Deconstructing Eddie: My Iron Maiden Songs & Albums Countdown - Album #13
Album #13 - Virtual XI
One good thing about Iron Maiden during the Blaze era is that they knew how to play to the strengths of their lineup, which was most evident in terms of the frontman they had at that time. Bruce was certainly the most skilled and talented vocalist the band ever had, but he didn't always perform like it. Blaze on the other hand, used his gurgling baritone extensively during his short stint to color songs with a gritty dark hue and complement the bleak, gloomy mood of that period. In doing so, he ended up helping the band reinvent its sound during that awkward phase in the 90's instead of trying to force himself into a style and image that Bruce had already established. Even though it was still not so graciously received by a lot of people, I believe things would have even been worse if he tried to be “the replacement for Bruce” instead of “the new vocalist.”
With respect to this new sound,
The X Factor certainly had much more of it and featured it better than this record. However, the bigger shortcoming of
Virtual XI is how much it feels like a bunch of half-baked ideas that were painstakingly stretched out to their limits. And considering that this is a follow-up to what felt like an overabundance of ideas that were crammed into a single album, it just makes the flaws all the more pronounced.
If not for the short, quick and energetic album opener, the remaining songs on VXI actually end up averaging over seven minutes each: An average that's par for the course when it comes to post-rock and prog-rock bands, but not for a heavy metal band like Iron Maiden at that time. None of the reunion-era albums have averaged past seven minutes either – and those are the longest, most progressive albums that band has ever released, which is pretty much what I'm pertaining to when I talk about lengthy albums that are “filled with ideas.”
Ultimately though, for all of its weaknesses, it's a grossly underrated album. Many people consider it to be the band's worst album by a mile, but it actually has a little bit of everything that could have made it a good album: There are good melodies and clever use of dynamics with the calm moments and adrenaline-pumpers. It also features catchy riffs, enjoyable solos, the trademark gallops, and not even the people who hate it could deny that peaks that the album reaches rank among the highest highs that the band has reached in the studio. So really, the only thing it lacks is actual content. Without any excessive stretching and repetition, this album could have clocked in at a modestly lush and meaty 40 minutes. Instead, it's filled with a lot of sections that extend longer than they should have as well as loads and loads of repetitiveness.