Blaze Bayley, good or bad?

Which was the better album; The X-Factor or Virtual XI

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Thank you miss!

I remember being more occupied with drawing Eddie through parchment paper and making great mix-tapes during that era than paying attention to the lyrics! :D

But I do remember that I sent Keith Wilfort and the FC some drawings and questions and getting a great reply, so, kudos to the FC for making my day at the time!
 
SixesAlltheway said:
Well, lyrically it isn't really an album suited for 14-16 year olds, with many of the lyrics dealing about family, war, isolation, jobs, loneliness, religion etc...

It's a very "real" album in that sense, it deals with reality and when you're 12-16 or whatever you're still not quite out of childhood yet ;)
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Hmm, I'm sure I don't realise the full meaning behind most lyrics (regarding war, maybe) but to some extent, I definitely do. For example, one of the reasons Judgement of Heaven is so special for me is because the lyrics get to me every time the beat changes and Blaze goes:

If you could live your life again
Would you change a thing or leave it all the same
If you had the chance again
Would you change a thing at all

Same with some other songs off the album but emotionally not as much as with Judgement.
 
I like your input Saap, it's interesting to hear from someone your age on this!!

But also, think about if you never had ANY connnection to the internet or webnews or facebook or twitter or Maidenfans.com for example...I'm interested in knowing how much of your own judgment is truly your own. How much of your appreciation comes from just you and the album? Excuse me for being old but.... back then we just had the album and the cover to look at :) And the media and such since then is worth taking into consideration!
 
That's a great thing though. I can't tell you how many albums I've gone back to after being turned off the first few listens and subsequently loving them because I read some high praise on the internet. It's definitely the case for The X Factor. I didn't get it at first, but all the praise it gets around here (and on the commentary) made me determined to figure out the appeal; and eventually I did. If it wasn't for that, I probably would've given up on it.
 
Yeah sure it is, that IS one of the great things about the internet, but hopefully you'll also understand us old rats when we didn't get it at first...and that was it...we had to "grow up" with the album so to speak :)
 
It might be me just not being able to visualize hearing TXF before the time of the internet but I think the factors (the X factors :p) you mentioned, Sixes, don't matter that much in my case. I didn't like the album when I first heard it but I started to enjoy it quite quickly and mostly "discovered it myself". But sure, the forum could've had some part in understanding it further.
 
I was almost exactly -1 years old! :D

SixesAlltheway said:
Yeah sure it is, that IS one of the great things about the internet, but hopefully you'll also understand us old rats when we didn't get it at first...and that was it...we had to "grow up" with the album so to speak :)
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Sure, and there are plenty of albums I heard before discovering music forums and the like. I was shocked when I found out No Prayer For the Dying wasn't heralded as a "classic album". :p
 
For me, Blaze is obviously not bad, he is good and has been a solid contributor to Maiden’s music between 1994 and 1998. The fact is that he is obviously not physically capable of singing in Bruce register and for that reason, people often consider him as « bad ».
I think that the real problem (because I believe that the band was at its lowest ebb) with Iron Maiden in the 94-98 era was the band itself. Although X factor is a strong album, it contains too many tracks that could have been reworked/re-recorded after one tour. Given the length of the album, the band did not need to use all the recorded songs and could have selected a sub-sample. I know that many fans won’t agree with that but this is my opinion. Now we could discuss which tracks could have been reworked and which ones could have been used as they are in the LP. :D
The problem with Virtual XI is different but, again, linked with too many average compositions recorded too quickly. Steve once said that they had to accelerate the recording process to be ready to release the record by the beginning of the football world cup (1998). It is hard to believe that a band such as Maiden should hurry its creative process to fit with a sportive event… even when you know how passionate Steve is with football!
So is Blaze a bad singer? No of course not, listening to Silicon Messiah shows his talent.
Is Blaze armed to fit in Bruce’s shoes from a technical viewpoint? Of course not, and this was blatant since the beginning of his association with Iron Maiden.
Was Iron Maiden in good artistic shape when Blaze joined? No and this is not to be taken as a proof that Blaze is a bad singer.

Sometimes I’m wondering how X Factor would have sounded had the band toured before entering the studio to record it…:innocent:
 
Silicon Messiah is much more suited for his voice. I don't think he was the best choice for X Factor or Virtual XI.
 
SixesAlltheway said:
Exactly..You get a better and better understanding of that album as you grow older.
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Better understanding, perhaps yes. But it didn't necessarily get better as I got older. On the other hand: it I still find it better than every Maiden album released afterwards though.
 
Forostar said:
Better understanding, perhaps yes. But it didn't necessarily get better as I got older. On the other hand: it I still find it better than every Maiden album released afterwards though.
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Really ??? Everyone has their own opinions I guess, but that is a bit far out. :wtf:
 
I can think of a few people who think The X Factor is the best Iron Maiden album full stop.
 
I can't get behind TXF when a third of the album's running time is mediocre at best, the best song of the album by some distance is stupidly placed right at the start, the structure is all over the place and there's really no must-listen to track on the album apart from Sign.

It's not a bad album, but it's not really a good album either.
 
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