With the triumphant return of both Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith to the band, Iron Maiden released one of their best albums in quite a long time with Brave New World, released in the summer of 2000. The resulting tour was massive and proved once again that these guys are still in top form and still capable of delivering the goods when it comes to their live shows. Rock In Rio was captured live at Rock In Rio III in Rio de Janeiro in January of 2001 in front of almost 80,000 crazed Iron Maiden fans. With the number of live Iron Maiden albums already in print, (Maiden Japan, Live After Death, A Real Live One, A Real Dead One and Live At Donnington - plus countless other live tracks available on their CD singles over the years) one could ask, "Why another live album?"

Early into the opening track, The Wicker Man, you can feel the energy and tightness of the band and the crowd goes absolutely wild for the whole performance. This high energy level is maintained throughout the whole package and never lets up. After listening to this whole album (almost 2 hours of music!!) a few times, I think it rivals any live album they have done and in fact, in some aspects, it may be the best one ever. I'm glad that they included quite a bit of new material from the Brave New World album (6 tracks in total) as it seems the band doesn't want to keep reliving past glories, but to celebrate the present and forge ahead to the future. All of the new tracks sound very much at home mixed in with such classics as 2 Minutes To Midnight, and The Trooper and all sound as good, or better than the studio versions. Their whole sound has undergone a change to a bigger, more grandiose sound and the addition of a third guitar to the band really fattens things up. Two highlights of this album are for sure the tracks Sign Of The Cross and The Clansman, two long epic tracks, originally recorded with Blaze Bayley on vocals, which now seem so complete with Bruce at the helm (I've always wondered how these tracks would sound with Bruce singing them!). These two tracks are destined to become classics!!! (if they aren't already!!). Other highlights are Wrathchild, easily the best live version I've ever heard on record, and the killer 4 song encore consisting of The Number Of The Beast, Hallowed Be Thy Name, Sanctuary, and Run To The Hills....could it be any better??). Some of the older tracks, such as The Trooper, really benefit from the 3rd guitar especially during the solos. The studio version, on Piece Of Mind, features a harmonized lead for the first half of the solo, and has never been performed live that way.......until now!! This release is also video enhanced and includes a video for Brave New World as well as a look at every day life in Iron Maiden with a video called A Day In The Life.

The sound and tightness of this band is jaw-dropping and Bruce's vocals never sounded better. Over his last 2 solo releases, he seems to have fine tuned his voice and is not as much of a shouter and screamer as he once was in live situations. He's using his voice more correctly now and seems far less strained than on other live releases. The crowd in Rio was in fine voice as well, singing along and harmonizing during some of the instrumental passages.

Every Iron Maiden show is not just a concert but an event, (I can say that after having seen them 9 times live!!) and is very interactive between the band and the crowd. People just go nuts at Maiden shows and the more crazier the crowd, the more energetic the band gets. I've seen them in front of as many as 18,000 people and as little as 1000 people (The Virtual XI Tour), and it seems that they could care less about how many people are there. As long as there's people going nuts at the front of the stage, they just feed off of it. One thing is for sure, no matter how many people are in the crowd at an Iron Maiden show, the biggest Iron Maiden fans are the guys in the band on stage in front of you!! They seem to have the time of their lives while performing and is a very rare thing to see night after night. There isn't a better live act around and if you've seen them before, I'm sure you'll agree. The energy and excitement of Iron Maiden live is felt throughout this release and with the use of microphones out in the crowd, you hear voices around you and you feel as if you're right there. There will be a DVD release of this concert in June and I'm sure will really put you front and center at the show.

Every Iron Maiden fan should run out and buy this release if you don't already have it. I'm usually indifferent about live releases anymore as after a couple of listens, it gets filed away in favor of the studio versions, but this one's different, I've been playing it constantly!!!. Iron Maiden songs really come alive during a live performance and in combination with the energy of the crowd, the excitement level throughout this release is staggering. In case you've lost touch with this band over the years and haven't heard much of Brave New World, this is the perfect album to buy. It has some of the best tracks from that album as well as the best of the classics and is an amazing package. Iron Maiden has a very prominant history in heavy metal music and judging by their last album, the tour and this live release, the future looks to be even better!!!!!