Made of Maiden

Iron Maiden made it into the 1990 Guinness Book of World Records for achieving a sound level of 124 dB (decibels) at the 1988 “Monsters of Rock” Festival. Since the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) claims that 7.5 minutes of exposure to 120 dB can cause permanent hearing damage, we can only conclude that Iron Maiden is bad for your ears. But the band’s extravagant and creepy-but-cartoonish stage shows are always so much fun for the eyes. With the double DVD Iron Maiden: Death on the Road (Sanctuary), you can safely get the full ocular assault in the form of a 2003 concert taped in Dortmund, Germany. The DVD focuses on the Dance of Death album and tour, and, in addition to unveiling the massive medieval-castle stage set and bringing mummy-mascot Eddie out as the Grim Reaper, Iron Maiden blasts through some impressive material off that album, particularly performances of “Paschendale,” with its backdrop of World War I trenches and dummies of dead soldiers lying about, and “Journeyman,” which marks the band’s first-ever acoustic, sit-down performance. The Maiden classics — “Wrathchild,” “The Number of the Beast,” “Run to the Hills,” and a killer rendition of “Can I Play With Madness” — are here, too, along with a second disc that documents the recording of Dance of Death, as well as Maiden on the road.