IRON MAIDEN REFERENDUM 2020: Results -> Hallowed Be Thy Name wins for the 5th time!

Are you satisfied with the results?

  • Total voters
    18
FTGGOG
Lord of Light
The Wicker Man
Brave New World
Futureal
and sadly, Como Estais Amigos as a tactical vote to try and save Fool :(

I don't know what I'll do if Breeg doesn't make it.
 
It'll be interesting to see if any more AMOLAD or BNW songs drop off as we go through the 1990s.
 
Futureal and Como Estais Amigos. I considered Educated Fool and even The Legacy, but that didn't seem quite right.
 
Voted for For The Greater Good Of God, The Legacy, The Wicker Man, Blood Brothers and The Educated Fool.
 
While there are good points, in both defending and attacking Virtual XI, in my case, it all comes down to this: Blaze.

Now, now... I don't want to provoke "you Blaze basher!" brigade. I honestly don't think he's a bad singer, I don't think he did a bad job, I don't think he butchered the songs, but... Bruce could've probably done it better (and by that, I mean reunion Bruce, not 90's Bruce). Prime example of this is when I've heard live version of Lord of the Flies from Death on the Road. I liked album version until I heard Bruce's take from DOTR and since then, album version is so... lifeless (pun not intended).

Exclusion from that on Virtual XI is The Clansman which IMHO Blaze nailed. If he had same approach for all the other ones, maybe I'd look more fondly on them. The only reason why I like some songs now is nostalgic. Some of those brings fond memories but now listening to Lightning Strikes Twice I notice the bland straight-line repetition in the chorus, the lack of "drama" in When Two Worlds Collide, peak that is missing in Como Estais Amigos and so on...

The repetition, the production issues, predictable strong structures and so on happened again and again and again on the albums following and preceding Virtual XI, in some cases even worse but overall looking, I don't see people, fans and critics address them as much as they do on these two Blaze ones.
 
I think the production hampered Blaze's voice. Very few people are going to prefer Blaze to Bruce, (although you can make an argument for Blaze at the peak of his powers being better than Bruce in 1992, with that whiny rasp he was effecting) and that's fair. But sometimes I think the muddiness of the two Blaze albums robbed him of his chance to show that he does have significant power and gravitas within his voice. His solo work has been not entirely consistent, but when he's on, he's really, really fuckin' good. Maybe Steve's studio directions didn't help, I wouldn't know.
 
I think Bruce would’ve sounded a lot better on most of the Virtual XI material and his presence would’ve also improved it (especially if he pushed for a producer like he did on BNW). The one exception is Futureal, which is just a bad vocal melody.

I don’t think Bruce would’ve necessarily been a better choice X factor though
 
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Eliminated after Round 11:
The Educated Fool - 25 votes
Out Of The Silent Planet - 13 votes

Eliminated after Round 11:
Futureal
The Clansman
Como Estais Amigos

The X Factor joins the game!
 
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