Maiden Picture Discs

I went to see Iron Maiden last year on their Maiden England tour. Unlike their tour from the previous year, which focused mainly on material since Bruce Dickinson's return in 1999, the new Maiden England tour celebrated the 1988 tour of the same name. 75% of the 2012 set list was pulled from that original '88 tour...shame that they chose to drop Still Life, but to hear The Prisoner again in a live setting was real charge. It was such a great show, and I never get tired of watching Maiden live.

What we don't need is another live Iron Maiden record. The band has a bad habit of releasing a studio album and then following it up with a live album from the tour, and in this case, Maiden England '88 is the second live album that band have released since 2010's The Final Frontier. Just because we don't need a new live album, doesn't mean that I won't buy it though.

Iron Maiden love to release live albums, and they love their picture discs. Great to look at, but terrible to play. As soon as the needle hits the grooves, you get hit with a bunch of surface noise. Use regular black vinyl if you must, but stop with the picture discs...especially for a new release like Maiden England '88.

Sure the vinyl may sound like shit, but goddamn, it sure does make for a good looking release.

A sticker on the front cover lists this as one of eight in a series of limited edition picture disc LPs. Wait a second. From the debut self titled LP through Seventh Son, we have seven albums...plus the Live After Death double live album...that is eight. This Maiden England '88 vinyl would be one of nine...not eight. Sloppy.

Last year Iron Maiden announced that they were reissuing their early albums on vinyl. With vinyl making such a resurgence, and with most of Iron Maiden's back catalog long out of press on wax, I was surprised that it took the Maiden camp so long to make this move.

I loved how great the new records looked, and since I already owned the original vinyl pressings, I wasn't bothered that they were being released on picture disc. Hell, I wasn't really going to be listening to these copies...they just looked cool enough to collect. The $40 price tag on each LP was enough to turn me off though. Single albums should rarely sell for more than $20...$25 tops...and the fact that Maiden was releasing these at twice that amount made me turn my back in disgust.

When I saw the first LP and Killers at my local record store with a 50% off sticker, my resolve crumbled and I bought them. Shit. Now I feel like I need to own the other six.

Like I said, the packaging on these are fantastic, with each side of the picture disc showcasing the art from the album's singles.

I had completely forgotten about the promo shot that is included on the dust sleeve. That picture of the disemboweled man, hanging behind the band, blew my mind when I saw it as a kid.

For most of my life, I've always preferred the self titled debut over the follow up, Killers. I've recently begun to waver on that opinion though. You can't fuck with the b-side of this album...Innocent Exile through Drifter are underrated classics.

That devils head from the Purgatory single is badass. When I first started this blog, I was doing a pretty good job of buying Maiden 7 inches, but over time I gave up on it. Every time I see this picture from the Purgatory cover, I'm reminded that I still need to own a copy.