Who got 'The X Factor'?

[Siddharth]

All the B-sides from The X Factor are good enough to have made it to the final cut. If given only one to choose from, I'd go with Justice Of The Peace. Just an awesome song! Judgement Day shares a striking similarity with Be Quick Or Be Dead in terms of vibe (even though the solos are just smoking hot!) a reason why it may not have found a place in the record. I Live My Way, their only song with a "woooo!" shout may feel out of place in arguably their darkest sounding album even though it has a nice intro and got an Escape (by Metallica) like feel in the chorus.

 

[MindRuler]

Judgement Day was the first Blaze Maiden song I heard on the radio and it´s indeed BQOBD II but it would´ve been a great way to open the album.

 

[srfc]

I don't think any of them are up to scratch and if they ended up on an album they would be giving the likes of Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger and Lightning Strikes Twice a run for their money in the worst ever Maiden songs list. Musically, JOTP and JD are ok but the lyrics are generic guff, and I Live My Way is just all round awful.

 

[Kalata]

Judgement Day is the strongest (especially the instrumental section) and a proper album song, but for a better variety (it's like Man On The Edge) - definitely the very nice Justice Of The Peace. And it's a Dave song. I Live My Way sounds like a B-side the most.

 

[FearOfTheLark]

I can see why they were B sides. Maiden aren't strong on their B side front in general in any era

 

[MindRuler]

I can see why they were B sides. Maiden aren't strong on their B side front in general in any era

Reach Out is an exception to that rule.

 

[FearOfTheLark]

Reach Out is an exception to that rule.

That is basically the only one though

 

[naranja]

Justice of the peace is awful because of the Steve Age of Innocence style lyrics

Judgement Day is great and should have been on the album and I'm convinced it's only not on there because there was already another song with Judgement in the title on the album.

 

[CA Bryers]

Justice of the peace is awful because of the Steve Age of Innocence style lyrics

Judgement Day is great and should have been on the album and I'm convinced it's only not on there because there was already another song with Judgement in the title on the album.

Yep, I mentioned on here years ago that Justice of the Peace is the thematic precursor to what became Age of Innocence. It's an okay song, but yeah, I could do without the "old man complaining about the state of things with his old mates at breakfast" vibe those songs give off.

 

[Ascendingthethrone]

Here’s how I sum up the left overs.

Judgement Day

• Great energy and riff
• Terrible chorus and the verse is a bit shit too.

Justice of the Peace

• A cool arrangement with a great post chorus
• Terrible lyrics

I Live My Way

• Great arrangement
• Terrible singing and chorus

I can see whey they were all leftover.

 

[Helmuth Von Moltke]

I think people are being a bit harsh, or I just have a childhood love for the three songs and I'm not being objective. Maybe they needed a bit more work but all three had the potential to rebalance the X factor's feeling of dirge.

Judgement Day - fantastic solos, real Gers energy to the track, a welcome 90s metal feel to it.

Justice of the Peace - great main guitar melody, lyrics much less grating that Age of Innocence, great ending.

I Live My Way - the one that needed a bit more work to feel complete, but welcome dynamics and shows Maiden can still write short songs with a slow intro.

I'd have taken all three on the album and dumped Aftermath and 2AM into the b-sides, making it a 12 track album with some bangers to break up the monotony.

 

[naranja]

Nah I live my way is hardly a song to me. That one cannot go on the album. The other two would be okay to go on it.. especially judgment day.

 

[CA Bryers]

I think people are being a bit harsh, or I just have a childhood love for the three songs and I'm not being objective. Maybe they needed a bit more work but all three had the potential to rebalance the X factor's feeling of dirge.

Judgement Day - fantastic solos, real Gers energy to the track, a welcome 90s metal feel to it.

Justice of the Peace - great main guitar melody, lyrics much less grating that Age of Innocence, great ending.

I Live My Way - the one that needed a bit more work to feel complete, but welcome dynamics and shows Maiden can still write short songs with a slow intro.

I'd have taken all three on the album and dumped Aftermath and 2AM into the b-sides, making it a 12 track album with some bangers to break up the monotony.

I've been listening to The X Factor as a 14-track album with those included for years now to help with the dirgey mood and sometimes sluggish pacing.

 

[el diablo]

I've been listening to The X Factor as a 14-track album with those included for years now to help with the dirgey mood and sometimes sluggish pacing.

Is there a cd version of the 14 track album that you describe? I don’t hate X Factor but the miserable mood has prevented me from fully embracing it. Based on your description above I’d love to check out this more balanced version

 

[CA Bryers]

Is there a cd version of the 14 track album that you describe? I don’t hate X Factor but the miserable mood has prevented me from fully embracing it. Based on your description above I’d love to check out this more balanced version

I just built the tracklist on my iPod, so no, there's no version that has those songs embedded into it. I based mine on one built by @Jeffmetal I believe, though I may reorganize it again in the near future. Currently, it runs like this:

1) Sign of the Cross
2) Lord of the Flies
3) Man on the Edge
4) Fortunes of War
5) Look for the Truth
6) The Aftermath
7) Judgment Day
8) Judgment of Heaven
9) Blood on the World's Hands
10) I Live My Way
11) The Edge of Darkness
12) Justice of the Peace
13) 2AM
14) The Unbeliever

I used to have a faster song earlier, but this version flows pretty well, even if the bonus songs are confined to the latter half of the album.

 

[Helmuth Von Moltke]

Nah I live my way is hardly a song to me. That one cannot go on the album. The other two would be okay to go on it.. especially judgment day.

It’s the weakest of the three, doesn’t help I used to listen to it with picture disc crackle in the sound as the Man on the Edge b side.

But Blazes voice is closest to his Wolfsbane days on I Live My Way, and his natural exuberance is sometimes missing on TXF

 

[Kalata]

I can see why they were B sides. Maiden aren't strong on their B side front in general in any era

Well, we don't have many bonus songs to the albums.

Judgement Day is great and should have been on the album and I'm convinced it's only not on there because there was already another song with Judgement in the title on the album.

What about Fear Of The Dark and Fear Is The Key.

I think people are being a bit harsh, or I just have a childhood love for the three songs and I'm not being objective. Maybe they needed a bit more work but all three had the potential to rebalance the X factor's feeling of dirge.
Judgement Day - fantastic solos, real Gers energy to the track, a welcome 90s metal feel to it.
Justice of the Peace - great main guitar melody, lyrics much less grating that Age of Innocence, great ending.
I Live My Way - the one that needed a bit more work to feel complete, but welcome dynamics and shows Maiden can still write short songs with a slow intro.

Agreed, the songs are good for what they are and have cool parts. Some parts are weaker, which is normal, especially for non-album songs. Short rocker with a slow intro is also Days Of Future Past. Judgement Day is indeed very 90s metal, it's so cool.

I'd have taken all three on the album and dumped Aftermath and 2AM into the b-sides, making it a 12 track album with some bangers to break up the monotony.

True about the pace, but that's also what carries the whole impactful mood of the album. From the songs I can only change Aftermath or Fortunes Of War for Judgement Day or Justice Of The Peace, but I'm not sure. Look For The Truth? But I don't want to lose the great melancholic intro. It's the same with Virus, just add it to VXI (without the intro) but don't change songs.

But Blazes voice is closest to his Wolfsbane days on I Live My Way, and his natural exuberance is sometimes missing on TXF

Well said. Missing? Um, probably not for me because of the album's themes.

 

[Jeffmetal]

I just built the tracklist on my iPod, so no, there's no version that has those songs embedded into it. I based mine on one built by @Jeffmetal I believe, though I may reorganize it again in the near future. Currently, it runs like this:

1) Sign of the Cross
2) Lord of the Flies
3) Man on the Edge
4) Fortunes of War
5) Look for the Truth
6) The Aftermath
7) Judgment Day
8) Judgment of Heaven
9) Blood on the World's Hands
10) I Live My Way
11) The Edge of Darkness
12) Justice of the Peace
13) 2AM
14) The Unbeliever

I used to have a faster song earlier, but this version flows pretty well, even if the bonus songs are confined to the latter half of the album.

Hi, mate. That's exactly the tracklist I created for The X Factor, and I Iistened to it, this past weekend and it really flows perfectly. The last Maiden masterpiece. Lyrics are another strong point, specially on The Edge Of Darkness, in which it makes the movie even darker and brilliant.

 

[Siddharth]

After a few more re-listens, I feel like calling out Judgement Day simply as 'Be Quick Or Be Dead 2.0' is pretty unfair. I get it, both have a similar vibe and are co-written by Janick but still the main riff in Judgement Day is ALOT different from BQOBD and I must say again, it's solo section is among the band's finest ever! Only had the chorus been a bit decent though...

 

[CA Bryers]

Hi, mate. That's exactly the tracklist I created for The X Factor, and I Iistened to it, this past weekend and it really flows perfectly. The last Maiden masterpiece. Lyrics are another strong point, specially on The Edge Of Darkness, in which it makes the movie even darker and brilliant.

Thanks again for putting together a tracklist that works and flows well! It's the only way I listen to it nowadays.