Released 20 November 2020 Recorded 27–30 September 2019 Length: 100:46 Label: Parlophone Producer: Tony Newton

 On 5 July 2016, Iron Maiden released Legacy of the Beast, a role-playing video game for Android and iOS, in collaboration with Nodding Frog, 50cc Games and Roadhouse Interactive. The game is set in a fictional world inspired by Iron Maiden album covers and songs, and follows the band's mascot, Eddie the Head, as he goes on a quest to find and reclaim the shards of his shattered soul. It later became a comic book series, first released on 31 October 2017.

Two weeks later, on 13 November, the band announced the Legacy of the Beast World Tour, which started in Tallinn, Estonia on 26 May 2018 and had its concept and stage set design loosely inspired by the game's "different but interlocking 'worlds'". Described as a "history/hits" tour by manager Rod Smallwood, the setlist included several songs that hadn't been played live by the band in many years, most notably "Flight of Icarus", which had been absent from the band's setlists since the Somewhere on Tour in 1986–87.

It was the first tour since the Brave New World Tour in 2000–01 to include two Blaze Bayley-era songs ("Sign of the Cross" and "The Clansman") in the setlist, and the first to include any song from that period since the Dance of Death World Tour in 2003–04, when "Lord of the Flies" was played.

Nights of the Dead marks the first official wide release of a live recording of a song ("For the Greater Good of God") from the 2006 album A Matter of Life and Death. When "Different World" was released as a single in 2006, live recordings of that and "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg" were included as B-sides on the digital and DVD singles, respectively.

Info from the inner cover of the album:

ln September 2019, lron Maiden played three sold-out shows to 70,000 rapturous fans at the Mexico City's Palacio De Los Deportes during their epic Legacy Of The Beast world Tour. This live recording taken from these shows serves not only as a celebration of the global success of the tour, which began in Tallinn, Estonia, in May 2018, but also as a thank you to the fans who came from far and wide to watch their band perform a powerful, career-spanning set of classics, hits and favourites on a stage portraying various lron Maiden world themes and featuring spectacular props and stunning drapes, playing to sold-out audiences in soccer stadiums, major arenas and headline festival dates around the world.

Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood recounts here some of the highlights of staging a tour production like LOTB and on the following pages makes some notes on how it all came together creatively:

"We've been on the road with this tour for over two years and the reaction from fans has been overwhelming everywhere we've visited. Almost two million of you have seen the band at the 82 shows we have performed so far: from the opening leg all around Europe in 2018 and throughout the US and Canada and then into Latin America the following year - including headlining to a capacity crowd of 100,000 at the legendary Rock ln Rio Festival, which was the next stop on the tour after our 3 Mexican shows. And of course, the electrifying passion of how Latin American fans, palpably felt in this live album, would guarantee that the final leg of our 2019 tour would end on an absolute high.

After two more stadium shows in Brazil in Sao Paolo and Curitiba, we returned to Velez Sarsfield stadium in Buenos Aires, where the band were formally honoured as Visitors Of The Nation at a congress ceremony in recognition of their cultural and musical influence on the people of Argentina. A final two shows in Chile followed. Santiago's 63,000 capacity Estadio Nacional completely sold out in record time and our Chilean promoter asked us to also add the 16,000 cap Movistar Arena the day before, which we were happy to do as Chilean fans are iust brilliant. Of course, it too sold out almost immediately and once again we had a tremendous time there with these two shows bringing the 2019 leg of this tour to an end.

Rewind to 2018 and our final Production rehearsals, six weeks before the tour was due to start in Tallinn, Estonia, followed immediately by a run of big shows in Scandinavia, and I have to admit we were all pretty nervous back then. This tour is by far the most complex production we've ever attempted, not least with the opening number Aces High featuring the Spitfire. The plane is a 90% sized replica of an actual Supermarine SpitFire Mk Vb registration number AA 853 from 302 Squadron that saw active duty in 1941. The only reason we couldn't make it actual size was because it wouldn’t have fitted on some of the festival stages and we wanted to be sure that everyone coming to this show got to see everything. Тhat includes not just the Spitfire but the myriad of other props: from pyro explosions to stained glass cathedral windows; from Bruce's many costume changes to his flamethrowers, cross and claymores; from the giant lcarus to Eddie in his many guises and his increasingly sophisticated sword fights with Bruce – and everything else we added to bring to life the imagined interlocking, themed worlds which served as the basis for the sat-list. You can see from the notes and schematics in this booklet how the ideas evolved from initial instinct to a fully formed Maiden reality. Throughout the entire planning and execution process, our Killer Krew rose to the occasion and did a magnificent job as ever combining split-second timing and judgement calls with their usual unfailing attention to every last detail to bring you what we hope was a seamless experience give or take the odd slow spinning propeller blade or 'saggy' fuselage!! A moment that always makes me smile whenever I think about my time on the road was the almost nightly parades Nicko would do (in his best sarn't Major voice) to the two Krew members who dressed in the military fatigues (and yes, it was their idea to do that, a real team effort) and pulled the camo webbing off the speakers each night - complete with a 'click' of his flip-flop heels and a firm salute to them as they wheeled away to perform the task!
Only Nicko...

Fast forward to now. As we had to cancel all our 2O2O shows because of the covid-19 pandemic, we decided to bring this live CD to you now as a thanks for your unswerving support during these interim months and hopefully as something you will enioy until we resume the final leg of the tour in June / July 2021. As you will have seen, we were fortunately able to reschedule most of our own Eutopean stadium and arena shows for summer 2021 but are of course hugely disappointed to have missed the festivals in Europe this year, particularly Download as it is home and would have been an - incredible seventh appearance at Donington and you know seven is our lucky number! Furthermore, we had been particularly looking forward to taking the show to Australia, New Zealand, Manila (for the first time), Japan, Dubai and Tel Aviv Sadly this was just not possible but we promise our fans there that they are most certainly not forgotten and very much part of future hopes and plans.

So, as something to whet your appetite for next year, we hope this live album brings you happy memories of an outstanding, fun-filled tour, whether you are listening to it on your headphones, still in lockdown, or travelling on your way back to work, or sitting at home with the music coming out of your speakers at full metal blast! Wherever you are, keep safe, stay smart and we'll see you hopefully in 2021."

Rod Smallwood, July 1st 2020

01: WAR

Songs:

- Churchill’s Speech / Aces High
- Where Eagles Dare
- 2 Minutes to Midnight
- The Clansman
- The Trooper

It’s all well and good deciding on concept of using our mobile game Legacy Of The Beast to provide the inspiration for a retrospective tour, the idea being to go through different worlds on stage – but how do you do that? Inspiration came when watching World War II in colour, see that “ack- ack” gun blasting away, see that webbing, that camouflage … Now if that stage production was covered with this, hiding the production for a second world, well…
And if that were the case, you start with a military / war theme… and if you do that, what opens the show… has to be “Aces High”, of course it has…With the Churchill speech naturally… Let’s have a Spitfire then, close to full size, flying on stage… Then “Where Eagles Dare”… Love to watch Nicko on this song, As its time changes are so brilliant and tough for a drummer!!...

We will need a gap after “Aces High” to remove the Spitfire without it being seen… Use the bit from the movie… No, hard to get permission from Clint Eastwood so Bruce makes an intro long enough to remove the Spitfire… Cool backdrop with the snow and cable car too… Ok, but if we have a war theme we should also include “2 Minutes to Midnight” and “The Trooper”… of course, classic backdrops too… And wouldn’t “The Clansman” be great here? – Underrated song, very strong, different pace… PERFECT, and we can do really strong backdrop for this too.

As the production took shape, our lighting genius Rob started on the light design … He asked how many lights we wanted… we said “Shit loads, biggest ever, this show is going to be special. So he designed thе Rig shape under what looks like and represents the vaulting of the cathedral and gave us the most lights we have ever carried… He then developed an inspiring lightshow commensurate with the mood and speed of the set…
Top Man!

02: RELLIGION

Songs

- Revelations
- For the Greater Good of God
- The Wicker Man
- Sign of the Cross
- Flight of Icarus
- Fear of the Dark

And the we remove the camouflage, what should we see… lets talk to “Hangman” (https://hangman.co.uk ) about designing a massive cathedral on stage .. so our World No.2 will be “Relligion”, with the removal of the webbing revealing a spectacular scene coloured by amazing stained glass windows – Let’s put Eddie in few but don’t overdo it…!

We will need a long intro for the next song to make a changeover. Lets try to make it sound like the structure is grinding up out to the ground, tectonic plates rumbling… And what song to go into … “Revelations” is perfect, great lyrics and build and drama… So what else for religion?... Let’s do “For The Greater Good Of God” – A real musical extravaganza and a cornerstone of the set , sweeping and Majestic!

Lets go a bit Pagan too, religion in the broadest sense, and lift the tempo again too with “The Wicker Man”. Also adds another great backdrop!... And then a real surprise… “The Sign Of The Cross” is another overlooked classic, but not anymore!! … Let”s have that in … The pyro looks so great up there in the lighting rig too, Another dimension….

Bruce was delighted we included “Flight Of Icarus” … A song we hadn’t played since 1986. He wanted a huge Icarus model to hang at the back… Look so great and when it is deflated, it actually collapses naturally in such a sad and emotive way… By keeping the stained glass window arches but replacing the windows with black and with Robs special lighting, we actually made the stage set for this look very Grecian, which was a bonus world for us , World No. 2.5!... Next? Well of course “Fear Of The Dark” had to be included as it’s such a communal song for us and the fans now.

03: HELL

Songs

- The Number of the Beast
- Iron Maiden
- The Evil That Men Do
- Hallowed Be Thy Name
- Run to the Hills

A note on our Killer Krew … can’t thank them all, they know they are valued, but besides Rob I should mention Pooch our sound genius and Don our video screen wizard, who both joined us for this tour and are now fully certified Killer Krew.

As all you guys who came to the shows can attest, the sound was brilliant, even in the toughest halls for sound. And Don never stopped improving on the screens, picking more detail and ideas as we went along and always looking to make the excellent – more excellent!...
Much appreciated!

And so into the 3rd and final world and of course , it just had to be … HELL!... We had to accommodate “The Number Of The Beast” and of course it works for “The Iron Maiden” too. Which , as you well know we always close the set with. So the whole scene transformed again for this final set piece … Strange creatures appeared in the arches, the chandeliers came down again , aflame, gargoyles appeared on stage and a backdrop “Into the jaws of Hell” appeared. And the pyro hell…Looked Great!

The backdrop changed for “The Iron Maiden” and then naturally a monstrous Eddie devil head appeared, as it is tradition, for the end of the song, staring around over the fans. Then of course we really had to include “The Evil That Man Do”, “Hallowed Be Thy Name” and “Run To The Hills” for you guys as the encores – We do hope you all enjoyed the setlist as much as the band loved playing it.

Bruce was inspired for this show with the added extras he devised along with his many wardrobe changes, from pilot to mystic carnival villain and the rest… Highlights for me were his introduction of the flamethrowers, a great idea in keeping with the original single art. The cross he wields in “The Sign Of The Cross” had a real manic intensity to it the “Piece De Resistance” for me was blowing us all up to the end of “Run To The Hills” with ACME plunger and pyro straight out of the cartoons.

The Music, the intensity, the show, the lights, the spectacle it’s all important but Maiden do like to leave you guys with a smile on your faces too. One thing we didn’t do is take ourselves too seriously.

There is always room for a laugh.. “Always look on the bright sight of life…”