Sign Of the Cross I haven't heard this since 1996, probably. It didn't get any better for me after taking a 22-year break from it. I remember the first time I heard the vocals - one of the biggest bands in the world, and they get this guy? His voice is very pedestrian to me - not interesting or impressive. It just doesn't work for me. Now, beyond the vocals: I feel like I've heard this before. Other than the opening chants, this feels like Iron Maiden by numbers - slow intro that builds, marching drums, galloping guitars, Celtic melodies, build to the solos, long drawn out ending. And early on I felt like it was Hallowed Be They Name lite. I just don't get it. 3.0 out of 10.
Actually Rainbow had split up more than ten years before and this was a new start with a new line-up, though it turned out short-lived (again).
Headbangers Ball was the best! So good in fact, that I quite going out Saturday nites to party, choosing to stay home instead to watch HBB. Considering my priorities at the time, that is really saying something. I of course had some of mother earths good bounty to keep me company...
Dungeons and Dragons on Friday and Headbangers Ball on Saturdays. I completely missed the 1990's bar and club scene, not sure that I missed much, haha
The X Factor general thoughts I am very interested to see how my feelings are on these songs and even more so for VXI when we get there in what will feel like 3 months. I'm going to be honest about these songs and the singer. I can separate them, but they are tied together for good or bad. As I said yesterday, the combination of subpar material on FOTD, 3 poor-sounding live albums, Bruce leaving and making a solo album that mostly left me cold, & discovering other fantastic music pushed Maiden a few steps back. I still considered them my favorite band, but I was really curious how this "new singer" business would be handled. It could be good, since I was happy with John Bush & Sound of White Noise for Anthrax. That was the fist band that I was a current fan of while they switched singers. I was and always will be a "Joey guy", but I loved SOWN. Maybe, just maybe, this new dude in Maiden would help them be great again. Bruce was falling off for me (I'll readdress this later when we get to his 90's solo albums) and so who knows, maybe Maiden could pull it off. I had not heard a note of Wolfsbane and had no idea what Blaze sounded like until the day I bought Man on the Edge. I wasn't impressed, but I didn't outright hate it. As for the album, it was disappointing to me that even on first listen there were 3 or 4 songs that I outright didn't like. That's not a good sign for a band that had put out Powerslave, Number of the Beast & Somewhere in Time. I bought the singles as soon as I could get them, bought TXF on the day it came out and even managed to see 3 shows on the tour so I was still a dedicated fan. I do think Blaze had an uphill battle since Steve wrote the songs with a vocalist in mind that had a range like Bruce. Well, here we go...
Great analysis... and all of which I totally agree... except that I think it's a Top Ten Maiden track... I truly, absolutely, genuinely do. Look, I've been highly (to say the least) critical of 1990's Maiden, and what's more they fully deserve it, but this track... this track is exactly what they should have released in 1990 on the follow-up album to Seventh Son; progressive, epic, textured, layered, tightly constructed, powerfully played, perfectly paced with a real grasp of ebb and flow, and very tastefully produced (Nigel Green clearly has a better ear than Kevin 'DR Destroyer' Shirley... why couldn't the former have returned for Brave New World onward!?)... it still sends shivers down my spine 22 (and a bit) years later... special mention also to Nicko's drumming, which is exquisite throughout... that snare hit at 4:03 has me going "hell YEAH!!!" every time. Why the rest of the album isn't anywhere nearly this good is beyond me, they were only working on it for 18 months (January 1994-July 1995), which in the same time frame back in the 1980's would have produced THREE new studio albums - classics all! - but in this case produced a largely uninspired dirge for the most part... what the heck were they doing for all that time in the studio, considering the end result??? I like Blaze Bayley a lot, he's a genuinely nice and pretty funny guy all told - big Wolfsbane fan too from 1990 onward - but he was particularly ill-suited for Maiden; he has a low and limited range, great for the baritone Di'anno material but not the tenor Dickinson equivalent, and Maiden never seemed to adapt their songwriting or live performances to suit their new vocalist... probably one of the reasons his voice gave out on tour at times, leading to cancelled shows. 'The Sign of the Cross' is Maiden at their most magnificent, the rest of the album is largely rote and by-the-numbers... bought it upon release, didn't like it then or now, loved Balls to Picasso though (and still do)... go figure.
For me, it was a decade of debauchery. Sign Of the Cross I'm always a sucker for a good cover and Maiden does a pretty good job here. After the disappointing two previous albums, this song raises your hopes for the rest of the album. Can they sustain it...?
the top 4-6 tunes from The X Factor would make a ripping E.P. unfortunately, the mid 90's was still an era where long albums were in fashion.
Maiden made the decision, not him, and they made it several months before White was approached regarding Rainbow. From what I understand, Harris had wanted Bayley for Maiden as soon as Dickinson said he was leaving, as Harris was impressed by Bayley when he was fronting Wolfsbane, who had opened for Maiden on the No Prayer tour. Management made him do auditions, and they passed on a lot of good vocalists, including White and Ralf Scheepers (who was never going to get the gig because he was German), but Harris eventually convinced them to take Bayley. Stranger in Us All was released first because the recording of The X Factor was delayed by nearly a year when Bayley was nearly killed in a motorcycle accident shortly after he got the Maiden gig.
I was walking along the other day listening to The X-Factor (the first time I ever got all the way through it) and it hit me how to get through it and give it a fair chance. I'm going to treat these Blaze albums like Iron Maiden demos that they put together without Bruce and they wanted a guide vocal on the songs. So they called Blaze Bayley. This is an even easier thing to do once we get to Virtual XI because it is a very cheap, demo sounding recording even in its finished form. None of which is to insult Blaze Bayley, I don't blame him for taking the job and I trust he did his best. But sometimes attitude and mood can be visualized; Bruce sounds like he's standing at the front of the stage and daring you to challenge him while Blaze sings like he would rather be hiding behind the amps. Zero charisma or attitude, every line delivery seems like a read through and not the real deal. These two Blaze albums are weird anyway in that the best two songs by miles are Sign of the Cross at 11 minutes and The Clansman at 9 minutes. It doesn't make you want to dive in. Sign of the Cross is a great song and it sounds best live with Bruce singing it. Bruce can be fairly accused of over-emoting by times but I'll take that any day over a singer sounding bored and disengaged.
Sign of the Cross First off, huge balls on Steve for putting the epic as song #1. I love the chanting at the beginning, something absolutely new from Iron Maiden. Great mood setter, works perfectly as a set up for the intro. Blaze does well with the opening lines and I love the martial snare, keys and harmonics from Dave in the intro. It's a great buildup, doesn't come in too soon or take too long. Once the song kicks in it's nice and heavy, however the vocal melody is trash. Blaze's voice doesn't help the melody at all, it actually reinforces the plainness because his voice isn't pleasant to listen to. The music reminds me of the first verse of Mariner, but much more ploddy and with less bells & whistles. Already we know that this dude sounds nothing like Bruce. Good or bad, we know what we're in for. The lyrics are SO wordy. Steve, get an editor. These verses before the first chorus feel like they just go on and on. The chorus is better, but Blaze has such a limited range. The chorus doesn't soar like it should. It should be REALLY powerful, but it's only a small step up from the verses. Another short verse leads to another chorus. No further embellishments except for the "yeah!" at the end of the 2nd chorus. Thinking about the sound, it's a bit muddy, but Nicko's drums sound good. Bass doesn't have enough oomph and the guitars are more in the background than they should be. Ok, here we are, the middle section. The first riff really reminds me of Fear of the Dark. Very heavy on the keyboards. The part where it hits the slowdown is freaking cool. Unexpected. More chanting with some dark bass/guitar patters. This, THIS is really cool. Then it all comes in nice and heavy with more keys. Wonderful. I love the change to the syncopated 3/4 section. Is that a 3/2? It feels so much more jarring than it actually is. Damn, Steve, this is so good! A couple echoes of Kashmir in there. The unison section with guitars, bass & drums makes for a perfect change to the solos. This whole section is super dramatic and I love it. Next we get the "typical Maiden riff" before the solos. It's old hat by now, but it brings a good feeling. The harmony isn't as pronounced at this point, but we'll get it in full in a little bit. Janick's solo is pretty good, a bit messy and chaotic, but it sounds deliberate. It works for me. It's really noticeable at this point during Janick's solo, but the mix on this is awful. Some parts of the tune sound great and some, like this solo, it's just muck and hard to hear what's really going on. Dave's solo is a lot of notes, but he doesn't really say much. Again, it's hard to hear. We're back to the stock harmony riff and another tempo change to the "bounce" section. This part repeats WAY too long. Nothing happens here. I love the slowdown for the chorus, but ugh, we have to listen to Blaze again. His voice is painful. Sorry, guys. I know it's a really, really boring melody, but his voice can't carry this type of music. The song ends with a reprise of the first verse and Steve's found his pattern like in Fear of the Dark. Slow intro > builds to powerful chorus and fast middle > back to slow repeat from the beginning. Same thing on Fear of the Dark, it's just that this middle section has more twists and turns. Overall, I like this song. Steve's melody did Blaze no favors, but Blaze doesn't have the voice to do something epic like this. I love what he's doing vocally in the beginning and end, but that's because the lower register melody line fits with his voice. The intro and middle section really save this song, because just based on the verses and choruses, it's not that great. The live version with Bruce is my go-to and Bruce sounds great, but he's still hampered by Steve's boring vocal melody.
I used to find Blaze's voice painful, but goshdurnit, somewhere around the 20th listen it just started making sense to me. its almost a "Goth Rock" influenced voice. I can close my eyes on some X Factor tracks and imagine Peter Murphy or Siouxsie Sioux singing them, haha!
Think Im gonna take couple days away from the thread. Just watched the "magic-show" for the first time in many years. I did that as promised and wife also watched the full show. Seems like Im gonna be a bit busy tomorrow, but Im gonna try and give The X-Factor few listens and then I shall start discussing it. So around sunday I will catch up here.
Sign of the Cross: Intro goes on about 40 seconds too long for my tastes. I’ve never heard Blazes’s voice before and not liking it. Perhaps I don’t want to… He lacks the power Bruce has and certainly the distinction. Chanting section reminds me of “Suite Sister Mary” by Queensryche. Guitar solos section puts us on more familiar ground. Sign of the Cross seems unnecessarily long. It does not hold my attention. Not impressed with Blaze. 1 star out of 5. I’m not sure I’m going to make it through this whole LONG album….
I was going to listen to X Factor today, but Judas Priest "Firepower" is so good, I decided to listen to it a second time instead. I will try to listen to X Factor next week.
Similar to Suite Sister Mary by QR, but with a warm and inviting production quality instead of the harshness of the Operation Mindcrime album.
Sign of the Cross I'll say more when we get the final thoughts in the coming weeks but I didn't hear the X- Factor until 7 months after it was released. As I said in @Musicman1998's original thread asking for input on if he should do a song by song, I think it was a mistake to lead off the album with "Cross." You have a new singer that practically no ones heard of and fans mourning the loss of Bruce and then you present the fans to an epic usually reserved for the last track? Easy way to alienate the fans. Why make changes to the formula when the band is at a crossroads? Yes, I know that "Man on the Ledge" was released as a single before but this was 1995 and where could you hear it on the radio? This was the year Headbangers Ball ended and they were too fixated on the end of the grunge scene at the time so most peoples first experience to Blaze and the new album was Sign of the Cross where it takes well over a minute before anything happens. When I first heard it, I hated it. Not because it wasn't Bruce but the whole thing felt off. Something was missing. I enjoy the song nowadays after years of hearing it but I still maintain that it would've been so much better either as a middle of the album setpiece or final track. We're in the middle of Steve's whacky ideas for the band. The verses have a cool melody almost waltz-like and the chorus is very sing-able. Bruce sings it better as witnessed on Rock In Rio. 7/10
Sign of the cross - I like this, proper Maiden prog, is this where they seriously start to go down this route? First track on the album is a statement of intent - 11:15, crikey!. Good song, I like it. The weakest part is sadly the lead vocal. I hope every review I write for the next 2 albums doesn't repeat the same comment. Steve has written a good one here, some of the textures and ideas he's used before, 7 and half minutes before the first guitar solo. A good start.
Sign Of The Cross Where to start? I knew of Blaze Bailey from Wolfsbane.....and I was absolutely gobsmacked when he was announced as Iron Maiden's new singer. I can only think Steve Harris wanted to change direction or something because not for one minute was Blaze ever going to be able to reproduce what Bruce could do...and we won't even mention how does he sing 'the classics'??? I can only think the divorce etc affected Steve's thinking way beyond just his private life. Simply put....it was a mistake. Nothing against Blaze, I like the odd solo track etc, but he couldn't carry a tune in a suitcase. It also proves, to me anyways...just how ridged and mechanical almost , Steve's writing is. Everything on this album bar the odd track just plods along....in time honoured fashion. Enough.... The opening track? Decent song actually....but I don't like the singers voice or the flat lifeless production. 3/5
