Blaze Bayley

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Ascendingthethrone said:
First impressions are good. I’ve listened to it twice and there are some great and catchy songs. Some lyrics are still a little ‘woe is me’ again. I think he needs to change the record. The first half is like an improvement on War Within Me and the second half is similar to the trilogy but with stronger songs.
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Is there at least One long Epic Song?
 
rideon77 said:
Is there at least One long Epic Song?
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To be honest, I wasn’t paying much attention to track lengths. Some of the songs felt epic.

Standouts
  • Mind Reader. I think it is his best opener since Ghost on the Machine. It’s really fun and had a good groove.
  • Ghost in the Bottle. Good rocker with some catchy hooks.
  • Circle of Stone. What a great groove in places.
  • A Day of Reckoning. This is an epic song. Some touches of Sabbath in the guitar in places. It has an excellent singalong chorus and outro. I love how it comes out of the clean section at the end.
  • Until We Meet Again. Fully acoustic but a nice way to end the album.
His voice is fantastic throughout. The album is much stronger than War Within Me and the trilogy.
 
The Red and the Black said:
What is Blaze's best album? I've never been a fan, but I'm willing to listen to one album. If I like it, I may get more.
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Diesel 11 said:
#1: Silicon Messiah 10/10 (7.56/10)
#2: Endure And Survive 10/10 (7.39/10 avg.)
#3: Promise And Terror 11/11 (7.23/10 avg.)
#4: Blood & Belief 10/10 (7.16/10 avg.)
#5: Infinite Entanglement 12/12 (7.14/10 avg.)
#6: The Redemption Of William Black 11/11 (7.07 avg.)
#7: Tenth Dimension 12/12 (7.04/10 avg.)
#8: The Man Who Would Not Die 12/12 (6.61/10 avg.)
Bonus tracks 6/6 (5.65/10 avg.)
#9: The King of Metal 10/10 (4.91/10 avg.)
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^ From Diesel's song ranking game from 2018.
Personally I love Tenth Dimension and the first two Infinite Entanglement albums the most but Silicon Messiah is his universally liked album.
 
Ascendingthethrone said:
To be honest, I wasn’t paying much attention to track lengths. Some of the songs felt epic.

Standouts
  • Mind Reader. I think it is his best opener since Ghost on the Machine. It’s really fun and had a good groove.
  • Ghost in the Bottle. Good rocker with some catchy hooks.
  • Circle of Stone. What a great groove in places.
  • A Day of Reckoning. This is an epic song. Some touches of Sabbath in the guitar in places. It has an excellent singalong chorus and outro. I love how it comes out of the clean section at the end.
  • Until We Meet Again. Fully acoustic but a nice way to end the album.
His voice is fantastic throughout. The album is much stronger than War Within Me and the trilogy.
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Thanks a lot!!!!
 
Ascendingthethrone said:
To be honest, I wasn’t paying much attention to track lengths. Some of the songs felt epic.

Standouts
  • Mind Reader. I think it is his best opener since Ghost on the Machine. It’s really fun and had a good groove.
  • Ghost in the Bottle. Good rocker with some catchy hooks.
  • Circle of Stone. What a great groove in places.
  • A Day of Reckoning. This is an epic song. Some touches of Sabbath in the guitar in places. It has an excellent singalong chorus and outro. I love how it comes out of the clean section at the end.
  • Until We Meet Again. Fully acoustic but a nice way to end the album.
His voice is fantastic throughout. The album is much stronger than War Within Me and the trilogy.
Click to expand...

Thank you!
 
The Red and the Black said:
What is Blaze's best album? I've never been a fan, but I'm willing to listen to one album. If I like it, I may get more.
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For what it's worth - I have eight of his ten studio albums. I think "Silicon Messiah" is the best by a wide margin.

"Silicon Messiah" is vaguely a concept album about man versus machine. (Like some of his other concept albums, the story is unclear). "Stare at the Sun" is arguably the best song of his career (and that includes his material Maiden) - haunting lyrics with some great guitar solos and beautiful melodies. "Ghost in the Machine" is a heavy, powerful opener. "The Brave" and "The Launch" are shorter and energetic. The title track and "Born as a Stranger" are also highlights. It's a great, consistent album.

My (high level) takes on the others:
  • "Tenth Dimension" - a good, consistent album. The highlights are "Kill and Destroy" (energetic) and "Meant to Be" (a powerful ballad)
  • "Blood & Belief" - mediocre except for the final song ("Soundtrack of My Life")
  • "The Man Who Would Not Die" - not sure if I've ever listened to this from start to finish, but "Samurai" is a favourite (even with some cliched lyrics)
  • "Promise and Terror" - a dark album, written after his wife died. My favourite is "City of Bones" (about the siege of Stalingrad - I think?)
  • "The King of Metal" - widely considered his worst album
  • "Infinite Entanglement" - part of a three album trilogy (which tells us the story of the fictional William Black, even though it's hard to follow the plot). The highlights are the power ballad "Calling You Home" and the uplifting/energetic "A Thousand Years".
  • "Endure and Survive" - a good representation of his later career. The highlights are "Together We Can Move The Sun" (a long power ballad that really showcases his voice) and "Escape Velocity" (short and rousing). But this also features a number of generic mid-tempo songs ("Blood", "Fight Back", etc)
  • "The Redemption of William Black" - same pattern as the past few albums. There's one really strong longer/more complex song ("Eagle Spirit") and one very good shorter song ("Prayers of Light"). The remainder of the album is solid but largely forgettable.
  • "War Within Me" - the autotuning on this album is noticeable. "18 Flights" (about the band experiencing a flood during a show in Chile) is excellent - unique lyrics and a great chorus. The album ends with a strong one-two punch (the two longest songs on the album - "The Unstoppable Stephen Hawking" and "Every Storm Ends").
I enjoy Blaze Bayley's music. "Silicon Messiah" is one of the best rock/metal albums of the 2000's. Outside of that, most of his records have one or two very good songs, but there's a lot of filler. He has so many 4-5 minute mid-tempo songs that blur together. But (aside from "The King of Metal"), it's rarely offensively bad. I wish he spent less time trying to write concept albums and focused on lyrics that are more personal ("18 Flights" is more unique and interesting than the confusing plot of his "Infinite Entanglement" trilogy).
 
I personally love Blood and Belief; every single song kicks ass, although it tends to be the lowest fan-rated out of the first three albums. I'm fine with that, as the other two records probably are a tad bit better.
 
If I’m going to listen to a Blaze album, I pretty much always choose Tenth Dimension.

I also like Blood & Belief and the Infinite Entanglement trilogy. I really like the music from The Man Who Would Not Die and Promise And Terror, but Blaze’s performance on those albums is so uncontrolled that it’s hard for me to listen to them, with the exception of “While You Were Gone”, which just might be Blaze’s best song, IMO.
 
Yax said:
I personally love Blood and Belief; every single song kicks ass, although it tends to be the lowest fan-rated out of the first three albums. I'm fine with that, as the other two records probably are a tad bit better.
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Really great album and quite personal to me. During that period I met Blaze twice after a gig.
 
There isn't a single album of Blaze in which I like every song.

His best album? War Within Me, Part 1 & Part 2 of the Trilogy and his debut album (ofc). Tenth Dimension is solid too. The rest have several strong songs.

His best vocal performances? TXF album and his first 2 solo albums for sure. 2008, for live. I like the timbre of his voice.
 
BloodOnTheBassistsHands said:
  • "Infinite Entanglement" - part of a three album trilogy (which tells us the story of the fictional William Black, even though it's hard to follow the plot).
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That's kind of the annoying part of the trilogy, plot-wise, is that there is a plot...but it's not in order. Once they had it recorded, they put it in a tracklist order that flowed well musically, but you're lost if you're trying to follow the plot from beginning to end. This was a point of discussion on Blaze's "Circle __" FB groups (which you had access to as a preorder perk). Back then, it was assumed we'd know the proper flow when his Infinite Entanglement novel came out, but obviously it never did. As a writer myself, I can only assume there was something about it that wasn't working, and he shelved it indefinitely.
 
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TheMercenary said:
blabbermouth.net

BLAZE BAYLEY Says Sound Of 'The X Factor' Album Was Too 'Dark' For Some IRON MAIDEN Fans

In a new interview with Tony Webster of The Metal Command, British heavy metal vocalist Blaze Bayley, who fronted IRON MAIDEN more than 20 years ago, spoke about some fans' initial reluctance to embrace his era of the band. When Webster noted that Blaze's solo work over the last two decades has...
blabbermouth.net blabbermouth.net
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The part about it not being as accessible as what fans were used to, I get that. I got heavy into Maiden in '93, found out Blaze was coming in, and hunted down as much Wolfsbane as I could find to see what he sounded like. Knowing he didn't sound like Bruce, I adjusted my expectations, and was still underwhelmed. It was dark, it didn't have the energy that the older stuff had, so many slow intros, and the production was a bit lifeless and everything sounded oddly separated rather than cohesive. Even the Blaze I'd come to expect wasn't there. Instead of the crazy howler I thought we were getting, he was deeply measured and not very explosive vocally.

It took me a LOT of spins before it clicked. Now I listen to it more regularly than some of the "golden age" Maiden albums, and with the cut B-sides in the tracklist. It's part of the reason why I dug Virtual XI when it came out, is that it fixed a lot of those problems. Production is brighter, Blaze sounds a lot more confident, and we get more shorter, straight-to-the-point rockers. It felt like a stab at recapturing the '80s sound, but a lot of time it feels like most people slag it off because, "oh, that's the one with 'Angel and the Gambler' on it, isn't it?" and that alone equals the album sucking. It's far from a perfect album, I'll be the first to admit. The football theme is only cool if you're Steve Harris. TAATG is basically a crowd-participation live arrangement song done in the studio for some wacky reason. Nicko phoned it in. But...I still enjoy it.
 
CA Bryers said:
The part about it not being as accessible as what fans were used to, I get that. I got heavy into Maiden in '93, found out Blaze was coming in, and hunted down as much Wolfsbane as I could find to see what he sounded like. Knowing he didn't sound like Bruce, I adjusted my expectations, and was still underwhelmed. It was dark, it didn't have the energy that the older stuff had, so many slow intros, and the production was a bit lifeless and everything sounded oddly separated rather than cohesive. Even the Blaze I'd come to expect wasn't there. Instead of the crazy howler I thought we were getting, he was deeply measured and not very explosive vocally.

It took me a LOT of spins before it clicked. Now I listen to it more regularly than some of the "golden age" Maiden albums, and with the cut B-sides in the tracklist. It's part of the reason why I dug Virtual XI when it came out, is that it fixed a lot of those problems. Production is brighter, Blaze sounds a lot more confident, and we get more shorter, straight-to-the-point rockers. It felt like a stab at recapturing the '80s sound, but a lot of time it feels like most people slag it off because, "oh, that's the one with 'Angel and the Gambler' on it, isn't it?" and that alone equals the album sucking. It's far from a perfect album, I'll be the first to admit. The football theme is only cool if you're Steve Harris. TAATG is basically a crowd-participation live arrangement song done in the studio for some wacky reason. Nicko phoned it in. But...I still enjoy it.
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'The X Factor' and 'Virtual XI' are among my favorites. I loved them since their releases. They were some big changes in Maiden's catalog, but for me they were both tenebrous and joyful and these were the feelings I had at the time. So, that's why I love them so much. <3
 
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