Like
@Forostar, I became a huge fan in 1991 (you are not alone
). One classmate lent me a tape with
No Prayer for the Dying and I quite liked what I heard, so I bought the album. It did not blow my head, as that came shortly afterwards when I got
The Number of the Beast and
Live After Death. That is when I really became a fan. I got
Fear of the Dark for my birthday shortly after it was released in 1992 and liked it (OK, I now consider it to be quite patchy, but Be Quick or Be Dead, Afraid to Shoot Strangers, and Fear of the Dark are amazing songs).
I was shocked when Bruce decided to leave the band in 1993 (I did not understand it at the time, but did later when in my early 30s I left a successful research group to start my own), but also curious about what could come next. I was not familiar with Wolfsbane, so the first thing I did when they announced Blaze Bayley as Bruce's replacement was buying some of their stuff. I remember scratching my head thinking that the voice sounded quite different, but kind of trusted Maiden were doing the right thing. I still have that Kathy Wilson EP I bought in early 1994 (the rest of the Wolfsbane I bought ended being sold on ebay).
When I first heard
The X Factor I found it different. I could hear some of the things I loved about the band, but found the vocal delivery pretty monotonous. There were some really good songs (Sign of the Cross and Fortunes of War), some nice ones (Lord of the Flies and Man on the Edge in particular), but some others I did not like that much. I hated the artwork but liked the dark atmosphere, although the album felt half-baked to me (I think they did a much better job at conjuring the dark aspects of life and death on AMOLAD). The production is pretty weak, but it hardly came as a surprise after the botched job Steve did on
A Real Live One and
A Real Dead One.
I bought into the whole idea of "us against them" promoted by Iron Maiden management and supported the band with loyalty, defending them. With hindsight the thought of Rod presenting a millionaire wanting to punch a journalist because he had given the album a bad review as something to be proud of is pretty pathetic, but at the time I thought differently.
I saw Maiden live for the first time in 1996 with 4000 metalheads in a field. I have fond memories of that gig and remember having a great time (having had a coach accident on the way to the gig and it being my first Maiden show probably made me appreciate it even more). Blaze's performance of the old classics was adequate and the new material sounded good live. The stage set was pretty basic (I remember thinking that it made the one they used during the
No Prayer on the Road - of which I had seen many pictures by then - look lavish in comparison!), but I had a great time. It was clearly different to the live videos I had seen of them, but I could not identify exactly what the issues were with all the excitement of the gig. I started collecting bootlegs and realised that the guitar work was less precise than in the 80s and that Blaze could not do justice to most of the old songs they were playing live.
By the time Maiden announced they were going to release a new album in 1998, I had seen Bruce Dickinson live (in 1997, with Adrian Smith live with Roy Z, Eddie Casillas, and Dave Ingraham on the Accident of Birth tour). I had followed him since 1994 and thoroughly enjoyed his solo albums, but seeing him live with Adrian made the penny drop. Wouldn't it be great if they could both be in Maiden again? Nah, I felt that was never going to happen, as Maiden had a new album in the can.
I can clearly remember the disappointment with
Virtual XI. I had watched the video for The Angel and the Gambler and felt the song was somewhat weak, but hoped the album would be much better. I went to the record shop to buy the album on the day of release and they had it on. Boy, was I wrong! I did not like it at all with the exception of The Clansman and Futureal, to the point that I went back home without having bought the album. I rectified this the following day and I tried hard to get into the music without success, although there were good bits in some of the other songs. Weak songwriting, terrible production... Blaze's vocals did not contribute to improve things, but he was hardly the main culprit.
The live show I saw on the
Virtual XI tour was OK (it was Maiden and even when they have an off night they are better than most), but left feeling that it might be my last exposure to Maiden (by then I had enough bootlegs to know that things were not likely to get much better). Blaze was completely out of his depth, air drumming and all, making hapless attempts at singing the old songs. The fact the band were playing too fast and did not make any adjustments to fit his vocal range did not help him an iota though, so I kind of felt sorry for him.
So, I have voted for
Listened when new, disliked Blaze era based on merit. In reality I did not dislike The X Factor, but as I think Virtual XI is so bad and by the time the subsequent tour was done I was ready to move on, I guess that is the option that reflects my thought in the most appropriate way.
I was elated when it was announced that both Bruce and Adrian were coming back to the band and that Janick was staying. I was not the biggest fan of his solo work but think he is a better songwriting than Dave and he has co-written some great songs since 2000.
Thanks to this topic I have gone back to
The X Factor and
Virtual XI. The former is good, albeit patchy. I would rank it #14, above
No Prayer for the Dying but right after
Fear of the Dark. The high points in
Fear of the Dark are, to me, higher than those off
The X Factor (nothing is as cringeworthy as Weekend Warrior on
The X Factor though). On the other hand,
Virtual XI is even worse than I remembered. Their worst album BY FAR.
