Blaze Bayley

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TheMercenary said:
There is a strange sensation I have : I'm not very excited by the releases of both Blaze and Bruce. Is it me or someone else does have the same reaction about 'Circle Of Stone' and 'The Mandrake Project' ?
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I'm not all that excited for The Mandrake Project either, the singles were fine but not something I'd care about too much if it wasn't Bruce. Circle of Stone I'm more interested about, my expectations were very low after War Within Me (my least favourite Blaze album other than King of Metal), and even though it has a similar sound, it's shaping up to be much stronger (edit than WWM).
 
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I was having a read of some recent chat here about Blaze sounding really good. I think ya'll be cray cray. His enunciation and pronunciation are ridiculous at times, sometimes sounds like 2 or 3 different singers in the same song, like he doesnt know how best to use his voice and is trying things out or something. The cheese factor is through the roof at times. I can't think of another professional singer who sounds so weird, so amateurish.

For context, I have nothing against the cat and enjoy some of his stuff, thought he was excellent when I saw him live and I wish him all the best, just calling it as I see it.
 
Blaze is a really boring singer imo. He lacks charisma and personality. He seems like a cool and nice dude but I dont care at all for his solo stuff. Its so bland
 

With a bit of guiding from a good producer, he is an excellent singer! He hasn't worked with a real producer since 2004 though (not in Maiden either).
But an upcoming Andy Sneap brought the best out of Blaze back in the day. I believe that the track "Stare at the Sun" is his finest vocal performance.
 
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I don’t love it as much as Circle of Stone, but that was a real grower for me and is now a dedicated ear worm gnawing away inside of me. Perhaps this will be too in a few days.

I love the intro, I feel the tone of the following riffs are a little off for me, a bit to bright for a song with a dark subject matter. But overall it is an enjoyable track with a cool video and I think the production on the last two tracks Is a big improvement from War Within Me. And I love the subject matter, the myths and legends of this land are perfect for song writing.
 
As an aside I just watched this video of Blaze playing Man on The Edge in 2023 on a cruise in…maybe Norway? I can’t tell the language. Anyway it’s interesting as it has a female backing singer and a keyboard player and the keyboard player takes the solo. Actually works really nicely.


 
TheTalisman said:
With a bit of guiding from a good producer, he is an excellent singer! He hasn't worked with a real producer since 2004 though (not in Maiden either).
But an upcoming Andy Sneap brought the best out of Blaze back in the day.
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This 100%. Andy Sneap took a fairly one-dimensional singer and blew his voice up into a star attraction while he produced those early albums. While I've still loved most of Blaze's output since Andy Sneap moved on, that's the thing that's missing the most in his solo work.

As for the new song, the soft intonations in his voice was surprisingly good. Once it got heavy, my interest dropped off a bit. I'm sure I'll get into it with a few more listens once the album is out.

And as for the above, being more excited for Blaze's solo album or Bruce's, I'm still leaning toward Bruce's for the following reasons:

A) it's been 19 years since the last Bruce record, and I'm digging the two new songs quite a lot. They're not Chemical Wedding level, of course, but they're fresh and different from his previous work.

B ) While I do love the Blaze/Absolva combo because it really does work, Absolva's writing for him doesn't stray far from what we've already heard from that combo. I like it, I know it'll be good, but I don't expect surprises, if you know what I mean. Circle of Stone is solid and catchy, I'll buy the album ASAP, but I'm not crazy excited for it.

C) To dovetail off point A, we get a new Blaze album fairly regularly (heart attack delays aside). So, a new Blaze album to me is less of an event than a new Bruce album that's been so long in the waiting.
 
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rideon77 said:
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Yup, another banger. Well done Blaze!

And now he's delving into folklore for his subject matter - this could get very interesting indeed B)

Regarding the video, I didn't like it exactly but I will say this: it is dramatically powerful and tells the story very effectively.

Some interesting background on the story can be found here.

The castle depicted in the video is Caernarfon which was build on the orders of Edward I: and hence would not have been there in the days of Llewelyn the Great. But that's a minor detail :)
 
The intro of Rage has some really amazing, thoughtful singing from Blaze. Once the double-tracked vocals come in it gets a lot worse (and obviously auto-tuned), but still a cool song, I guess.
 
Black Abyss Babe said:
Yup, another banger. Well done Blaze!

And now he's delving into folklore for his subject matter - this could get very interesting indeed B)

Regarding the video, I didn't like it exactly but I will say this: it is dramatically powerful and tells the story very effectively.

Some interesting background on the story can be found here.

The castle depicted in the video is Caernarfon which was build on the orders of Edward I: and hence would not have been there in the days of Llewelyn the Great. But that's a minor detail :)
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Thanks for the link to the more detailed description of the legend.

Historical inaccuracies aside, I really like the video and the song is very nice too.
 
Ascendingthethrone said:
I just got in from a long day and the new Blaze album has already arrived in the post! What a great surprise. I’ll be blasting it in the car tomorrow.
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When I saw people are getting it WAAAAAY before the official release date, I started kicking myself for not having a preorder in already. Fixed that today! :dancinggeek:
 
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