Iron Maiden-Number of the Beast, The (Classic Albums) (Rajon) (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Bonus Interviews (8) Trailer-Hallowed Be Thy Name - Rock on Rio Tour 2001
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	49:30 (Case: 80)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Tim Kirby
Studio Distributor	Rajon Vision	Starring	Bruce Dickinson Dave Murray Adrian Smith Steve Harris Clive Burr Nicko McBrain
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$19.95	Music	Iron Maiden

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (320Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	French German Dutch Italian Spanish Portuguese	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    As the title succinctly describes, Classic Albums is a series of 50-minute documentaries that examine the development of a number of albums that are nowadays considered classics (perhaps not by yourself, but certainly by a sizeable portion of the world's population). The documentaries are structured to run through an album song-by-song, telling the story behind significant tracks as they build a picture of the overall development of the album.

    This particular episode in the series is about Iron Maiden's classic Number of the Beast, the flagship album of the early 1980s "new wave of British heavy metal". This documentary is an absolute must-see for all fans of the band, serious or casual. The documentary covers the lead up to the album, how the band got to where they were before recording the album, numerous on-the-road anecdotes, stories behind individual tracks and the general impact the album has had. That said, the real reason to see the doco isn't for the raw information, it is for the personalities themselves. The doco was made with the full cooperation of the band, their management, virtually anybody that had some hand in the album and related tours and Megadeth's Dave Mustaine (who is there simply because he really likes Iron Maiden). Not only are the people involved excited to be involved, but they're genuine entertainers in their own right and, surprisingly, all seem to have their head firmly on their shoulders. Bruce Dickinson, in particular, is absolutely barmy but at the same time comes across as a fairly cluey bloke.

    While this doco will mostly appeal to fans, there's a reasonable amount of material here that will appeal to a more general audience. In particular, the discussions on the hysteria surrounding the band's occultist reputation lead to some Spinal Tap-worthy anecdotes.

Video

    The show is presented in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The video looks very good.

    The image is razor sharp and displays a good level of detail in dark areas. Mild video grain is occasionally visible, but never distracting.

    The colour palette is very bold, but quite natural.

    The video looks to have been recorded primarily on high quality video, with occasional inserts of old footage (from music videos and concerts). None of the recent interview segments display any film artefacts or compression artefacts. The legacy footage shows its age a little bit, with poorer definition in the video and a few film artefacts, but this is never a real distraction. In fact quite the opposite is true - it adds quite a bit of character to the old footage.

    There are no English subtitles on this disc.

    This is a single layer disc.

Video Ratings Summary

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Audio

    The sound is presented in a high quality Dolby Digital 2.0 (320Kbps) track.

    The dialogue is clearly audible and well synchronized to the video.

    The music mainly consists of snippets from the songs being discussed, both studio and live tracks. The high bitrate soundtrack does an excellent job of capturing these snippets. Some fans may be disappointed that there aren't any complete songs on offer, but bear in mind that this is a real doco - not just a puff piece for the band.

    There is modest surround usage, mainly for musical cues. The subwoofer gets a good workout from the mix.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
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Subwoofer
Overall

    A number of extra interview segments and a live performance from the Rock in Rio DVD are included.

Bonus Interviews

    Eight additional interview segments; each was cut from the main feature for time constraints and is well worth a look. The interviews are: Adrian Smith & Dave Murray - Twin Guitars (4:58), Beast Stories (4:28), Reading Festival 1982 (2:23), Nicknames (1:52), Rod Smallwood (3:38), Adrian Smith Plays Children of the Damned (1:00), Adrian Smith Plays The Number of the Beast (1:29) and A Message from Clive Burr (0:23).

Hallowed Be Thy Name in Rio, 2001 (7:36)

    A fairly spectacular performance of Hallowed Be Thy Name, presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. Anyone who owns Rock in Rio has seen it before, but it's a treat for anyone else.

    The Region 1, Region 2 and Region 4 versions are all identical save for Pal/NTSC differences.

    A must own disc for any Iron Maiden fan. An interesting doco for anybody else. Thankfully, this isn't just a puff-piece for the band.

    Video is very good. Audio is great. Extras are well worthwhile.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall