When we think of music videos...well, at least when my generation thinks of vides, I have no idea if anyone under the ago of 20 knows what a music video is...we think of a short movie which accompanies a song. Sometimes these have stories which may or may not incorporate the band. However, the original form of the music video was to simply show the singer or band performing the song live. This was one of the staples of early television and it continues today. From this, the concert film arose. This was not only a great way to document an event, but it gave those who couldn't make the concert a chance to see the band perform. The advent of home video made these concerts even more readily available, and thus we get releases like Iron Maiden: En Vivo.

Iron Maiden: En Vivo was recorded on April 10, 2011 in Santiago, Chile, as Iron Maiden performed in the Estadio Nacional as part of their "The Final Frontier World Tour" in support of the album The Final Frontier. As 50,000 fans looked on, the band went through 17 songs, playing for nearly 2 hours. The stage was an elaborate set which reflected the outer space theme of the album cover artwork. Pieces meant to look like a space-station took up most of the set, while the backdrop consisted of artwork featuring Eddie, the band's ever-changing mascot. Speaking of Eddie, a giant Eddie head makes an appearance during the second half of the show.

I've been an Iron Maiden fan (on and off) for years, but I've never seen them live. Therefore, I look forward to releases like this. However, I'm sorry to say that I was very disappointed in Iron Maiden: En Vivo for two major reasons. First of all, we have the song selection. Iron Maiden has been around for over 30 years and they have a large album catalog, therefore, they have many songs from which to choose to create a two-hour set. But, I must really question the song's chosen for this show. As they are touring to promote The Final Frontier, they perform five songs from that record. Other than the title track, I wasn't familiar with these songs and they certainly vary in quality. As with many American Iron Maiden fans, my favorite period of Iron Maiden's music comes from their heyday in the early 80s which included the albums Pieced of Mind (1983), Powerslave (1984), Somewhere in Time (1986), and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988). However, we only get three songs from this period, "2 Minutes to Midnight", "The Trooper", and "The Evil That Men Do". No "Wasted Years"? Really. As has become their standard, the band closes with "Iron Maiden", "The Number of the Beast", "Hallowed Be Thy Name" and "Running Free". So, the song choices here range from the novel to the expected, but it's the omissions which make this concert suffer.

The other issue with Iron Maiden: En Vivo has to do with the presentation of the concert itself. As noted above, a concert video can be a great experience for those who've never seen the show live. Using 23 cameras, those filming this show were able to capture nearly every angle. However, we are at the mercy of the director. With the footage available, Director Andy Matthews has assembled a show which certainly uses a lot of the footage which was shot. But, he doesn't always do a great job presenting the show. For starters, there are far too many shots of the crowd. Sure, it's nice to see just how excite and devoted the Chilean fans are, but after a while, we get tired of seeing them and wish that the camera would remain focused on the band. Matthews uses split-screen to show various band members at once, but the scope of the stage is often lost here. At times, the enormity of the concert is evident, but the close-ups make us wish that we could see more.

Given the energy of the band and the power of the classic songs, there's no way that Iron Maiden: En Vivo could be a complete miss, and (as noted below) the presentation is good. But, I must say that I was disappointed with the show and the way in which it was shown. Oh, and a giant Eddie air-guitaring isn't very cool.

Iron Maiden: En Vivo shows that heavy metal guys still like wearing the shirts of the band which they are in on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Universal Music. The concert has been letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 27 Mbps. The image is very sharp and clear, showing no grain and no defects from the source material. The shows was shot using HD cameras, so the image is very crisp. There is some slight blurring at times, but otherwise it remains stable. The colors look good and the image is never overly dark or bright. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 2.8 Mbps. The track sounds very good and exemplifies what a 5.1 track can do for music. (For a comparison, just listen to the music video on the disc.) The individual instruments are discernible here and things are rarely muddy. The bass and drums sound great, bringing the subwoofer into the mix. Bruce Dickinson's voice never gets lost in the crowd and the cheers flow nicely from the rear channels.

The Iron Maiden: En Vivo Blu-ray Disc contains a few extras. "Behind the Beast" (88 minutes) is a feature-length documentary which gives a detailed look at the band's 2011 tour. (One odd thing here -- the Flight 666 documentary, which was released in 2009, covered the use of a jetliner to conduct a tour, but it's treated as a new idea here.) This piece starts at the beginning, as the band's management plan the tour while a group of engineers retrofit the plan so that it can carry the band and their equipment. Then we see the design of the stage and the stage show. Almost as an afterthought, the band rehearses for the tour. Once the tour begins, we see the logistics of putting the show together and how the crew irons out some problems. Some of this is interesting, some is a bit too dry and technical, but it is neat to see the various places that they went. The Disc contains the MUSIC VIDEO for the song "Satellite 15...The Final Frontier" (5 minutes), as well as a 6-minute behind-the-scenes look at the making of the video which shows on-location shooting as well as the creation of the visual effects. "The Final Frontier World Tour Show Intro" (5 minutes) gives us a close-up look at the pre-show video which is only glimpsed during the concert.