Review of Iron Maiden, Halestorm and The Raven Age London Stadium 2025

Everything seemed to go like clockwork for this Maiden gig. The weather was great and the atmosphere in the crowd was friendly and relaxed. There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes into making a crowd like this into a safe and happy place and everyone played their part.

First up were The Raven Age who were extremely happy to be there. It doesn’t hurt, of course, when your guitarist is Steve Harris’ son, but they are still not taking anything for granted and said they were pinching themselves that it was actually happening. The singer bears a passing resemblance to Joey Tempest and even throws in a few horizontal and upside down mike stand bounces which Tempest stole in turn from David Coverdale.

Although billed as a metal band with a very demonic looking raven skulled figure with a hooded cloak as their backdrop, they are, in fact, very melodic, with slightly symphonic vocals, albeit with a heavier back end.

Nothing really in the way of death growls, they are traditional rock/metal rooted in the last century and, therefore a very good fit for the Maiden crowd. Ice-pick-horror-movie-high-pitched-widdly solos of extremely clear tone sit beside chugging riffs and Matt James’ vocals are strong and clear, ranging from breathy acapella to soaring notes which are always easily heard over the heaviest of songs.

They get the crowd to turn on their phone lights for a song about fireflies. They seem to work well as a team and end the set altogether at the front with guitars thrust in the air and throwing the horns.

Lzzy Hale came on in a stunning long black cape embellished with cascading gold and silver snakes and a crimson red lining over a cream coloured swimming costume featuring a golden serpent accessorised with shiny pvc thigh length platform boots and long black fingerless gloves as they kicked off with the first track on their new album  ‘Fallen Star’. Her voice is in tip top condition blasting out the melody and they easily handle this full stadium of thousands. Arejay’s hard hitting drumming really stands out on every track.

 

Next up is familiar classic ‘I Miss The Misery’ and with its anthemic melodic hooks Lzzy does not miss the opportunity to get the crowd singing and swaying along.

‘Love Bites (And So Do I)’ while still melodic, is made harder edged with a crescendo of screams at the end. The screams carry into new track, the completely headbanging  ‘WATCH OUT!’ ideally suited for a metal audience such as this.

There’s a change of pace for the first single from the new album ‘Darkness Always Wins’ which showcases Hale’s fantastic voice as she sang and played keyboards for the intro. The drama intensified with ‘Familiar Taste Of Poison’ which segued into new track ‘Rain Your Blood On Me’ both also showing her vocal prowess.

The Drum Solo is full of tricks and stick twirling including Arejay’s party trick of playing with sticks the size of baseball bats which somehow he still manages to twirl as though they are chopsticks.

‘Freak Like Me’ gets the crowd spontaneously pumping their fists.

Before ‘I Get Off’ Lzzy invites the ladies in the house to get on shoulders to allow themselves to be seen “There would be no Rock ‘n’ Roll without us ladies”.

Their final track is ‘Everest’ the title track of the album coming out in August. A mixture of melodic lines and headbanging heaviness, it’s a perfect microcosm of the band’s sound. Incredibly they played five tracks from the album a month before it is even released. A great show from a worthy support for the iconic Iron Maiden.

Iron Maiden have gone completely digital in their backdrops and so it is to scenes of wild stormy skies over the Eiffel Tower that we get ‘Murders In The Rue Morgue’.

Maiden are really the masters of changing around their set so that each time you see them the show seems completely different. This time the tour was billed as songs from their first nine albums (alhough I couldn’t spot anything from ‘No Prayer For The Dying’) and so we knew we were in for a heritage ride. ‘Wrathchild’, ‘Killers’ and ‘Phantom of The Opera’ follow from the first two albums on which, of course, Bruce Dickinson did not sing and they are known as rawer and perhaps a bit less fancy than some on the later albums.  As such they play them pretty much with a very straight bat and no costumes, just feeding off the raw energy of the crowd as the audience pumped their fists shouting ‘Wrathchild’ or shouted ‘hey hey hey’.

A mohawked, tomahawk wielding Eddie did come on for ‘Killers’ and swung his weapon at every band member in turn much to the crowd’s delight. The harmonised guitars got showcased in ‘Phantom’ while Bruce amped up the crowd, this track catching his imagination.

And then the iconic ‘Number Of The Beast’! Bruce’s voice sounds so good! Adrian does a long solo against the backdrop of flames and old black and white horror flicks. Steve Harris runs all over the stage and mount the drum riser to better survey the crowd. Janick Gers did a tailgunner motion with his guitar mock shooting the crowd.

Steve Harris’ thunderous bass started off ‘The Clairvoyant’ as Bruce got the crowd to sing the chorus against the back drop of Eddie staring down at a huge crystal ball with an eye that moved to look around the audience.

Eddie as a pharaoh sitting in front of a huge pyramid and huge jets of flame signify ‘Powerslave’ as Bruce came on wearing a slightly bizarre mask of bird feathers with plumage rising at least a foot above his head. Dave Murray did a beautiful long melodic solo, while Steve threw his hair forward and back. It’s hot today and I am guessing he is doing that to keep cool rather than simply to look it. Bruce finished with a crossed arm position like royal mummies, paused for dramatic effect.

Bruce came back in a beanie hat and bulletproof vest for ‘Two Minutes To Midnight’. After Dave did a widdly solo with whammy, Adrian did some finger tapping on a guitar painted with an Eddie motif. Steve is doing his trade mark tailgunner move with his bass and Gers is dancing around with his guitar above his head.

Bruce claimed that someone had poisoned his whisky bottle with water and warned the crowd not to drink water as fish enjoy themselves far too much in it (I paraphrase). A bird flew overhead and landed in the stadium rafters and Bruce claimed it was a stunt bird and, when the bird actually did fly up again when Bruce shouted “Come on then, do what you’re paid for”, the crowd roared. He finished with “this is what not to do if a bird shits on you”. He was, of course, building up to ‘Rime Of The Ancient Mariner’ which they have not played for a good while probably due to its length:we get a cinematic version complete with a spectral galleon and a great white spirit in flowing ragged robes as the stage was filled with ghostly smoke. Steve Harris is caught up with the song and sang the lyrics back to the crowd in a demonstrative way.

Next up was the chart hit single ‘Run To The Hills’. I missed Nicko, but there’s no doubt that the new drummer Simon Dawson is pretty awesome and the drums were exceptionally good. The crowd loved it and I think everyone in the stadium was singing.

For ‘Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son’ Bruce came out in a smart navy style dress coat with gold buttons and sang operatically including a note of incredibly extended length. A long slightly progressive instrumental followed against a slightly bizarre backdrop of a disembodied Eddie with his brains on fire, consisting of just a torso holding his beating heart while vertebra from his back dropped off his spinal chord into an arctic lake surrounded by ghostly icebergs, while parachutes carrying little white lights like peanut shaped glowworms streamed by!

For ‘The Trooper’ Bruce came on in his usual red military dress jacket with a huge Union Jack to wave. Dave did a super fast solo and Eddie came on dressed as a soldier and played air guitar on his sword!

Another one that is not played so often, probably because of its length is my favourite ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’. Bruce appeared in a stage, was hung and then to huge cheers was resurrected and threw away his noose.

The final track of the main set was ‘Iron Maiden’ – back to the beginning full circle! Eddie’s head and torso were so large on the backdrop that it looked like he was bursting through the wall. Gers threw his guitar up to the rafters and down again twice, swang it around like a cartwheel and then threw it down and played it with his feet. The band threw all kind of stuff including drumsticks to the audience as explosions went off.

The band were soon back after a speech from Churchill for ‘Aces High’ where Bruce came on in flying goggles. It’s a great singalong song for an encore with it’s jubilant victory feel.

 

Bruce came on in a Victorian frock coat, top hat and lantern for ‘Fear Of The Dark’. It’s another great singalong with its ‘woah’ chorus giving the crowd another chance to give it some welly!

Bruce announced “We play these songs every night, and every night is the best night of our lives” before they launch into ‘Wasted Years’ with a good chance for Adrian to shine on his solo. As Bruce told the crowd they are all friends, sang the James Bond theme song and it’s all over.

There’s no doubt that the band go all out to give the crowd the Classic Maiden they adore, but strive to mix things up with rarely played tracks and dynamic backdrops so that even fans that go to every tour feel they have seen something new! Pretty incredible I should say!

Dawn Osborne