Despite Paul Dianno’s connection to the legendary hard rock icons IRON MAIDEN, he can’t seem to escape the shadow of that band. As any MAIDEN fan knows, Paul Dianno was the vocalist who sang on their first two classic albums, simply called IRON MAIDEN and KILLERS. Dianno also performed on the group’s first live platter, MAIDEN JAPAN. Eventually, musical differences reared their ugly head and Dianno left, prompting the recruitment of former SAMSON vocalist, Bruce Dickinson. It was this newly revamped lineup which helped propel the band to success of mammoth proportions. It’s not our place to say who was better, Dianno or Dickinson, because we leave that judgment call to the fans who appreciate this creative, hard-working musical unit. But we will say this, the members of IRON MAIDEN went on to headline arenas across the world, generating a multimillion dollar empire, and forming their own record label, Sanctuary Music. Paul Dianno would be relegated to playing in several minor musical projects (like BATTLEZONE, KILLERS, etc.) geared towards the IRON MAIDEN fanbase. For instance, when Paul Dianno and any of his incarnations play live, the set list consists mostly of IRON MAIDEN songs from the first two albums. Paul Dianno has been keeping busy in the hard rock scene and touring internationally for years (except for the US—visa problems perhaps?). Well, if you can’t make it to a Paul Dianno show, let Metal Mind Productions and Music Video Distributors bring the Paul Dianno bandwagon into your living room, on Dianno’s first ever live home video release, PAUL DIANNO: THE BEAST IN THE EAST.

PAUL DIANNO: THE BEAST IN THE EAST features an abundance of audio and video features and supplemental materials, but the highlight of the disc is the main concert recorded at a Krakow, Poland stop on Paul Dianno’s 2002 world tour. Joining him onstage is his band, KILLERS, consisting of Arve Isdal and Tomas Tofthagen (who share the lead and rhythm guitar duties), Espen Lien on bass, and drummer Brynjulv Guddal. This concert performance is professionally lensed and remixed in Dolby Digital 5.1 (or 2.0) stereo sound. The setlist consists of the usual mix of IRON MAIDEN classics and catalog PAUL DIANNO & KILLERS material:

There is also two complete bootleg tours captured on video that are broken down as follows:

There is an extensive interview with Paul Dianno where he claims he was brought up in the original U.K. punk scene back in the 1970’s and that he never really liked metal and that was why he left IRON MAIDEN. He intends to bring his punk attitude and approach to his new material with KILLERS. However, his onstage antics and vocal delivery are right from the Phil Anselmo school. In his mind, Dianno thinks that his new PANTERA-isms are punk-based, thereby validating his nu-metal sound, appearance, and antics. Yet PANTERA are not even close to punk rock, so I don’t know where the man is coming from. Thankfully, Dianno has KILLERS behind him, whose true metal roots pull him back to reality—its not the punk fans that are buying the tickets, Paul. The members of KILLERS are very adept at their craft, rivaling even those of the mighty MAIDEN. If you don’t believe me, check out the cover songs they play on PAUL DIANNO: THE BEAST IN THE EAST. Dianno grunts the lyrics of many of these songs (especially on the newer ones) but stays fairly true singing the old MAIDEN stuff. Paul even manages to hit the high spots to prove that he’s still got it.

The main concert on PAUL DIANNO: THE BEAST IN THE EAST is presented in full frame (1.33.1) and presented in your choice of Dolby Digital 5.1 or 2.0. The picture quality appears sharp and colorful at times, while at other moments the image appears soft. There is slight pixelation evident in the main concert. This picture breakup is likely attributed to the abundance of material on the disc—the more stuff on here the more the quality is compromised. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundmix is the one to go with, as it exhibits more depth, separation, and imaging. Paul’s voice cuts through the soundfield with complete clarity whether he is using his upper or lower register. The one area where the soundtrack falters a bit is in the recreation of the bass and drums, which are a bit thin. On the Bootlegged in Poland and Bootlegged in Norway sections, the footage is amateur shot and presented here in 1.33.1. An interesting thing to note here is that each song in this section is taken from separate tapings, resulting in constantly changing camera angles and views (which is a lot less boring than a single camera angle throughout a single show). This is the way all bootleg footage should be handled. The picture quality from this section varies from poor to mediocre, but hell this is what the term "bootleg" is all about. The sound for this amateur footage is Mono. Also included in the Extras section are three audio tracks from Dianno and KILLERS: