A Maiden song that sounds like the theme to M.A.S.H. !!! More evidence for this being a great thread. I’ll have to listen to 2 A.M. with fresh ears soon. I might saw those ears off afterward.
2 a.m. The opening guitar pattern sounds exactly like Blood Red Skies by Judas Priest. I love Blood Red Skies by Judas Priest, I'll almost certainly never listen to 2 a.m. ever again. Someone put out an APB on Steve Harris!
I know there's still one song to go plus B-sides before we move away from The X Factor but to lighten the mood or to at least see something positive I want to show the video of Steve's loyalty. Many of you will have probably seen this before but I feel it needs to be seen again. Especially at this point in the album where we're all ready to slice our wrists. Santiago, Chile 1996. At the beginning of The Trooper some "fan" spits at Blaze. Anyone who has seen Maiden live or live on video knows Steve is very active on stage. Constantly moving or running around. Second only to Janick in terms of stage antics. Well, check this video out. Steve doesn't move, he's a cobra ready to strike, ready to defend his brother in arms. Blaze is not a happy camper either. As soon as the horrible rendition of The Trooper ends Steve drops his bass looks like hes ready for a brawl. Say what you want about Blaze's time in the band or about the bad songs but its at least very rewarding to see Steve back his bandmate. Loyalty at its finest.
Iron Maiden - The X Factor (Full Album Review) The year was 1995 and in the world of Maiden and for heavy metal in general, things had changed. Metal was not in favor or even slightly enjoyed except by the hardcore fans. The same would apply to Maiden. Having recently lost their longest tenured frontman, the band was entering into a period of major change and it was not at a very good time for the music genre they fall into either. This was a recipe for disaster, and I do give the ban$ credit for soldiering on through all of it. To think I had just become a fan of the band in 1990 and then to go right into all of these changes I honestly didn’t seem to care as much as others. This album was a much darker sounding album then the band had done prior. I’m not sure if that characteristic falls solely on the shoulders of Blaze though. Yes, his range was no where near that of Bruce, but the song writing itself seemed to be more depressed in general. That said, here’s my individual song reviews for the album. 1. Sign of the Cross - the album opener was one that was certainly an epic that Maiden had been known for, but something was off. The dynamics for this song are all over the place, but not in a good way. For almost an eternity the songs is so low and almost difficult to hear. If you have the vinyl release this is even more apparent. To the point where you find yourself reaching for the volume knob, only to turn it back down as soon as the rest of the band joins in. It’s not a smooth transition at all, and many of the songs on this album would suffer from these dramatic dynamic changes. This is one song that would outlast the Blaze era for the live performances, but would only be around for a couple new Bruce era tours. Sadly even Bruce’s vocal talent couldn’t make this one much better. 2. Lord of the Flies - the second single off the album, but only in a few select countries. This is one of the better songs from the album, and I still enjoy this number to this day. The weird dark production vibe carries through this tune, but in this case it works. 3. Man on the Edge - the first single from the album. The lyrical content was based on the movie Falling Down, and with a premise like that I felt that I should enjoy the song, but it just doesn’t have “it” for me. This was another song that would make it out of the Blaze era for being played live, but like Sign of the Cross would not last long. 4. Fortunes of War, Look for the Truth, The Aftermath, Judegment of Heaven, Blood on the World Hands, and The Edge of Darkness - this grouping of songs all just sound like one and the same (short of the acoustic bass solo/intro of Blood on the World Hands) and I consider these songs all to just be Afraid to Shoot Strangers part 2 - 7. There’s nothing original to hear here. Unless you enjoy Afraid to Shoot Strangers, and many bass chords in your Maiden music, then just skip all of this. If you do enjoy it then this is the best part of the entire album and for me they could have just stopped the album here. 5. 2 AM and The Unbeliever - these songs are some of the worst Maiden writing they have ever done, and trust me when it comes to Maiden I’m what you would call a homer. In my eyes the band could never write a bad song... expect these two. These songs are just bad. Both could easily have been dropped or at least swapped out for the B-sides that weren’t on the album. Those B-sides are some of the best material from this era, but we will cover that soon.
Not sure carrying on with the song was best thing to do there. Blaze getting more and more angry. Stop the song, get the guy out quick.
What an absolute childish ass. He's threatening to kill a member of the audience and trying to get other people to do it for him. You got spat on and your response is to kill the dude? He's such a meathead doofus. Of course you stick up for your bandmate, but if I was Steve, Blaze would've been fired from the band right after that show. There's no excuse for that. As an audience member, you're a turd if you spit on or throw something at the band. The other side of that contract is as a band you don't put out a singer who sounds that awful. That was absolutely horrible.
I had this full show on a bootleg VHS back in the day. Still have it but no VCR any longer. It was from a live TV recording that was played on Brazilian television. The bootleg VHS even had the TV commercials. I’ll always remember this incident of this era. It sums it up very honestly. There were still fans of the band and many that didn’t approve of Blaze. That’s no reason to spit on someone though, and to see Steve jump right to the defense of Blaze it showed his commitment to Blaze. Sort of him trying to solidify his decision to chose Blaze as the replacement for Bruce. I completely believe that decision was solely Steve’s, with possible input from Rod. I don’t get the feeling that the rest of band had much input over the vocalist. The Blaze era was a time that Steve took 100% control and was ready to fight tooth and nail, and in this incident even fight through spit to make his point. Whether that decision was his best over the history of the band, is one that will be debated forever.
2 AM The one lyric, for some reason, reminds me of Bob Seger's Turn the Page. This song though is pretty bad and I don't find any reason to go back and re-listen to it. Pass
That was legitimately the most uncomfortable I have felt watching one of these Blaze performances, and that’s saying something. It looks like he’s about to release at least a years worth of pent up anger on the guy.
Steve-"Let me tell you about loyalty...." Rod Smallwood-"Bruce is on the other line, now what were you saying about loyalty?" Steve-
To be fair, Blaze was let go, and then there was talk about a reunion. Don’t forget these guys kept Janick in the band.
I'm sure they'd never publicly admit it, but there's no way Steve and Rod didn't have a conversation about Bruce while Blaze was still there.
I'll offer this from the Run To the Hills book. "Would they have definitely replaced Blaze, though, even if Bruce hadn't come back?" "Difficult question," sighs Steve. "In my mind, I'd like to say no, but there was talk and worry about Blaze because of the inconsistencies onstage, and it was getting to the point where something had to be done."
Honestly, I dig a lot of Blaze's recent work and Wolfsbane but he just didn't fit this band. They would have been better off with someone like Graham Bonnet, Michael Kiske, John Cyriis, Mark Boals, etc.
I’ll take Blaze over Bonnett, which really shows you how I feel about Bonnett, can’t stand the guy’s voice.
Yeah, but you get my general meaning here, right? Blaze's vocal range just does not fit the band at all. Couple this with the idea that Steve's only clue of what progressive song structure is is just "make the song longer" and you have a total catastrophe on your hands.
By the way, have any of you commented on what I'm referring to with Steve's writing? I mean, I've heard Iron Maiden get thrown somewhat into the progressive metal sphere after they wrote Seventh Son but many of their "epics" post-Powerslave are just completely uneventful.
The Unbeliever We close this album with The Unbeliever, written by Steve and Janick about people who doubted that this album would ever end. A classic sounding Iron Maiden style riff opens the track, giving an energy that’s been missing from the vast majority of this record, with Steve doing a little bass at :17 and Nicko accompanying him on the hi hat, and I feel bad for him and Dave trying to make something good of so many of these songs, it’s like listening to Michael Anthony and Alex Van Halen on 5150’s title track, they’re giving it their all, trying to salvage the songs, but the musical leader is far from being on his A game and the new singer is just that ****ing terrible. Anyway, Blaze is okay on the verses, dreadful on the chorus; the middle section with the galloping bass and drums is pretty cool, Janick’s solo is kind of lame, Dave’s is alright I guess, but it’s pretty much Dave by the Numbers. This track feels hodgepodged, never adding up to a satisfying whole, creating an underwhelming closer when most Iron Maiden closers have been extremely strong, with the exceptions of Alexander the Great and Only the Good Die Toung To a lesser extent. Hell, even NPFTD and FOTD, for all their faults, had very strong closing tracks. With that said, this is still one of the better tracks, which really says something about how bad this album is. Overall Thoughts and Rankings Other than Di’Anno’s AOR album, this was the hardest album to sit through during this thread; it is just so tedious, so uninspired, so half baked and half assed, amping all of its two predecessors’ faults up to eleven, and having almost none of whatever they did right or at least adequately: between the horribly misguided choice of singer, or the lackluster writing, or the virtually nonexistent quality control, this album sucks. Hell, even the one good song I’d say you’re better off getting on Rock in Rio. Sign Of the Cross (4/5) Lord Of the Flies (3/5) The Unbeliever (2.5/5) Blood On the Hands (2/5) Fortunes of War (2/5) Look For the Truth (2/5) Man On the Edge (2/5) The Aftermath (2/5) Judgement of Heaven (1.5/5) The Edge Of Darkness (1.5/5) 2 A.M. (1/5)
I am sorry, but try as I might, I just can’t get excited about the last few songs on TXF. It makes it hard to even critique them. Having not heard any songs with Blaze on vocals, i was hoping to find a few lost treasurers, and to walk away liking some Blaze era stuff enough to inspire me to make a playlist of Blaze era Maiden. Off of TXF, I can pick 3, maybe 4, at best that I liked enough to maybe want hear with some regularity. Not impressive coming from the mighty Maiden.
As I mentioned here previously, my very first gig was Maiden at Belfast's King's Hall, September 24th 1990, on the No Prayer tour... and some idiots were spitting at the stage there too... but Bruce, consummate professional that he is, politely but firmly took them to task by explaining that they're ruining an otherwise great night for everyone else... no threats of violence, 'Arry didn't go ballistic (man, that video above shows a whole side of him I've never seen before, he's ready to kill someone!), and the spitting immediately stopped thereafter... that's the difference between a good frontman and a genuinely great one, regardless of how bad a night the band is having!
