English heavy metal titans Iron Maiden released their new live record Night of the Dead, Legacy of the Beast: Live in Mexico City through Parlophone Records today. The album was recorded during their three sold-out shows at Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City on 27th, 29th and 30th of September 2019, as part of the band’s ongoing Legacy of the Beast World Tour. Night of the Dead is available on all streaming platforms and through their online store on standard CD, double hardcase CD book, triple heavyweight LP and limited edition vinyl in the colours of the Mexican flag, alongside various bundles including t-shirts, litographs, lanyards and patches.
Nights of the Dead, Legacy of the Beast: Live in Mexico City is out now!
Yet to get a copy? Get it here – https://t.co/x0a4UkrQJu
Stream the album – https://t.co/PfgpIkZhZ6#IronMaiden #NightsOfTheDead #Mexico #LegacyOfTheBeastTour pic.twitter.com/3OPzSwjNt5
— Iron Maiden (@IronMaiden) November 20, 2020
The Legacy of the Beast World Tour originally started in 2018, inspired by the free mobile game of the same name from 2016 that revolves around iconic band mascott Eddie’s adventures in worlds related to Iron Maiden’s albums and artworks. During the initial announcement manager Rod Smallwood said “for this History/Hits tour we decided to base the theme around the Legacy Of The Beast name, which suits our purposes perfectly by giving us scope to get creative and have some fun, especially with Eddie”. So far Iron Maiden covered most of the major festivals and arenas in Europe (2018) and North and South America (2019), with various support acts including Killswitch Engage, Sabaton, Gojira, The Raven Age, Fozzy, and many more.
The tour was scheduled to conclude this year but was naturally postponed for 2021, with bassist Steve Harris commenting on the situation and the decision to release the live album: “When the final leg of our 2020 Legacy tour this summer had to be cancelled due to the COVID pandemic, the whole band was very disappointed and deflated and we know our fans felt the same. We’d been really looking forward to bringing the show to even more countries and although we’ve been able to reschedule most of our European own-shows for 2021, we thought we’d take a listen to the recordings from the tour so far and see if we could create a definitive live album souvenir that everyone, everywhere could enjoy“.
Night of the Dead, Legacy of the Beast: Live in Mexico City features a total of 16 tracks, starting with the iconic Churchill’s speech used as intro during the band’s live performances. The album covers mostly classic hits from the 80’s as well as songs that have not featured on their live setlists for many years such as ‘Fligh of Icarus‘ from Piece of Mind (1983) and Blaze Bayley-era’s ‘Sign of the Cross‘ from The X Factor (1995) and ‘Clansmen‘ from Virtual XI (1998). Piece of Mind is the most featured album with three other songs ‘Where Eagles Dare‘, ‘The Trooper‘ and ‘Revelations‘, followed by their iconic third record The Number of the Beast from 1988 with its title track, ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name‘ and ‘Run To The Hills‘ serving as the grand finale.
The rest of the tracklist covers ‘Aces High‘ and ‘2 Minutes To Midnight‘ from Powerslave (1984), ‘The Evil That Men Do‘ from Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988), ‘The Wicker Man‘ from Brave New World (2000) and ‘For The Greater Good of God‘ from A Matter of Life and Death (2006) which is the most recent track included. Naturally, the classic title tracks of Fear of the Dark (1992) and their debut Iron Maiden (1980) take central place in the setlist that sends fans alongside Eddie on adventure across the vast worlds of Iron Maiden’s greatest albums and moments.
The Legacy of the Beast World Tour was set to hit Download Festival last summer but the show was cancelled and Iron Maiden have not been re-booked for its 2021 edition. The heavy metal godfathers are expected to resume the final leg of the tour in Europe from June 2021, but there is no confirmation for all postponed dates from Oceania and Asia, and no other UK gigs announced yet.
