Virtual XI appreciation

Blaze era is reason why i DON'T like BNW. I love sound of X factor and Virtual XI but lyrics are just great. But after that there was BNW and this album for me sounds like band tryign to get again their 80's sound.
 
Overall, I far prefer VXI to TXF, which I find to bloated and endlessly repetitive, despite some cool songs.

VXI has fewer songs, and the worst Maiden song of all time, but Futureal, Clansman, and Como Estais are all fantastic, whereas Lightning, Two Worlds, and Don't Look are all decent, if slightly flawed tracks.

Angel and the Gambler is still terrible, though, and Educated Fool isn't much better.
 
I like Virtual XI a lot. I'd pick it over Di'Anno albums at any time. I like The X Factor more, however. VXI has an awful lot of wonderful, inspired melodies, but the atmosphere is nowhere as strong and unique as on TXF. And besides, the whole football thing was kind of... lame :P I don't know, I don't like how they associated it with the album, it was kind of random.

The Clansman, Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger and Como Estais Amigos are the highlights. Lightning Strikes Twice and When Two Worlds Collide are actually very strong too. As I mentioned before - the guys were on fire writing melodies. The Angel and the Gambler is the worst because of all the repetition... Wow, it's beyond me that they decided to stretch it that much.
 
Srogyy said:
The Angel and the Gambler is the worst because of all the repetition... Wow, it's beyond me that they decided to stretch it that much.
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Yep. I cant sit and listen to it all the way through these days.

A shame, Futureal is one cracking opening song. A real belter.
 
Horrible Album. Clansman is the only song that can be considered great. The only appreciation i have for it is that its not longer than 8 songs.
 
The 1st four tracks are pretty good, Futureal is a good rocking opener, The Angel and the Gambler is IM's most progressive song in the sense that no song before or after sounds like it but it's about 6 minutes too long, Lightning Strikes Twice is Mediocre but the drumming and vocal lines make it more bearable and The Clansman is an obvious classic. The rest are pretty terrible songs and not very memorable
 
I prefer X Factor, but Virtual XI is still a great album. The Clansman is absolutely brilliant. Futureal and Lightning Strikes Twice are great, as would TAATG without its obvious flaws. The album as a whole is a decent album. Its towards the bottom of my list, but nothing for Maiden to be ashamed of.
 
Really like this album...
Quite a few great songs on it.
The Clansman and Futeral are 10/10 songs with nearly all of the rest being 8 or 9 rated songs.
I even like TAATG.
9/10 album overall.
 
Back in the day I thought the guitar work was pretty good. Still think so but almost everything else sucks!
 
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One of my least favorite Maiden albums, but still it is a great album and have many good songs, melodies and parts all over it.

I really like The clansman, When two worlds collide and Como estais amigos, and the verses in The educated fool. Futureal is also a very good opening song.

It's a shame the production is horrible, and Nicko sounds like he is having a bad time recording the album. VXI could actually become a much better album if it was re-recorded one day with the current lineup, but I rather would have new albums and tours instead of course:)
 
When Two Worlds Collide is great, the chorus is melodically pleasing. Lightning Strikes Twice sounds warm and melancholic before kicking into higher gears. Great overlooked song. I don't particularly like Clansman because the 'freedooooom' part sounds grating to my ears and is repeated too much to my liking for this song. The intro and the quiet melodic parts inbetween are the best bits of the song for me.

Como Estais Amigos is emotional and conjures strong emotions on the last lines of the verses before going into the chorus. The delivery and the words are powerful.
Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger is very catchy as well. This song, WTWC and LST are the ones I listen to the most from this album.
And I never got people's obsession with their dislike for The Angel and the Gambler. It's a good song.
 
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I know Maiden are sorta semi famous for being unfashionable and not caring about trends and whatever in the eyes of fans. But Virtual XI is probably the most dated and unfashionable album they've ever done. Between all the darker and more progressive metal that was out in the later half of the 90s metal scene - this album just screams "out of touch". Doesn't help that they build the themes around Virtual Reality and the 1998 World Cup in Football.....outdated half a year after the album was out and just very childish themes overall.

Some of the songs are OK but the performances are less than stellar. Particularly Nicko just cashes in his paycheck on this album - He just went in to get it done it sounds like. Not a single memorable fill (in fact many of the songs doesn't even have fills) or patterns on the entire album.

Some change had to be done. Good thing that Adrian and Bruce was brought back in after this one.
 
There is a guy on this forum who rates the x factor as maidens best album, can't remember who it is though ...
 
Do you guys know why on earth does Nicko play drums in a such a simplistic way on the album?
 
I don't think anyone knows so it's all guess work. I mean, the drumming on the album is not bad it's just very basic and to the point. Perhaps for whatever reason he was not as involved in the recording process of this album and just didn't feel it that much and didn't put as much into it - or perhaps the simplistic no frills approach was a conscious decision. Perhaps he thought the songs didn't need more.
 
I think it definitely was a conscious decision. If Steve thought "Man, Nicko plays like he's utterly bored. No fills, no variation and lack of expression" then you'd be damned Nicko would be the first to know and would be told to up his game.
 
I read somewhere that (in his words) he wanted to "give more space to the others", which is just... bullshit
The more restrained drumming style could work on X factor (it's just that kind of album), but VXI would have greatly benefited from some signature Nicko flamboyance.

If he had played TAATG like one would normally expect of him, no one would even have noticed the "22 chorus repeats", they would just melt in the background
 
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