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"Iron Maiden came close to vindicating their selfish decision last night but dropped the ball at the last," writes Gavin Allen from icWales. "Maiden won't regret the decisions they made last night, but their fans will."
Cardiff International Arena
IRON Maiden came close to vindicating their selfish decision last night but dropped the ball at the last.
In playing their 14th album A Matter Of Life and Death in its entirety - and each track one after the other at that - they were bound to disappoint swathes of the sold-out crowd, with even the hard-core fans tolerating rather than worshipping.
The thirst for them pre-gig saw thousands of devil horns silhouetted against the CIA's soulless white walls as the crowd chanted "Maiden! Maiden! Maiden!"
Vocalist Bruce Dickinson bouncy-balled magnificently onto the stage but when five tracks in he confirmed they would play the whole album there was a negative reaction; largely silence, even the odd boo.
It's a shame because the war-obsessed album - the stage set was designed like a World War Two bunker with broken masonry and sandbags - is among their strongest material.
Classically mock-operatic, the likes of These Colours Don't Run, The Longest Day and The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg would grace any of their previous albums.
But when that lot was over, after forcing people to tolerate 70-odd minutes of such indulgence, the pay-off simply wasn't enough.
The crowd exploded into mosh circles to the opening bars of Fear Of The Dark but the follow up of Iron Maiden, Two Minutes To Midnight, The Evil That Men Do and Hallowed Be Thy Name, while glorious in themselves, was too eclectic.
Maiden won't regret the decisions they made last night, but their fans will.
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2006 World Tour 
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