A tribute band to Iron Maiden! Wow, what else is new? How many of these have we seen throughout these years? How many Iron Maiden tribute albums have seen the light of day and who, apart from the zealous maiden-heads, will ever care listening to them all, let alone buying them? Many you say? I'm surprised, because I used to think otherwise up until this cd landed on my desk. Not that I'll change my mind, but I'm gonna make an exception just for once.
The bitter true is that I'm not into tribute stuff of any kind. I find them boring, useless (the original is 99% of times better) and usually money-grubbing. A cover song on a band's full-length album is perfectly fine, but a full-length cd filled with covers of one band is just not my cup of tea, save Iron Maidnem's "10 Wasted Years". These Hungarians is a different story, since they may as well be the best cover act I've heard in years. As far as I can tell the specific cd has been in circulation since 2006 (hence the "10 Wasted Years title, as the band counts 13 years of existence to date), but for a strange reason the back cover cites 2008 as the production year. Maybe it was released as independent back then, who knows? What really matter is the music and here is almost perfect. The interpretation of Iron Maiden's songs is flawless on every aspect. Very good vocals, even better musicianship and a powerful, bulky production. What else can I write on a tribute album? Should I judge the originals? That would be truly a sacrilege. I'll just mention that this cd contains 4 songs from "Somewhere in Time", 3 from "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son", 2 from "Powerslave", 2 from "Piece of Mind" and 1 from "The Number of the Beast". Now take into consideration that Iron Maidnem are doing a perfectly fine job on covering these masterpieces and act accordingly. My advice as an Iron Maiden fanatic to an Iron Maidnem fanatic is that this cd is a must-buy unquestionably.
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