Metal Reviews

the mercenary also have a pretty repetetive chorus....this one is a little bit long though...but i still like it...

I'm sure it was intentional, which increases the lameness factor of it by about 12. My problem with Virtual XI is that out of 8 songs, I only regularly listen to 4 songs, Futureal, The Clansman, Lightinig Strikes Twice, and Eyes of a Stranger. That's not a very good average. The songwriting just isn't up to scratch. And Nomad fucking rules, that Middle Easternish riff is cool.

You don't like Como Esta Amigos?

My personal appraisal is that anything after "7th Son" up until DOD was kind of hit and miss. What I mean by that is NPFTD, FOTD, VXI, TXF, and BNW were not very strong albums on a whole. They all had a great song, then a few good ones, and the rest were what I would call uninspired. IMO they didn't release a fully strong CD until DOD. I know many people are not DOD fans but I thought it was a really great CD for Iron Maiden from start to finish.

I have my own issues with AMOLAD but that's a really good CD too depending on what era of Iron Maiden you really enjoy.

Just my thoughts.

Dance of Death is definately a good album, might even be my favorite by them next to Somewhere In Time.

The reviewer obviously likes the album, which is fine, but let's not assume most haters do so just because of Bruce's replacement. Nearly everyone I talk to has mentioned the same main problem I do with it - the production. I also think that Blaze is a good singer who fits in with certain styles of music, some of which appear on this darker album. Every time they even remotely approach classic IM musically though, his style and range just don't cut it. I also despise the artwork. I understand why Bruce left, and I'm also glad we got "Accident at Birth" out of it.

Anyway, I think fans need to be given a bit more credit. Yes, there are some who would never accept anyone other than Bruce fronting Maiden, but there are others like myself who still gave it a chance and wanted to enjoy these albums no matter who was singing. I have plenty of other reasons not to like it even though it still has a couple of songs I admit I enjoy.

Yeah I can't stand the production on the album eithier. You have to turn it up really, really loud to get any sort of crunch from the guitars, and of course you have Steve Harris overpowering everything else. I think I like it so much since it's NOT classic Maiden though, it's completely different than anything else they've ever done. They knew Blaze wasn't going to be able to belt out stuff like their previous efforts, so they wrote a darker, more subdued album that fit his vocal style perfectly. I think that's why this album works so well, and Virtual XI falls flat on it's face. They tried to force Blaze into singing classic maiden sounding stuff and it just didn't work. They stepped out of the box on the X Factor, and I applaud them for doing so. There's nothing wrong with a band experimenting, as long as they know what frame works for them.

I personally liked Blaze's vocals much more when he sang with Wolfsbane. He sounded alot like David Lee Roth at times and sang with alot of power and passion on an album like "Live Fast, Die Fast". I liked it when Maiden decided to let Bruce sing some of the Blaze era stuff when they did the "Rock In Rio" album. He gave those songs alot more life.

No doubt! I love "The Clansman" and "The Sign of the Cross" with Bruce. I really enjoyed Bruce's work on "Wrathchild" as well, both live and off of Ed Hunter.

Since I am slightly disappointed with The King Of Metal, newest Blaze Bayley album i decided to relisten some of his older stuff.
Regarding the X Factor I've gone from hating it twelve years ago to liking some of the song but finding it boring overall to realizing that it is a solid album with three or four weaker songs couple of years ago. After carefully listening to it for a week now I can honestly say I definitely love this record. So dark and with strong lyrics it makes a whole new experience listening to Iron Maiden with headphones on while reading the booklet. Sign Of The Cross, Lord Of The Flies and The Edge Of Darkness are amazing, the rest is very good, 2 AM is a bit dull which makes it the only filler here.
Be amazed, be very amazed.. Just shame about the new Blaze record.

Blaze's best album was his first - "Silicon Messiah"

I don't know, Silicon Messiah, The Man That Would Not Die and Promise And Terror are all equally amazing, slightly stronger than Tenth Dimension and Blood And Belief. The only slip is the newest album, but alright on it's own.

Sounds like its time to give X Factor another listen. I know I love Lord of the Flies, but don't recall much else.