I completely agree with that. But the thing is, it's very different to say "he sounds bad" and "he's not at his best". Like you said, his bad moments are way ahead of many other singers. In that case, how can you say that he ever sounded bad? He never did. He just had a few moments where he was not at his best and full potential.
Mwah.
The majority of Maiden fans will never post in a fan message board. So that kind of makes us Maiden Nerds. And nerds tend to nitpick what they are passionate about at times.
They’ve been downtuning since 2013 to counter but I don’t think it’s working.
I agree. He's a great singer who has his ups and downs but there is a lot of nitpicking. I personally don't have a great ear for this sort of thing but I know bad when I hear it, such as Dave Mustaine (as Whooten mentioned) but I think he's gotten a bit better than he was a few years ago. There's only a handful of singers who I might regard as flawless live: Hansi Kursh, Simone Simons, Anneke van Giersbergen and Anna Murphy. Bear in mind that Hansi and Simone are not the most mobile frontpeople in the world, mostly confining themselves to lateral pacing, while Bruce runs around the stage and puts far more emphasis into the theatrical aspect of the show than most. Anneke and Anna also play instruments while performing, but I've only ever seen them play in very confined environments so they might make more use of a proper stage.
I never said he never had a bad night. I said he never sounded bad, that's quite different. A bad Bruce night is when his singing is average. There's where the nitpicking comes in: LAD, for example, is not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. I've heard some go as far as to say Bruce butchered certain songs live, which (the way I see it) is simply not true.
