Blaze Bayley

Definitely many steps up in every aspect from the last album!
I haven't heard the whole album yet, but there's some good stuff one this one.
 
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Edit: posting this one instead, and the original video in the thread Forostar linked.


BLAZE performing on the Tenth Dimension World Tour. :)
 
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Got Infinite Entanglement a few days ago, and was able to give it a spin today. On first listen, it's tough to put it in the same league as his first three albums (as some people are saying), but right now it sits for me just ahead of Promise and Terror, which didn't grab me at all, same with King of Metal. It's a better sounding album than KoM, but like KoM, his backing band and the music they wrote is fairly generic. His original Blaze lineup along with his Man Who Wouldn't Die--Promise and Terror era bands weren't geniuses either, but they at least had some inspired ideas here and there. Blaze sounds good, whipped up some decent melodies and some big choruses, and Thomas Zwijsen's contribution is a highlight as well as the spoken interludes, but so far it hasn't really grabbed me. Certainly some good songs that stuck out, but not blown away yet. I'll definitely give it a few more spins before making any kind of final judgment on it, though.

EDIT: Started a second run-through. Only got a song and a half in before parking the car, but much better so far on second listen.
 
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An interesting fact about the track "The Dreams of William Black" on the new album:
Bayley also talked about how he is getting his hardcore fans involved in the making of his new album. He said: "I had an idea for a song. Because it's a concept, there's a certain part of the story where my central character is in a dream, and he doesn't quite know what he's hearing. And it's messages from his past, and it's people saying, 'Where are you?' And so, I thought, well, what I wanted was, not just in English, but in different languages, I wanted this phrase: 'Where are you?' And I thought it might be something that I could involve my fans in, 'cause I need about a hundred people saying 'Where are you?' at different times to create this kind of dream, almost nightmare, and it's an intro to one of the songs on the album. So what I've asked people to do is say the phrase, and I've put a demo of the phrase and a couple of different people saying it, so they know the kind of cadence to use. And they say it in their own language, and then they send me the sample. And the best ones then I'll use in the song on the album. Someone would have to do it, so I thought, 'Well, why not get my fans who actually support me to do it?'"
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http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/ex...infinite-entanglement-album-artwork-unveiled/

My favourites so far are "A Thousand Years", "Stars Are Burning", "Solar Wind" and "A Work of Anger" and the ones above. Nice production too.
I think that this is an album with some really good tracks, and a couple of ones like "Human" and "What Will Come" which aren't as good.
 
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Listening to the album now. So far, so good. Seems like yet another very good album by Blaze. In Stars are Burning, the riff is very reminiscent of a Maiden song. Anyone else think so? Don't remember which one.
 
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I came across some pictures from the Blood and Belief tour, 2004. The last tour with guitarist Steve Wray.
 
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That was the time when Blaze could still get a morning slot at Wacken.
 
Yeah, and actually being capable of doing a top performance too.
I have some pictures from those as well:
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Wacken, 2000. Sanctuary did not book more than 7 shows for the band during may and the summer of 2000, which seems a bit strange to me - considering how much he is touring without any management these days (other than his wife)! But they did get a longer tour later.
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2002.
 
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I really hate to say this, but the tracks I've listened to off the new album so far are just... lightyears away from Silicon Messiah. -_-
 
Yeah I mean he's Blaze, he's gone through shit and we love him, but this actual music is really sub-par to his first album.
 
Perun said:
I really hate to say this, but the tracks I've listened to off the new album so far are just... lightyears away from Silicon Messiah. -_-
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That was my thought as well. the music was pretty generic ... some interesting stuff lyrically ... but nothing that really grabbed me at all
 
It's difficult for any musician without a good producer, but Andy Sneap really improved his vocal performance on the first albums. He does not have that help now and maybe that is one of the reasons. But I still like the new album, with the exception of a few tracks.
 
Yeah. I think that attitude coming from Sanctuary management on the very beginnings drew competent pro musicians away from his band.
His band members were less good with each iteration.
 
I think Sanctuary set Blaze up to fail. It's a shame, because he's such a passionate guy about his music and his fans.

I've just been listening to Infinite Entanglement, and I have to say there are some great ideas in there and it's a fun listen (I'm loving "Human"), but it definitely suffers from bad production. This album just sounds like a demo tape.

Get this man a decent producer, he deserves it!
 
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