Power Progressive News of Life and Death
Session 6 - 30/5/2015
Whoops, again I have managed to let the time slip away and it is now eight weeks since the sixth session. What’s worse is that I only have my session notes and not a skeleton write-up as I did the last time.
Terry and I have been busy with brewing, beer events and concerts in this time. Iron Maiden have even announced a new album - The Book Of Souls and the pre-orders have opened “worldwide”*. I really have been slack with the write-ups.
We planned this session around two album descriptions Terry had heard. Powerslave has been described as a prog album, as has A Matter Of Life And Death. This sounded like a good enough reason to tie A Matter Of Life And Death in as the newer album for this session.
Different World
Terry and I have both been gathering more Iron maiden. There is nothing new about this, but we are now picking up singles from the later albums. Terry had picked up two different versions of Different World.
5:56 P.M. We opened session six with the DVD single of Different World and a Panhead - Culture Vulture from the Panhead - Dominion Post 150 Anniversary Box.
6:19 P.M. We carried on the Culture Vulture and started the CD single of Different World.
I had picked this salted gose beer as the opener, as the box set got stronger in percentage from here on in. I also remembered this beer’s flavour not being very pronounced.
DVD Singles seem to have been a stop-gap short-lived idea. They usually included a video of the single song, a live song and a third song with a photo slide show.
The Different World video is strange dated CG clip. This was a fun way to start the session.
The CD single had a contemporary performance of Iron Maiden which delivered as this song always does.
A Matter Of Life And Death
6:30 P.M. We moved on to my picture disc copy of A Matter Of Life And Death. This brought us on to Different World for the third time in 30 Minutes.
I like this album, I would say it is my favourite of the newer Iron Maiden albums. Terry seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the album as well. A Matter Of Life And Death brings out a good variety of well rounded songs, great guitar work and decent vocals all driven by Nicko and Steve.
6:37 P.M. We carried on with A Matter Of Life And Death and opened the next beer in the Panhead box, Quiet Riot - an American Special Bitter.
The beer was good, nothing amazing but went down well while we listened to Maiden and ranted.
7:36 P.M. A Matter Of Life And Death played on and we opened the third Panhead beer from the box, Tar & Feather which is a sweet stout.
At the closing of A Matter Of Life And Death, Terry then performed a reading from Paul Di’Annio’s Book The Beast. This and later readings consisted of opening the book at a random location and reading the dodgiest looking passage from that page. These readings went from bad to worse.
2 Minutes To Midnight
At 7:53 P.M. We moved on to the 2 Minutes To Midnight single. This one is from the first 10 years releases. 2 Minutes To Midnight was the first single from Powerslave and released before the album hence playing it first.
Track 2 on side be Misson From ‘Arry is an argument between Steve and Nicko where a poor bass tech had been sent to tell Nicko who was mid solo to extend the solo while Steve replaced his bass string. All did not go well on stage. Bruce found them mid argument and decided to record it just as they were winding down. So being an entertainer he wound them back up. Worth a listen if you can find it.
Rock In Rio ‘85
8:12 P.M. The record had finished just in time for food to arrive. As I don’t like playing records and eating, we ate while watching Rock In Rio ‘85 from disc 2 of the Live After Death DVD Set.
This concert has the largest crowd Iron Maiden played to. The crowd shots are an insane massive sea of people, there is not sign of the end of the crowd. The festival statistics are scary and well worth a read.
While eating dinner and watching Rock In Rio ‘85, my notes seem to fail me. These are the facts as I know them.
Around this time we opened my last two Heroclix, I got Piece of Mind and Terry got Killers. We swapped as we both already had these characters. We then opened the last beer of the Panhead box - Earle’s Revolver. This smoked ale was the best of the box, a nice full smoked beer.
Back on track, records and note taking resumed
Powerslave
9:04 P.M. We started Powerslave, I haven’t listened to this album as much as the other early ones. I didn’t own a copy of the album until later when they did the CD release with Eddies face across the spine. Before this I had been exposed to a lot of these songs via the live albums.
That said the albums opens on a fantastic note ripping in to Aces High followed by 2 Minutes To Midnight.
9:42 P.M. One the previous sessions - session 3 we hunted for the “Seventh Saison Of A Seventh Saison”. Eagle eyed readers would have noted during this session there were only six Saisons, this means that the hunt continues.
Earlier in this blog I mentioned that Terry and I had started brewing again. To kick-start things we went to The Occasional Brewer. The Occasional Brewer allows you to do all gain brews on there equipment and ferment in there temperature controlled rooms. Terry decided to brew Farmer Smurf the night before we were booked into brewing a Sasion at The Occasional Brewer.
Farmer Smurf was an interesting Saison brewed using dark malt, aged hops and yeast past its best before. The yeast didn’t appear to have been a problem as it had taken hold and done its job. The aged hops meant they didn’t impart as much flavour but but then again Saisons are not meant to have a large hop flavour. Not sure about the dark malt but on the whole it worked and Maiden played on.
Aces High
9:57 P.M. This was the second record from the First 10 Years release. They released the singles as double 12” singles then placed a rant by Nicko on them.
Talking To Iron Maiden
10:20 P.M. We listened to a strange 7” interview disc. The interview appears to be very early in their career around the release of their first album, which is an interesting enough listen. Considering the date of the interview, why are photos of Bruce pressed into this picture disc?
10:30 Another depraved reading from The Beast followed by the first of two beers we brewed at The Occasional Brewer. The only difference between the two was the yeast but as it is a Saison and the yeast is the main character it made sense to brew it with two different ones.
The first was fermented out with Mangrove Jacks M27 A good solid Saison but nothing exciting to note.
Selections from Visions Of The Beast
10:37 P.M. We were unsure if it should be called at this point or if I should find a finisher. I then remembered Visions Of The Beast so we navigated the odd overboard CG menu system and selected the two videos related to this session: 2 Minutes To Midnight and Aces High.
2 Minutes To Midnight is about an occult controlled government conspiracy and the meltdown between factions leading to nuclear holocaust. Aces High has a lot of stock war footage and 1940’s British propaganda footage mixed with concert footage.
Good videos and a great way to call session 6 closed at 10:50
The Tally Of The Day
Listened and Watched
Different World - CD Single
Different World - DVD Single
A Matter Of Life And Death - LP Picture Disc
2 Minutes To Midnight - 12” First 10 Years
Rock In Rio ‘85 - Disc 2 Live After Death DVD Set
Powerslave - LP
Aces High - 12” First 10 Years
Talking To Iron Maiden - Disc 1
Visions Of The Beast - 2 Minutes To Midnight and Aces High
Imbibed
Panhead - Culture Vulture
Panhead - Quiet Riot
Panhead - Tar & Feather
Panhead - Earle’s Revolver
Kniped - Farmer Smurf
Tn’NT - Saison Mangrove Jacks M27
Aftermath
Paul Di’Anno - The Living Dead
10:54 This was released in 2006, the same year as A Matter Of Life And Death. So this made it the perfect Iron Maiden related follow.
This album consists of a release of tracks from Nomad a 2001 album and covers on the first disc with a Interview DVD which also contained The Living Dead video on the second disc.
We kicked off with the CD, it is an easy enough listen with a Nu Metal sound until you hit the Symphony Of Destruction cover. He doesn’t know what style to sing this in and keeps changing, I personally think his cover is terrible. It loses everything of the original song and should have been left off the album.
11:30 We opened the second Saison we brewed at The Occasional Brewer. This beer had been fermented with wyeast 3711. This is the better beer of the two as it has more of the Saison character with a nice spicy peppery note.
12:00 We moved onto the second disc with the interview
12:12 For the final beer we opened an 8 Wired - Wild Feijoa. This is a fantastic sour beer with a huge Feijoa hit and I had been saving this bottle to share with Terry as I knew he would be a fan.
*The reason for “worldwide” is I have been unable to pre order it though any local stores and Warner New Zealand haven’t responded to an email I sent.