip box sets? They all had excellent deluxe editions in the late 2000s. And these new ones he futzes with the track order etc, it’s a bit revisionist. … and the new mixes are universally ****.
