This came out in 2005 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Give the Iron Maiden boys credit: They know what their fans want. And they know how to give it to them.
For their latest DVD, the heavy metal icons don’t waste our time with a boring live concert or a pointless video compilation. Instead, they dug through the vaults and went straight for the good stuff. The History of Iron Maiden, Part 1: The Early Years is a two-disc set chock full of classic headbanging footage, including: Live At The Rainbow, a blistering half-hour set from 1981; Beast Over Hammersmith, a previously unreleased 45-minute concert from 1982; Live In Dortmund, another archival show from their 1983 tour; the ultra-rare Live At The Ruskin, a home-video shoot of a 1980 bar gig; a 1981 TV documentary from U.K. series 20th Century Box; a handful of classic TV appearances; a 90-minute doc with extensive interviews with virtually every current and former band member; and a gigantic archive of photos, tour dates, programs, ads and even pages from founding bassist Steve Harris’s diary. And the whole bloody affair only goes up to 1983! No Maiden fan — hell, no metal fan — will want to be without it. Or the upcoming instalments, if they’re even half as good.