What type of Blaze-era Iron Maiden fan were you?

What type of Blaze-era Iron Maiden fan were you?

  • Listened when new, liked Blaze era based on merit

    Votes: 34 26.0%

  • Listened when new, disliked Blaze era based on merit

    Votes: 19 14.5%

  • Listened when new, liked Blaze era based on loyalty to Iron Maiden

    Votes: 9 6.9%

  • Listened when new, disliked Blaze era based on loyalty to Bruce

    Votes: 1 0.8%

  • Discovered later, liked Blaze era

    Votes: 52 39.7%

  • Discovered later, disliked Blaze era

    Votes: 16 12.2%
  • Total voters
    131
Yes I meant financially of course
I'm grateful he left and made those wonderful albums :wub:
 
Maturin said:
Which brings me to my main point - incompetence. The whole idea of hiring Blaze as a singer with the intention of continuing to play the same songs live just reeks of incompetence. A competent band leadership would have reinvented the band around The X Factor and never played the old stuff. That could have worked. Probably would have cut off 95% of their fanbase and not have gotten any new ones in to replace them at that time, but still. What they did instead... It was never going to work. I don't understand how anyone in the band could go up on stage and play along with the nuclear meltdown that was Blaze singing "The Trooper" or "Hallowed By Thy Name". Let alone Blaze himself.
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IMO, Blaze should never have been hired to begin with. Surely he sang for an audition. It puzzles me to think what Steve/Rod heard or saw to say - "This is the guy"....
 
Iron Lurker said:
IMO, Blaze should never have been hired to begin with. Surely he sang for an audition. It puzzles me to think what Steve/Rod heard or saw to say - "This is the guy"....
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Blaze spent an entire tour opening for Iron Maiden, so I suspect they had tons of exposure to his voice. Maybe they saw something there that you (and a lot of people) didn't and don't. They gave it a shot, it didn't work out, and you got Bruce back, whereas otherwise the band either implodes or is still meandering around with a Bruce clone.
 
Iron Lurker said:
It puzzles me to think what Steve/Rod heard or saw to say - "This is the guy"....
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As for me, my father listened to Maiden a lot and thanks to him when I first heard Fear of the Dark (the album) on my own, I realised how much of it I already knew - might be one of the reasons I care for FOTD much more than your average fan - but after being hooked on Rock in Rio, then somewhow acknowledging DOD was out, I didn't really became a fan until some time before AMOLAD. I was discovering Maiden in bulk, because that's mostly what I do... on the other hand, because I was really not in the know at the time, I based my listening choices on an old Czech metal review site where you could find the whole discography up to that point commented by a prominent member of the staff. Revisiting it some time later, it was absolutely terribly written (especially language-wise) and obviously pretty biased (eg: he thought the middle of Powerslave was almost completely skippable and only the first two and the last two songs were worth saving at all), but some of the stuff he wrote there still rings true even now (like NPFtD being a very bland, unmemorable album or that SIT is undeniably melodic and one of the 80's albums with most personality) and as far as Blaze goes, he actually offered the following insight:

- Sure, Blaze was definitely not an "obvious choice", but - surprise, surprise - it was the same with Bruce! Let alone the quality of his work with Samson - it's kinda hard to tell in hindsight, well, it might be kinda hard to even imagine the situation, but exchanging Di'Anno for Bruce must have been much bigger a shock than exchanging Bruce for Blaze could ever be, especially because - despite their obvious differences - the latter two have much more in common than the former two.

- Blaze had a really big shoes to fill and the band didn't exactly help him (downtuning)

- TXF, because of the turmoil 'Arry was going through at the time, was actually an album that managed to use Blaze's voice and approach well... and it has tons of personality and atmosphere and just might be one of the most unique albums in Maiden discography. Also, it's a very 'Arry album. VXI was an attempt to do a more "Maiden-like" record and it failed spectacularly. Apart from Amigos, which is really different and really great.

Funnily enough, I still somewhat hold those ideas. It made me go listen to TXF, at least. I did fall asleep during the first listen (about BOTWH) and it did strike me as a bit monotonous, but very soon I loved it all. It's still among my top Maiden albums, though be warned that my #1 is actually AMOLAD, which might explain a lot.

In general, I like Blaze on TXF, I like his solo career and I can enjoy VXI just fine, despite being able to admit its glaring mistakes.
 
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Black Bart said:
And yet... would Steve have written "Sign of the Cross" with someone else's voice in mind?
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Who knows? Though it took me a while to warm up to it, SOTC is a great song. But when I first heard it and I heard Blaze hit that chorus for the first time my heart sank cause it sounded so bad to me.
 
Well I’m a “listened when new, liked on merit” guy :)

I started my love affair with maiden in 1991 after hearing seventh son which was the greatest thing my 14 year old self had ever heard. It’s still my favourite maiden album now despite being listened too so much I would expect to have been a bit burnt out on it by now lol.

No prayer for the dying was the latest album out so Fear of the dark was my first brand new album experience.

I never really had long with Bruce before he left and blaze stepped in. Based on my age I never got to see Bruce live with maiden the first time round. Closest I got was when radio one broadcast the whole donnington 92 monsters of rock and I sat in my bedroom all day with a bunch of cassettes and recorded the whole day and every band ha ha.

By the time x-factor was released my musical tastes had grown a lot and was listening to a lot of death metal around the time. I remember buying the X factor and loved it immediately. The dark atmosphere and longer song structures I thought were brilliant plus I liked Blazes deeper voice and it was a lot easier to sing along too than Bruce’s impossible to hit range lol.

I saw maiden live on the X factor so my first live experience was blaze. Thought he did a stellar job and sounded brilliant, even on the Bruce material. It was a great gig helped by the fact that one of my other fave bands was supporting, my dying bride.

Fortunately for me I’ve managed to see at least one live show on every tour the band has done since my first gig in 1995. Saw blaze twice and both times I really liked him.

Overall I will say that Bruce is a legend and obviously the definitive voice of maiden but if he had never come back I was more than happy to have blaze at the helm for the rest of the bands future.
 
I think he might be in for a long wait if he is expecting the call...

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/blaze-bayley-id-love-to-get-back-onstage-with-iron-maiden/

BLAZE BAYLEY: 'I'd Love To Get Back Onstage With IRON MAIDEN'

"I'd love to get back onstage with [IRON] MAIDEN," says ex-vocalist Blaze Bayley in the latest issue of Rock Candy magazine.

With the 25th anniversary of his joining IRON MAIDEN coming up next year, Bayley would jump at the chance of reuniting with his former colleagues for some special guest appearances.

"I'm always ready if the call comes," says the frontman, who recorded two studio albums with the metal legends, 1995's "The X Factor" and 1998's "Virtual XI". "There's always been a good relationship between me and the band, so that's no problem. And I know there are quite a few fans who'd be happy to see it happen. These days there are so many anniversary tours going on, so maybe there's a chance something will be put together in the future."

In an exclusive interview with Rock Candy editor at large Malcolm Dome, Bayley opens up on his five-year stint in MAIDEN, saying that the recordings he made with the band are far more appreciated now than they were at the time.

"My period in MAIDEN is regarded a lot more affectionately now," he says. "This is partly because the albums I made with the band have been reassessed, and people who loathed them back in the day now admit that they're actually good."

What's more, Bayley believes he deserves credit for the more progressive sound of the current MAIDEN lineup, which, of course, now features vocalist Bruce Dickinson back in the fold.

"These days MAIDEN have gone in a much more progressive direction, and for me this all started with 'The X Factor'," says Bayley. "The dark lyricism we've seen began then as well. So there's a close link between my period in the band and what's happening now."

Bayley is, nonetheless, searingly honest about the difficulties he faced convincing some MAIDEN diehards that he was the right man for the job back in the '90s. "For certain people, I would never be the right man to sing in MAIDEN," he admits. "But for other diehards, Bruce Dickinson was never the right person to front the band either after Paul Di'Anno. The majority are very positive about my time in the band, though."
 
Well... I also don’t think that’s likely, but ex-members on stage during anniversary shows always felt good to me - showing there’s no bad blood etc. Definitely worked for both Tullica and Dream Theater.

And it wouldn’t be that new even for Maiden - H did guest-starred on one song in Donnington and that was already after he left.

Also, he’s not really wrong here:

GhostofCain said:
"These days MAIDEN have gone in a much more progressive direction, and for me this all started with 'The X Factor'," says Bayley. "The dark lyricism we've seen began then as well. So there's a close link between my period in the band and what's happening now."
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I would argue that the prog influences have been there since Remember Tomorrow. ;)

Sure, they did went much proggier on SSOASS and subsequently from TXF onwards, but to say that "this all started with TXF" shows (to me) that Blaze lives in a parallel reality.
 
For me Blaze is half right when he said: "My period in MAIDEN is regarded a lot more affectionately now," he says. "This is partly because the albums I made with the band have been reassessed, and people who loathed them back in the day now admit that they're actually good."

I grew to like XF (because it's Maiden), but still don't listen to VXI (aside from Futureal and Clansman).

To be completely honest, if XF and VXI were my first and only exposure to Maiden, I would not be a fan. Look, I really don't want to bash the guy. He seems like a good guy and is great to his fans. I just never cared for his voice/style and he just wasn't right for Maiden.
 
Mosh said:
TXF was definitely the beginning of “modern” Maiden. Not just the progressive elements, but the raw and heavier sound.
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I beg to differ. I think it does not get any rawer than the debut album! In terms of heavier sound, Powerslave is the epitome of that in Maiden to me.
 
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