I tend to disagree. Blaze is great at writing lyrics, but he's no songwriter. He's not playing any instrument and all the music we've heard from BLAZE so far was mainly written by John and Steve.
Anyway, the new line-up kicks ass! I had the chance to see them in Balve and although they weren't as tight as the old line-up (yet, which is excusable knowing they only had 4 gigs and 2 rehearsals behind them at that time [!--emo&
--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/wink.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'wink.gif\' /][!--endemo--]), they rocked hard and you could see they had fun being onstage. I also met the guys after the show and they've all been great. So you shouldn't worry Maniac, Blaze will still be around, although I'm sure that the music will change somehow, basically because the main SONGWRITERS are gone now.
btw, which Blaze show did you see in Holland earlier this year? was it Weert? If so, I've been there, too. It was a great show, but the one the day before in Bochum had a better crowd. And yeah, I also missed John, but Olli did a great job and he is still doing it well (if not even better, he's a really talented musician)!