The Legacy Of the Beast Tour Part One (2018 - 19)
Nearly two decades into Iron Maiden’s reunion era, there was a reliable touring pattern: new album tour followed by nostalgia tour, rinse and repeat. Since Ed Hunter in 1999, Maiden stuck faithfully to this formula. With that being said, there was a bit of uncertainty as The Book of Souls era winded down. In 2005, Maiden did The Early Days tour, which focused exclusively on their first four albums. In 2008, Maiden embarked on the now legendary Somewhere Back in Time tour, which covered the rest of the 80s with a focus on Powerslave. Next, in 2012, there was the Maiden England tour, which some fans felt was redundant considering Somewhere Back in Time covered the entire 80s era, but it also made sense to revisit the Seventh Son tour and re-release the Maiden England video to go with it (you’ll find plenty of pre-2012 speculation online where a Seventh Son themed tour is expected). When the Maiden England tour was announced, the press release actually confirmed that this would be the last of the band’s “history of” tour series. Which made sense, a 90s tour would be neat but probably not something that is easily marketable.
That left a bit of a question mark going into 2018. Some fans mistakenly interpreted “no more history tours” to mean no more nostalgia/greatest hits tours, which was clearly unrealistic. On the other hand, Maiden’s enthusiasm around The Book of Souls was remarkable for a new album, even taking into account that Maiden always prioritized the new material on those tours. That enthusiasm combined with the close confrontation with mortality spurred by Bruce’s cancer led fans to believe that perhaps this time around Maiden would simply go back into the studio to ensure that it wouldn’t take another 5 years between albums. They could even follow the Dance of Death model and split the tour between a greatest hits run and a new album tour.
Around this time, Maiden had also partnered with a mobile game developer to create a mobile rpg titled Legacy of the Beast. The game was heavily marketed during the Book of Souls tour, with video ads playing prior to the set and shirts with the Legacy of the Beast logo being sold at the merch stands. Suddenly it felt like history was repeating itself. Last time Maiden made a video game, there was a tour to go with it. Consequently, rumors and fake tour posters around a Legacy of the Beast tour circulated well before any official announcements. Rarely being a band to take the unexpected route, the Legacy of the Beast European tour was announced immediately after the band’s final 2017 performance.
The announcement itself was met with mixed reactions. Some fans genuinely believed that Maiden would be trying to make new music on a more frequent basis given that they were obviously getting older. This Legacy of the Beast tour could very well be the band’s last, which meant no more new albums. But conversely, a tour that was not tied to a particular theme or era meant that anything in the setlist was possible. There was the chance of some true rarities, maybe even the long awaited live debut of Alexander the Great or other similar surprises. The tour announcement itself used For the Greater Good of God in the trailer music, that song’s inclusion alone (last played 2007) was enough to get fans excited. Maiden also promised that the stage show would be bigger than ever, with changing “worlds” to mimic the theme of the game. On the face of it, it was kind of hard to know what exactly to expect with this show, which actually made it really exciting. Most of the tours up to this point had followed a rigid theme, this would be the first tour in quite some time where anything was theoretically possible.
At the time, I felt that things could’ve gone either way. A big part of me expected that this would be largely a retread of Somewhere Back in Time Tour. For the Greater Good of God seemed like a solid pick for a modern era deepish cut and then the rest of the show could be a grab bag of 80s favorites including something like Rime as a centerpiece. Considering the setlists for both Maiden England and Somewhere Back in Time, I could see it being a less adventurous setlist. But I also felt going in that, with the right selections, this show could be a real treat.
Leading up to the tour, the band teased various songs on social media platforms such as twitter (as well as using the game to throw in some teases). Flight of Icarus was teased really early, which was a major deep cut pick. It had last been played by Maiden on the Somewhere in Time tour, and even then the last time it had been a regular part of the set (as in played at every show or nearly every show) was on the World Slavery Tour. It was played by Bruce Dickinson with Adrian Smith in the 90s however, and was long thought to be a song that Maiden would never play again due to disagreements over the tempo. Steve/Nicko liked to rush while Adrian wanted to play it more at the album tempo, see Wasted Years for another example of a song with tempo fights. You can hear that even by 1985, the tempo of the song was pretty fast. Other songs that were teased included The Clansman, Where Eagles Dare, and Revelations. There were also strong setlist clues in the tour poster. Needless to say, the band was hinting toward a tour filled with surprises.
On May 26, 2018, the long awaited tour opened in Croatia. As promised, the stage show was truly stunning. Possibly their most impressive since the 80s, if not ever. Further solidifying its place as the quintessential Maiden opener, Aces High kicked off the show with an impressive spitfire prop and a war themed stage complete with barracks and barbed wire. Bruce Dickinson also donned a flight helmet, and to help with the immersion the stage crew were in complete regalia. The whole production was similar to Paschendale in 2004, but on a larger scale. The bombastic opening set the tone for what was going to be Maiden’s most theatrical stage production ever. It also set the tone for how songs would be organized. In a somewhat unique move for Maiden, the songs were sequenced in a way to match the statge theming. The first third of the setlist was the “war” theme. To match the battlefield stage, the band selected some of their most iconic war themed songs. Aces High was immediately followed by Where Eagles Dare, another iconic Maiden opener and a welcome live rarity last played in 2005 on the Early Days Tour (and before that, a truncated version was performed on A Real Live Tour in 1993). The Trooper and 2 Minutes To Midnight were also included which is expected, you can’t have a war themed Maiden show without those tracks (or a greatest hits show for that matter). The Trooper in particular featured an early walk on Eddie appearance, surprisingly the first time we’ve had an on stage Trooper Eddie and the first time Eddie had appeared on that song in general. This helped make a commonly played song at least a little bit more exciting. One of the major surprises of this section was The Clansman, which not only was the first time played live since 2003, it was also the first time a Blaze era song had been included in the set since 2004. At this point, many fans had given up hope that the era would ever be represented on one of their live shows again. The return of The Clansman was a welcome surprise, not to mention in a pretty prominent early part of the set.
Following the bombastic version of The Trooper, the lights dimmed, ominous sound effects filled the room, and the second phase of the setlist was revealed. The stunning design mirrored the tour poster complete with stained glass imagery and a chandelier. The lighting was bright and colorful and created a strong mood. Revelations kicked off the “religion” portion of the show. By now, Revelations was an expected inclusion in Maiden’s greatest hits tours, but it took on a little bit more prominence in this setlist by opening up the second phase of the show. The tone of the song perfectly matched the stage reveal and I think it’s safe to say that the stage design and the song are closely linked in a lot of fans’ minds and memories. One fact about Revelations on this tour is that for awhile Adrian and Janick were switching off who played the solo from night to night. Since Adrian had returned in 1999, Janick traditionally played the Revelations solo, so this was the first time Adrian was playing his original solo since rejoining the band. It was also an unusual choice to switch who was playing a solo from night to night as usually that sort of thing is set in stone for the entire tour. Other songs in the “religion” section included The Wicker Man, by now a live staple as much as anything from the 80s, the aforementioned For the Greater Good of God, and yet another surprise Blaze track: The Sign of the Cross. To have one Blaze era song back in the set was a real treat, it was incredible to see two. No less the two Blaze era songs that most fans consider to be the highlights of the era. Sign of the Cross hadn’t been played since 2002. This song also featured a light up cross prop, similar to what was present at some shows on the Brave New World tour (you won’t see it in Rock in Rio, but it shows up in bootlegs from other shows). The centerpiece of this section of the show, and possibly the entire concert, was Flight of Icarus. The band knew that the return of this song would be a big deal for fans and they went all out on the stage production. There was a statue of Icarus and Bruce wielded a flamethrower. The song itself had a nice tempo to it, slightly faster than the original but not rushing to the point of sucking the life out of the song. It was nice to see the band reach a good compromise on the song and, honestly, I felt the 2018/19 rendition of the song was superior to any version in the 80s (including the original studio recording).
Icarus concluded with a fiery finish which brought forth the third and final section of the show: Hell. A logical conclusion to the show. The “hell” portion could also be seen as the hits portion of the show. While the first 10 songs contained many surprises, the last third of the set was for the more familiar territory. All the usual suspects were present, although there were some fun stage show moments for a few of the songs, such as in Fear of the Dark. Of course Eddie made an appearance during Iron Maiden, this time the demonic Eddie from the tour poster appeared as yet another inflatable. With a song selection as comprehensive and exhaustive as what the band presented to that point, it’s hard to complain when they start playing the go to classics. On the other hand, the predictability of these songs stuck out slightly more after a gauntlet of surprises. Still, the cool stage effects that took place during this portion of the set kept things engaging even for the most hardcore fans.
While a lot of the setlist was hinted at leading up to the first show, the Legacy of the Beast tour as a whole was one with a lot of surprises and struck the best balance of any Maiden concert in terms of pleasing casual and hardcore fans. Bruce Dickinson once again had a big hand in selecting the songs and supposedly the inclusion of the two Blaze era songs were his decision. Despite being teased from the very beginning, For the Greater Good of God as an inclusion on a greatest hits tour was quite the surprise. On the whole, several of the included songs were ones that hadn’t been performed in years and weren’t necessarily expected to be performed live again by Maiden. The setlist combined with the stunning stage production made it hard to be unsatisfied with the show.
On the less positive side of things, you could really hear the band starting to age on this tour. Especially going into 2019, Bruce sounded pretty worn out at a lot of the shows and you could also hear Nicko struggling with some of the fast kick drum parts. Given that Bruce had a lot of input on the set, there are quite a few vocally challenging songs and it’s actually a bit surprising how ambition the choices were. There were also a lot of stage antics from Bruce, which certainly contributed to any vocal problems. Still, the band is getting up there in age and it was impressive to watch them pull off this tour even if there were some hiccups.
While Maiden mind bogglingly did not release a video from the tour, it is the age of live streams and you can find high quality footage of the show with minimal effort. The best is probably Rock In Rio, Maiden’s fourth appearance at the festival. At this point, Maiden playing at Rock in Rio doesn’t have the same cachet as it used to since they appear there every few years now, but it was still a big event for them and it’s great to have quality video from the tour. As for audio, we did get an official release:
Nights of the Dead - Legacy of the Beast live in Mexico City (2020)
It’s hard to say what Maiden’s original intentions were regarding a live album. Released during the pandemic in 2020, it seemed like Nights of the Dead was put out so that Maiden would have something new released during a year meant to contain tour activity and even a new studio album (more on that later). The show chosen also doesn’t seem particularly special other than being in front of an enthusiastic-as-usual South American audience. It seems like a soundboard recording, but the use of raw off-the-board recordings is a norm for Maiden at this point. On the other side of things, it seems mind boggling that they wouldn’t want to immortalize these shows in the form of a live video.
Regardless, it’s good to have a live album from this tour. It marks the first time any song from A Matter of Life and Death appears on a live album, 14 years after the album’s release, which is insane to think about. It’s also only the second appearance of Flight of Icarus (Live After Death) and Where Eagles Dare (A Real Dead One) on a live album. Quite a few of the songs, while played several times, happened to almost always end up on tours without live albums.
Unfortunately, the audio quality isn’t great and Bruce sounds like he’s struggling throughout a lot of the show. His voice is strained and he struggles with timing on several songs such as The Clansman. Plainly, it’s just not the best representation of Maiden and it also poorly represents what was a great tour for them. I would say check this out for completists sake and if you want a live version of some of the rare songs, but you’re better off checking out the Rio show on YouTube.
To Be Continued (2020/2021)
As per the tradition with Maiden tours, one year was spent covering Europe and the next was spent covering North America (with a South American tour mixed in as well). By now, Maiden’s tour itinerary is never that surprising. Additionally, given the band’s age, it seems like they are mostly interested in the European and North/South American markets and not much else. On the other hand, nobody would be surprised to learn the Legacy of the Beast tour was a massive success. Consequently, Legacy of the Beast became the second tour (the first being Maiden England) to extend into a third year. Toward the end of the 2019 leg, Maiden announced that Legacy of the Beast would continue into 2020. The tour would reach territories rarily visited by Maiden such as Australia, Dubai, and Japan, as well as some more European shows.
While this announcement wasn’t a surprise, it did come as a disappointment for a lot of fans who were wanting Maiden to quickly get back into the studio for a new album. It’s understandable, the band isn’t getting any younger and every year feels precious at this point. Still, it’s also important to understand that Maiden is a global band and a lot of the territories that were announced in year three do not get frequent Maiden tours. It’s a tough call though. Of course, the most efficient thing to do would be to record a new album in between tour legs, as many bands are prone to do. Maiden usually opt to take that time off though and had never recorded while mid-tour. Surely that wouldn’t change now right?