Blaze Bayley

TheMercenary

TheMercenary

Ancient Mariner
efekåseo_suomi said:
I guess you have to thank Jon Schaffer for participating in the 2021 Capitol attack. I'm sure Luke would still be touring with Iced Earth otherwise!
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Well, I won't thank Jon Schaffer for doing something illegal. But, Iced Earth was already dead to me since 'The Glorious Burden', the last good album, IMHO.
 
CA Bryers

CA Bryers

Educated Fool
srfc said:
Ditto, I quite like Promise and Terror that would be my third choice, but I lost faith when he let that line up fall apart again and when the next thing he did was a cringey tribute to Diamond Darrell I stopped caring. I've checked some of the stuff occassionally when people post it here, but it seems amateurish compared to the first couple of albums, and it's sad to see that that material make up the bulk of his sets these days.

What ever limitations Blaze has as a vocalist, I think his poor decision making skills have been a much bigger hindrance on his career. The band he had for those first 3 albums effectively dropped him which is bizarre as they were all unknowns.
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I think the early lineup basically saw the writing on the wall--even though they were unknowns, they saw that the Blaze band was never going to be a big thing. Even back then they had VERY small crowds at many shows, according to their accounts in the At the End of the Day biography. It's too bad, they wrote great songs together, with the peak (IMO) being Tenth Dimension. Silicon's good too, but has a few "filler" songs. Tenth I consider strong throughout. I often forget a little about Blood & Belief, but whenever I go back to it, it's got loads of great songs.

As for the "Bermudez brothers" era, I kind of agree above that the heavier sound doesn't suit Blaze incredibly well, but it does work on several tracks. I still can't get into Promise & Terror at all (unlike most people on here), but it does have a couple good songs.

TheMercenary said:
That's why Blaze's new live record which will be released in June has a heavier sound. To become a 5 pieces band was a great idea from Blaze.
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I almost wonder if it was more an idea from management (Mark Appleton) than Blaze's, to get Luke Appleton some extra work. Doesn't really matter either way, I'm looking forward to hearing that extra guitar on the new album.
 
K

koponto

Trooper
Luke was already involved in a couple albums (background vocals etc) prior to his official addition to the band.
As well as opening up for them solo, then performing with the band on several occasions - think I saw a show where he was onstage for the last six songs or so. And it doesn't hurt that the lead guitar player is his brother and the manager is his father :bigsmile: AND he is of course in Absolva, so it's an easy transition as he's already played with the guys for years.
 
srfc

srfc

Ancient Mariner
CA Bryers said:
Even back then they had VERY small crowds at many shows, according to their accounts in the At the End of the Day biography.
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I saw them at a gig on the Blood and Belief tour, and even now the main Dublin metal promoter still moans about how much money he lost on it. There was about 60 people in a venue that could hold 600. I was in the front row and could leave it during the gig and go to the bar/toilet and walk back to the same spot afterwards.

EDIT: Also agree that Tenth is the much more complete album
 
TheTalisman

TheTalisman

Ancient Mariner
The only things that would have been similar are some of the lyrical themes, inspired by the movie "Gattaca" released in 1997. Blaze wrote the lyrics in Reach for the Horizon, The Launch and Stare at the Sun roughly based on that. Otherwise than that, not much really.

It's an insult to Andy Sneap, Steve Wray, John Slater, Rob Naylor and Jeff Singer to pretend that Blaze wrote and arranged those tracks on his own.
 
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TheTalisman

TheTalisman

Ancient Mariner
"You once stated in an interview that you consider Blaze Bayley's first album your personal favorite.

"Yeah Blaze is such a lovely guy and I always got along really well with him. He really was the underdog in Maiden and really wasn't given a fair chance because Steve Harris was writing all the stuff in the same keys as if he was writing for Dickinson. With Blaze, what we did was stand back and listened to the strengths in his voice. We'd start with the choruses and work our way down rather than starting in a key he's just starting to manage to hit, and working up to a chorus that he was not going to hit. So it was common sense really to do it that way. No one was kind of giving him the time of day back then so it was nice to be involved, and be part of that. I think he was the scapegoat for Maiden as it was never going to work because whoever was going to replace Dickinson, was in for a rough ride. It was a bit of a shame really. "
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- Andy Sneap, in 2011. This makes it clear that Sneap had an active role in shaping the songs together with Blaze and the rest of the band, including the vocal melodies. He wasn't just recording and mixing the stuff passively.
 
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Kalata

Kalata

Out of the Silent Planet
MindRuler said:
Repeated the chorus a couple of times more I guess.
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Actually, I think the song would have had the same repetition (+1?). How many repetitions are there, 7? The song is almost 8 minutes long. The instrumental section could have been a bit longer. The intro is 2 minutes long. Blaze and the others probably wrote those songs with a Maiden vibe in mind.
rideon77 said:
Imagine a third album with Blaze with Stare At The Sun, Born As A Stranger, The Brave, The Mercenary, Brave New World, Blood Brothers etc.....Epic
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Didn't Bruce wrote the lyrics for Brave New World?
TheTalisman said:
- Andy Sneap, in 2011. This makes it clear that Sneap had an active role in shaping the songs together with Blaze and the rest of the band, including the vocal melodies. He wasn't just recording and mixing the stuff passively.
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I don't think all the songs Steve wrote or co-wrote have difficult choruses for Blaze's voice. I mean - Flies, Fortunes Of War, Aftermath, Judgement Of Heaven, Futureal, Angel & Gambler, When Two Worlds Collide, Eyes Of A Stranger. He had problems with the old songs.
 
TheTalisman

TheTalisman

Ancient Mariner

This is a song that Steve Wray released with his band Soldierfield in 2014, Jeff Singer also played drums on it.

The music sounds more BLAZE than anything Blaze has released since Wray left, and kind of shows what individual musicians like him contributed on those albums. I wish that Blaze and Wray would work together again and write some songs! :)
 
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