18th Studio Album discussion

Spaldy said:
There's no such thing as objectivity in criticism.

TXF is a collection of mostly good songs that are horribly produced. VXI is a collection of mostly mid songs that are slightly better produced. The overall result balances them out. There is no competition between the two Blaze albums as they are equally bad.

But the songs themselves have staying power since they have been proven time and again to come to life when performed live by Maiden and Blaze respectively. An open minded fan could and should acknowledge this.
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The X Factor contains:
  • Sign of the Cross
  • Lord of the Flies
  • Man on the Edge
  • Fortunes of War
  • Look for the Truth
  • The Aftermath
  • Judgement of Heaven
  • Blood on the World’s Hands
  • The Edge of Darkness
The production isn’t ideal, but the songs have soul.

Virtual XI, on the other hand, contains:
  • Futureal
  • The Angel and the Gambler (but only if it were cut down to a 4-minute version)
  • The Clansman
  • And the fast part of Don’t Look to the Eyes of a Stranger.

Beyond that, it’s pretty bad. I know many of you count Lightning Strikes Twice and When Two Worlds Collide as legitimate tracks, but to me, they’re almost horrendous.

And let’s be clear—Virtual XI is not lighthearted or happy in any way. The X Factor is genuinely dark, whereas Virtual XI is just hopelessly subpar and hopeless. No amount of “slightly stronger production” could balance the two albums out. By Maiden standards, Virtual XI is simply a failure.
SOR. :cool:
 
Azas said:
The X Factor contains:
  • Sign of the Cross
  • Lord of the Flies
  • Man on the Edge
  • Fortunes of War
  • Look for the Truth
  • The Aftermath
  • Judgement of Heaven
  • Blood on the World’s Hands
  • The Edge of Darkness
The production isn’t ideal, but the songs have soul.

Virtual XI, on the other hand, contains:
  • Futureal
  • The Angel and the Gambler (but only if it were cut down to a 4-minute version)
  • The Clansman
  • And the fast part of Don’t Look to the Eyes of a Stranger.

Beyond that, it’s pretty bad. I know many of you count Lightning Strikes Twice and When Two Worlds Collide as legitimate tracks, but to me, they’re almost horrendous.

And let’s be clear—Virtual XI is not lighthearted or happy in any way. The X Factor is genuinely dark, whereas Virtual XI is just hopelessly subpar and hopeless. No amount of “slightly stronger production” could balance the two albums out. By Maiden standards, Virtual XI is simply a failure.
SOR. :cool:
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9 songs enjoyable. I think its a good album
 
Firstly, the polka section of 'Don't Look' is arguably the worst thing Maiden have ever done so I find it interesting that you consider it a highlight.

Secondly, both 'Lightning Strikes' and 'Two Worlds' are superior to several of the tracks you listed but especially 'Don't Look'. And ignoring 'Amigos' is shurely shome mishtake, no? It's widely considered a Blaze era highlight.

Toss a coin as to which one is better or worse but then you're not seeing the woods for the trees. By any standard, both albums are failures.
 
Spaldy said:
Firstly, the polka section of 'Don't Look' is arguably the worst thing Maiden have ever done so I find it interesting that you consider it a highlight.

Secondly, both 'Lightning Strikes' and 'Two Worlds' are superior to several of the tracks you listed but especially 'Don't Look'. And ignoring 'Amigos' is shurely shome mishtake, no? It's widely considered a Blaze era highlight.

Toss a coin as to which one is better or worse but then you're not seeing the woods for the trees. By any standard, both albums are failures.
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The polka section, in my opinion, is almost on par with Futureal—and that’s saying something. That one part alone somewhat redeems Don’t Look to the Eyes of a Stranger. It’s as if Steve was suddenly struck by lightning and, for a brief moment, managed to summon an echo of Maiden’s long-lost ’80s glory. Sadly, the rest of the song drowns in his inability to edit.
As for Como Estais Amigos—I’ll admit it, I never cared for it.

edit: "By any standard, both albums are failures." Commercially, no doubt—but The X Factor at least carved out a bit of cult status for itself.
 
When Two Worlds Collide is a track that I've come to appreciate after hearing BLAZE's version live. I've changed my mind from thinking it's one of the worst in Maiden's career to it being one of the better tracks from the album and there being the body of a real good song there at least musically.

But my initial feelings on hearing the song, still hold up, in that it's really poor subject matter for song lyrics, even giving it a bit of leeway for it being heavy metal lyrics.

Similar to Lightning Strikes Twice, it's not that the song is being a metaphor for some sort of personal event, but literally a song about 1 celestial body crashing into another, and that's really poor. Not as bad as lone dogs howling in the park, but still quite bad.
 
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Spaldy said:
Firstly, the polka section of 'Don't Look' is arguably the worst thing Maiden have ever done so I find it interesting that you consider it a highlight.

Secondly, both 'Lightning Strikes' and 'Two Worlds' are superior to several of the tracks you listed but especially 'Don't Look'. And ignoring 'Amigos' is shurely shome mishtake, no? It's widely considered a Blaze era highlight.

Toss a coin as to which one is better or worse but then you're not seeing the woods for the trees. By any standard, both albums are failures.
Click to expand...
Meh, futureal, the angel and the gambler is not bad if it was 3:30 min lightning striked twice good instrumental poor lyrics clansman the gem worlds collide good song not more the educated fool used to have much fans years ago dont look to the eyes of stranger wtf is that again like a hamster in a wheel endesly and como estais amigos good choruses. The production typpical of harris in the 90s.
 
X Factor. Horrible prododuction, way to long album and a lot of boring "sad" songs from Steve

Amazing songs:
Sign of the Cross

Good songs:
Lord of the Flies
Man of the Edge
Blood on the Worlds Hands
Edge of Darkness

Shit songs:
Fortunes of War
Look for the Truth
Aftermath
Judgement of Heaven
2AM
Unbeliever

Virtual X1. Better production, shorter and not as bloated, more fun, but a bored and uninspired Nicko

Amazing songs:
Clansman

Good songs:
Futureal
Lightning Strikes Twice
When to Worlds Collide
Educated Fool
Como Estais Amigos

Shit songs:
Angel and the Gambler
Dont look to the Eyes of a Stranger


 
MindRuler said:
The Unbeliever deserves more.
The instrumental section is among Maidens finest moments.
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Such an amazing and underrated track. The only part that really has no business being on a metal record is the natural harmonics riff that sounds like Steve, Dave and Janick are checking if their instruments are in tune. Some really fun and unorthodox melodies and riffs on that one.
 
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