BLAZE: The Rankings (Completed... At Last)

[Diesel 11]

I'm a piece of shit. I've had a lot of shit going on, but that's no excuse, and I really do feel terrible about holding this whole thing up. I think the best course of action is to set a deadline, for like 10 days from now (or something like that) and I'll get through as many albums as I can in that timeframe.

I just don't want to keep this held up forever, and I honestly don't know how long it'll take me to find the time to get through everything.

It’s all good, life gets in the way far too often and I can understand it. I’ll give a lax deadline of... a week, so November 4, we'll see how far you and Foro are, and then go from there.

 

[Lampwick 43]

Blood & Belief

1. Alive - Love the heaviness right off the bat. I'd put this one right up there in the same class as Ghost in the Machine. Great song. 9/10.
2. Ten Seconds - Very strong track. It very well may end up growing higher in the future, but for now it stands at 8/10.
3. Blood and Belief - Holy fuck this song kicks ass! 10/10.
4. Life and Death - I'm really digging Blaze's performance on this one. This song just seemed to click instantly. 9/10.
5. Tearing Yourself to Pieces - A slight dip in quality after the 4 very strong songs that started the album. Still a respectable 7/10.
6. Hollow Head -Kind of fun, harmless song, but it sounds like something that would have been better suited as a bonus track. 6/10.
7. Will to Win - Decent enough, but nothing that's really all that memorable or special. 7/10.
8. Regret - Good song. More on par with the quality of the first 4 songs; a noticeable step up from the previous three. 8/10.
9. The Path & The Way - It looks like a lot of people really hate this song. I'm having some trouble seeing why, to be honest. It's not great or anything, but it's not really all that bad, either. Oh well. 7/10.
10. Soundtrack of My Life - Great song. Not quite incredible, but it's close. I'd rank it as the 3rd best song on the album, behind the title track and Alive. 9/10.

 

[Lampwick 43]

The Man Who Would Not Die

1. The Man Who Would Not Die - Very strong song, but it doesn't quite live up to the extremely high standards set by the openers form all of Blaze's previous albums. 8/10.
2. Blackmailer - The instrumental/solo part is pretty cool. That's about the only thing this song has going for it. The chorus is especially irritating. I'm being very generous by giving it a 6/10.
3. Smile Back at Death - I had high expectations for this one based on the 7:38 run time, but unfortunately not much seems to happen in that time. It's still a pretty decent song all things considered, but it is a clear step away from something that can be considered "great". 8/10.
4. While You Were Gone - Damn. What a phenomenal performance by Blaze. The only thing holding it back from a 10 is the lack of a truly stand-out instrumental section. 9/10.
5. Samurai - Love the bass opening. Just a great song all the way around. Better than it has any right to be. 9/10.
6. Crack in the System - Meh. 6/10.
7. Robot - Decent, fast-paced song. nothing remarkable. 7/10.
8. At the End of the Day - Great performance by Blaze. This one falls right in the middle area between an 8 and 9. Right now I'll have to give it an 8/10, but I honestly expect I'll rate it higher in the future.
   
9. Waiting for my Life to Begin - Very solid tune. I'm not in love with the lyrics, but that's only a very minor complaint in the grand scheme of things. 8/10.
10. Voices from the Past - Here we go. This one just clicked right from the start. 9/10.
11. The Truth is One - I'm not a fan of the versus ... or the chorus ... or the riffs ... the solo is decent though I guess... 5/10.
12. Serpent Hearted Man - This one, just like Smile Back at Death, was another let down based on my expectations for it beforehand. The music here is just good enough to squeak out a 7/10.

 

[Lampwick 43]

Promise and Terror

1. Watching the Night Sky - Decent enough song that doesn't really have anything wrong with it, but it doesn't have anything that makes it stand out either. Middle-of-the-road Blaze song. 7/10.
2. Madness and Sorrow - I can dig the music here, but I'm not a fan of the vocals at all. 6/10.
3. 1633 - Again, I'm not in love with the vocals. The music is definitely interesting though, especially the bass. It seems like the production on this album isn't as good as it could have been. 7/10.
4. God of Speed - A fast paced song with some nice riffs, as you would expect based on its name. Nice solo too. 8/10.
5. City of Bones - Not terrible. Its got some pretty cool parts, but as a whole it feels somewhat underwhelming. It may wind up to be a grower, but for now it stands at 7/10.
   
6. Faceless - Feels like nothing more than pure filler. 5/10.
7. Time to Dare - I can dig it. 8/10.
8. Surrounded By Sadness - Powerful stuff. A lot of emotion in this one, and Blaze gives a really great performance. 9/10.
   
9. The Trace of Things That Have No Words - I'll give this a 7/10, because the music is quite strong, but MAN, those verses are rough.
10. Letting Go of the World - Without the "fight! kill! fuck! eat!" nonsense this song easily a 9/10. As it stands, it has to be downgraded to 8/10.
11. Comfortable in Darkness - Pretty solid track. 8/10.

 

[Forostar]

Promise and Terror

1. Watching the Night Sky - 10
   
2. Madness and Sorrow - 7
   
3. 1633 - 7
   
4. God of Speed - 7
   
5. City of Bones - 7
   
6. Faceless - 8
   
7. Time to Dare - 9
   
8. Surrounded By Sadness - 10
   
9. The Trace of Things That Have No Words - 7
   
10. Letting Go of the World - 6
    
11. Comfortable in Darkness - 7

 

[Diesel 11]

Watching the Night Sky - 10

Another fan!!

I'll be keeping this open for another week at least to give another chance to participants. Thanks for getting on track!

 

[Lampwick 43]

The King of Metal

1. The King of Metal - It's actually not as terrible as I was expecting, but that's really not saying much. 5/10.
2. Dimebag - The music is nice, but the lyrics and vocal performance are laughably bad. 6/10.
3. The Black Country - This is a song that might sound really cool if you were 12 years old and have never listened to anything heavier than Maroon 5. 5/10.
4. The Rainbow Fades to Black - It's tolerable, I guess. 6/10.
5. Fate - This one is actually pretty enjoyable. Best song so far. 7/10.
6. One More Step - I give Blaze credit for doing something completely different here. For the most part, it works, too. 8/10.
7. Fighter - I'm not gonna lie, I found most of this song to be pretty boring. 6/10.
8. Judge Me - The incredibly lame lyrics bring this one down a notch. 6/10.
9. Difficult - There are a couple cool parts in here but the end result is overall mediocre. 6/10.
10. Beginning - Another change-of-pace, but this one doesn't work nearly as well as On More Step. 5/10.

Russian Holiday - Wow! This is better than everything on the actual album. 9/10.
Hatred - A big pile of meh. 5/10.
Eating Children - Definitely sounds like a bonus track. Nice solo, though. 6/10.

 

[Lampwick 43]

Infinite Entanglement

1. Infinite Entanglement - Solid opening track. Not totally sold on the vocals, though. 7/10.
2. A Thousand Years - Very nice rockin' tune. It's not groundbreaking or anything, but thoroughly enjoyable. 8/10.
3. Human - ^See above. 8/10.
4. What Will Come - Nothing short of beautiful. 10/10.
5. Stars Are Burning - Here's another really great song. I can't even explain why I like it so much, but everything about it just seems to work perfectly. 9/10.
6. Solar Wind - So far there haven't been any weak songs at all on this album; a massive improvement over the previous three. This one comes in at a very strong 8/10.
7. The Dreams of William Black - It works nicely in the context of the album, but since it's an interlude, it can't really do anything when it's isolated. 5/10.
8. Calling You Home - A lot of really strong guitar work throughout, and some nice harmonies in the chorus are enough to warrant an 8/10.
9. Dark Energy 256 - Great solo, everything else is so-so. 7/10.
10. Independence - Blaze sounds really great, and so does just about everything else in this song. The chorus is kind of repetitive, but it doesn't really detract from the song all that much. Fuck it, I'll be generous and give this one a 9/10.
11. A Work of Anger - No generosity needed here. This song deserves every bit of its 9/10 rating.
    
12. Shall We Begin - Just an outro. 4/10.

 

[Lampwick 43]

Endure and Survive

1. Endure and Survive - A very nice song all the way around. 8/10.
2. Escape Velocity - This song picks up right where the first one left off. The chorus is a major highlight here. This one gets a very high 8/10, almost a 9.
3. Blood - An important song in terms of the overall story, and the song itself is decent enough. 7/10.
4. Eating Lies - One of the major highlights of the album. Blaze sounds great. I really love the entirety of the instrumental section as well. 9/10.
5. Destroyer - Pretty solid song, but nothing remarkable. 7/10.
6. Dawn of the Dead Son - I'm not really a fan of the intro, and the chorus isn't all that spectacular, but the guitar work is superb. 8/10.
7. Remember - A neat song with some very nice vocal harmonies. And a violin to boot. 8/10
8. Fight Back - Kind of a generic song, but the solo is pretty awesome. 8/10.
9. The World is Turning the Wrong Way - Ehh... I could take it or leave it. Blaze does sound really good though, so I'll go up to a 7/10.
10. Together We Can Move the Sun - Great song. Blaze sounds pretty amazing, and the solo is outstanding. It does kind of drag a bit towards the end, though. I wouldn't be surprised if this one makes the top 10, but I'd personally put it somewhere right on the fringe. Probably between 8-14 or so. 9/10.

 

[Lampwick 43]

The Redemption of William Black

1. Redeemer - Another solid opening track by Blaze. It would have benefited from an actual chorus, though. 8/10.
2. Are You Here - Decent, fast-paced song. Not bad, not great. 7/10.
3. Immortal One - I can't say that I'm a fan. 6/10.
4. The First True Sign - This one is a little better, but still no where close to being great. 7/10.
5. Human Eyes - A pretty good ballad featuring a strong performance by Blaze. 8/10.
6. Prayers of Light - A bit of a fun, cheesy song. Nothing too special. 7/10.
7. 18 Days - Pretty solid song. The female vocals are a nice touch. 8/10.
8. Already Won - So far it looks like all the even-numbered songs on this album have gotten a ratting of 7. Well this time ... the pattern continues. 7/10.
9. Life Goes On - A strong performance by Blaze and some interesting guitar parts. I can dig it. 8/10.
10. The Dark Side of Black - Quite enjoyable, actually. Enjoyable enough to warrant an 8/10.
11. Eagle Spirit - Talk about ending on a high note! Here the story comes to an end with the best song from the entire trilogy. 10/10.

 

[Lampwick 43]

Finished! I'm glad I made it through everything, and now I'm very curious to see how the rankings shake out. Thanks, Diesel, for keeping it open for so long, and I sincerely apologize for taking my sweet-ass time.

In other news,

Had a dream last night that Blaze released a new album and I had to add it in here...

Your dream is now a reality! Sort of. Blaze did in fact release a new album though; an acoustic album with Thomas Zwijsen called December Wind that was just released a couple of days ago. I don't think it's necessary to add to the game, but it's still probably worth giving it a listen.

 

[Diesel 11]

Your dream is now a reality! Sort of. Blaze did in fact release a new album though; an acoustic album with Thomas Zwijsen called December Wind that was just released a couple of days ago. I don't think it's necessary to add to the game, but it's still probably worth giving it a listen.

Yep, I saw it. Dunno when I’ll listen to it, but I’m interested to say the least.

Well folks, throw in any final stuff right now, ask for extra time, something - otherwise I’ll be calculating the list when I get back from school.

 

[Diesel 11]

Well folks, it's time! Voting has closed, and I'm off to compile these votes together and I hope to begin presenting this list later tonight or tomorrow. Epic.

 

[Number 6]

Well folks, it's time! Voting has closed, and I'm off to compile these votes together and I hope to begin presenting this list later tonight or tomorrow. Epic.

Sorry for not being able to properly participate.

Well, anyway, I look forward to the results!

 

[Diesel 11]

Sorry for not being able to properly participate.

Same, but there's a likelihood that if Blaze continues to release new albums and MaidenFans continues to get new member, we'll all be doing this again sometime in the future. So while we're not, just go and listen to the albums in the background, in the forefront, whenever and however. Then if we do it again, your participation will be guaranteed.

 

[Diesel 11]

Fun fact: This list was looking pretty standard until I got into the last few albums. Holy shit.

Also, these are the most fucking ties I've ever seen. Goddamn is it annoying.

On the last album now, so I think I'll start this tonight. Stay tuned!

 

[Diesel 11]

104. The King Of Metal
Average Score: 3.57/10
The King Of Metal 1/10

Well, there it is - the worst Blaze Bayley track in the collective minds of the MaidenFans voters. This is the first time an actual album song came dead last in one of our rankings, as the bonus tracks "Mooncusser" and "I'm In A Band With An Italian Drummer" were the losers in the Adrian Smith and Bruce Dickinson lists, respectively. For a guy who could typically deliver a good if not great opener for his albums, it seems that Blaze just couldn't do it with this one. Then again, the entire album was absolutely slaughtered in our poll. Even I gave this song a 4, and apparently everything converged together to put this one in its place, never to rise again. While it received no 1 votes, it also received nothing above a 5, and with the second last song being a full point ahead of it, "The King Of Metal" is by far the most disliked Blaze Bayley song on MaidenFans.com. RIP.

Comments:

Whoa... Not impressed by this.

That would have been a cool song had Blaze been replaced by gutterals. On the one hand, because it would simply have fitted better. On the other, because this is not exactly the pinnacle of Blaze's performances. Actually the way he sings "you ahahahhahare" makes me cringe.

I think it's the worst song of his solo career - the only one that sounds THAT badly.Almost hurts to admit.

Um. What the hell is that?

Blaze sounds good, but it really sounds like he fell into some band out of Sweden.

I absolutely don't think it's the worst Blaze song ever.
Some stuff from the previous album sounded less inspired imo.

The only difficult thing at this point I find the odd guitar solo. I think Blaze is going for another modern (concept?) album. Impressive drums. Are these the same guys as the ones he's touring with at this moment?

I was going to buy this... I'm going to stick with Silicon Messiah, Tenth Dimension and Blood and Belief instead.

The King of Metal is the worst song off the album.

A short and concise opening to the album, "The King of Metal" may sound vain until you realize that Blaze isn't talking about himself - he's talking about his fans. Hence, "You are the King!" It's... not the greatest thing ever. The verses have some meh singing from Blaze, and while the pre-chorus is quite nice, the actual chorus isn't anything special. I do enjoy it, but against his entire discography it's not an outstanding track.

The first thing that hits me is the noticeably poorer production compared to Blaze's previous albums. The song itself has managed to grow on me somewhat (I absolutely hated it in the beginning), but there are some issues with it that unfortunately plague the entire album.

Fuzzy production. Blaze is uncontrolled and missing notes throughout the verse and pre-chorus. There's a weird Faith No More vibe to the pre-chorus and bridge, but not in a good way. The chorus is empty, repetitive, and terrible. Weird video game bleeps coming out of the guitar during what I guess is supposed to be the solo, while Blaze chatters on underneath. Abrupt ending. Well, that was awful.

It's actually not as terrible as I was expecting, but that's really not saying much.

Votes:

Spoiler

10 - 0
9 - 0
8 - 0
7 - 0
6 - 0
5 - 2
4 - 1
3 - 3
2 - 1
1 - 0

Overall:

Spoiler

104. The King Of Metal

Albums:
The King Of Metal 1/10

 

[Jer]

104. The King Of Metal
Average Score: 3.57/10

...and justice is served. Off to a promising start!

 

[Diesel 11]

103. The Black Country
Average Score: 4.57/10
The King Of Metal 2/10

We move on with our list right into the next King Of Metal track. "The Black Country" is not a 'deep' song, to say the least, it's really more of a rock 'n' roll kinda metal tune, and I think Blaze was just having fun here. I can get that out of this song, I think it's enjoyable. That doesn't help its ratings any, because it comes in second-to-last in our poll. Still, it's a full point above "The King Of Metal", so that surely means something, right? Right?

Comments:

There isn't much to this song... but that being said, it's more enjoyable than "The King of Metal" and just overall a fairly nice little romp. Not a fan of the constant "metal" stuff in the lyrics but this one isn't too offensive actually.

After "God of Speed" on Promise and Terror, this is the second motorcycle-song Blaze has written. It's actually enjoyable enough, but never manages to become really good. A better chorus could've worked wonders.

An OK melodic lead gives way to a basic heavy riff. Blaze seems to be reveling in his completely uncontrolled singing -- his timbre is all over the place and he doesn't seem to care if he hits the notes or not. Terrible phrasing, too. The forgettable verse gives way to a marginally better pre-chorus and a lame but not completely worthless chorus. A decent bass interlude gives way to a pretty good first solo but a boring harmonized bit. More crummy vocals and a particularly cringey outro based around the title lyric. Bad overall, but not as terrible as the title track.

This is a song that might sound really cool if you were 12 years old and have never listened to anything heavier than Maroon 5.

Votes:

Spoiler

10 - 0
9 - 0
8 - 0
7 - 0
6 - 3
5 - 1
4 - 0
3 - 3
2 - 0
1 - 0

Overall:

Spoiler

103. The Black Country
104. The King Of Metal

Albums:
The King Of Metal 2/10

 

[Diesel 11]

102. Judge Me
Average Score: 4.71/10
The King Of Metal 3/10

Yep, another King Of Metal song. I told you it got absolutely savaged here, didn't I? "Judge Me" is basically Blaze ranting to God himself about how his life turned out and stuff like that, and while there's a good bit of emotion on display, it's not quite the best thing I've ever heard. Our voters obviously didn't give much of a fuck about it, though the opinions expressed in this thread aren't the most scathing ones ever. This one actually tied with #101 but since it received no 10's (or 9's or 8's, for that matter), it loses out.

Comments:

Blaze's second religious excursion, I think it's far and away better than the awful "The Path & The Way", which doesn't say much but this is still a good song. I think it's got a lot of the right ingredients within it. The ending is a bit repetitive but I've gotten used to it by now. The lyrics are rather interesting, and while not his best, don't hurt the song much.

This is actually pretty nice. The clean parts are good, the bass licks/harmonics are decent, and the solos are better than most on the album. The heavy parts are still a little messy [though].

A simple riff leads into an atmospheric verse where Blaze oversings it with poor control and missed notes left and right. It feels like he's trying to channel Geoff Tate and failing. This cuts awkwardly into an overly busy, heavy pre-chorus before returning to the softer bit for the sparse chorus. The fretless bass bit is interesting. A pretty good pair of solos breaks into a decent, mostly a capella bridge punctuated by guitar and drums. Back through the crummy pre-chorus a couple of times and we get a sucky heavier version of the chorus before closing on the softer version again.

The incredibly lame lyrics bring this one down a notch.

Votes:

Spoiler

10 - 0
9 - 0
8 - 0
7 - 2
6 - 1
5 - 0
4 - 2
3 - 1
2 - 1
1 - 0

Overall:

Spoiler

102. Judge Me
103. The Black Country
104. The King Of Metal

Albums:
The King Of Metal 3/10