The X Factor: individual album judgement by yours truly

I’m doing what Foro has been egging me on to do for ages now, I’m rating these songs in the context of music as a whole. And, as Knick has said, Maiden has a lot of great, great songs worth giving a 10 to. I’ve always been upfront about how much I love TXF, so I don’t see how this should be a surprise to literally anyone.
 
I suppose I just like Maiden a lot more than most people? I’m not shy about giving out a shitload of 10s and I think that Powerslave and TXF are absolutely perfect albums. BNW might be too, but I’ll see tonight.
 
I believe I like Maiden more than most people here too. I've rated (only) 134 songs 10/10 and 32 of them are Maiden songs.
 
My ratings:

Sign Of The Cross: 10
Lord Of The Flies: 8,5
Man On The Edge: 8
Fortunes Of War: 9
Look For The Truth: 8,5
The Aftermath: 8
Judgement Of Heaven: 9
Blood On The World's Hands: 10
The Edge Of Darkness: 7
2 A.M.: 7,5
The Unbeliever: 7

Overall: 8,4
 
Gave the new remaster a listen. Unlike FOTD, my views on this album have changed a lot from my original impression in 1995. There's still problems with the album, wimpy guitars and low key drumming/awkward grooves in some parts, but it was an enjoyable listen and one of Maiden's most cohesive albums in terms of maintaining a certain vibe across the whole album.

I'd break down the tracks like this:
10/10: Sign of the Cross, Man on the Edge
9: Blood on the Worlds Hands, Edge of Darkness, The Unbeliever
8: Lord of the Flies, Fortunes of War, Look for the Truth, The Aftermath, Judgement of Heaven, 2 Am

A lot of the tracks could have got a higher rating if it wasn't for fatal flaws, eg. terrible opening lyric in 2 Am, The Unbeliever could have got ten out of ten if it wasn't for the awkward groove in the verse and the tuning up riff in the intro/outro.
 
My ratings:

Sign Of The Cross: 9
Lord Of The Flies: 8
Man On The Edge: 8
Fortunes Of War: 7.5
Look For The Truth: 5
The Aftermath: 7
Judgement Of Heaven: 6
Blood On The World's Hands: 5.5
The Edge Of Darkness: 7.5
2 A.M.: 5
The Unbeliever: 5.5

Overall: 6.7

Miles better than Virtual XI, somewhat better than No Prayer for the Dying, on par with Fear of the Dark (although the 1992 album has higher highs), and definitely worse than anything else Maiden have released.
 
GhostofCain said:
Fortunes Of War: 7.5
Blood On The World's Hands: 5.5
2 A.M.: 5
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These ratings are interesting to me, because we seem to have gone in completely different directions on these, when it seems like we more often tend to agree. So, what did you like about “Fortunes Of War” (a bottom 10 Maiden song for me, maybe bottom 5), and what did you dislike about “Blood...” and “2 A.M.”?
 
Jer said:
These ratings are interesting to me, because we seem to have gone in completely different directions on these, when it seems like we more often tend to agree. So, what did you like about “Fortunes Of War” (a bottom 10 Maiden song for me, maybe bottom 5), and what did you dislike about “Blood...” and “2 A.M.”?
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Apart from the repetitive chorus, I quite like Fortunes of War. The intro works really well to set the mood and then the song gets heavier 2 minutes into the track. When I saw them live back in 1996 it was one of the songs that worked better live.

I never liked Blood On The World's Hands that much. I found the intro pointless, Blaze's shouty vocals sound out of place and the chorus is pretty weak. In my humble opinion, this one did not work that well live when I saw them in 1996.

I find 2 A.M. too bland. Not a bad song per se (it gets a pass), but not that exciting as far as I am concerned.
 
I think there's the jist of a very good track there in Fortunes of War, but it suffers more than most with the slow tempo/lifeless drumming sucking all life out of the song. When the tempo picks up in the mid section it only serves to highlight how heart breaking the lethargic feel in the rest of the song is.
 
Though I find the song a little too repetitive at the end (but in much more acceptable proportions than "DLTTEOAS", "No More Lies", "For the Greater..." or "TAATG"), I find Blaze's delivery particularly relevant and Dave's solo is a demonstration of fluidity.
 
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Kalata said:
''The X Factor'' Documentary.

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Watching this documentary again..... they reviewed only 8 songs from TXF album. I know that in a documentary for a album you can't go through all songs (like it was the case with Death On The Road documentary.....*the one for AMOLAD was for every song!), but it's interesting to see how the album looks like only with these 8 songs reviewed from the video:

1.Sign Of The Cross
2.Man On The Edge
3.Look For The Truth
4.Judgement Of Heaven
5.The Edge Of Darkness
6.The Aftermath
7.Blood On The World's Hands
8.2 A.M.

Not bad. MOTE could have been the opener too (SOTC at #2), but Lord Of The Flies is not there and that's a down. Fortunes Of War and The Unbeliever are two of the weakest songs from the album IMO. It's not a surprise that with these 8 songs the album is still great, because as a whole is a great album too./ This documentary was filmed during the release party for the album in 1995, right ?
 
Collin said:
Ouch.
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IMO !
KidInTheDark666 said:
Fortunes of War is definitely a top 3 song, probably top 2.
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The instrumental in it it's quite good. Solos are good. The ''oh-oh'' part is awesome. But the intro of the song is dragged for 3:25 minutes. I also don't like BOTWH that much.... LFTT also, but all of the songs are well balanced and that's why the album is great. :)
 
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