Were you aware that Iron Maiden is totally awesome? And that they still had access to their original masters? And that some enterprising gents have taken the original masters, transferred them to digital (because who knows how long magnetic tape lasts), and then released remasters of their studio catalog? Well you are now!

The albums are available in the iTunes store, or if you’re a wicked nerd, there are 24-bit FLAC versions at the Onkyo Music Store. Personally I’m tempted to grab the FLACs and transcode to high quality MP3 just so I can hear them. But hang onto the FLACs forever. For.ev.er.

I’ve heard clips, and I’m still waiting for wave-form analysis & comparison to the other releases, but so far these sound great. One of the fears with remasters is they just wreck the sound by turning everything up; you end up with a wave form of the track that’s just one black bar. But from the Iron Maiden clips, these sound solid and nuanced and you can hear the bass just like always. Because if you can’t hear Steve Harris doing a gallop rhythm, what’s the point.

Anyway, the guys putting the remasters together released a video explaining the process, including the fact that they had to bake the reels to make sure they could pull the audio. That’s crazy, and I like it.