Yeah. yeah. yeah. We get that you think Blaze is an honking amateur who somehow kidnapped the band and forced them to pay him. It's not that thrilling to see endless rewrites of the same opinion.
No, I just think Blaze accepted a job he wasn't qualified for. The results speak for themselves. As for your thrills, that's not my problem.
I just looked up a couple videos to make sure I wasn’t misremembering. Terrible…… Not his fault. He just wasn’t the right fit
Blaze has a more limited range than Bruce, obviously, but I really like X Factor, the overall vibe and drive of that record is excellent and it is definitely one of my favorite post-Seventh Son Maiden albums. Perhaps my favorite of that crop actually, it certainly gets the most consistent play aside from whatever is newest and possibly Brave New World. Virtual XI is just flat for me aside from Futureal and the Clansman. But that's not really a dog on Blaze so much as the overall uneven nature of a lot of Maiden albums in this later era. It isn't my least favorite because of those tracks (least favorite for me is probably Dance of Death which has the decided misfortune of being almost 70 minutes long on top of a weak track list) but it was a letdown for me after X Factor. I also like a fair bit of Blaze's solo work as well; he is handicapped a bit by having a (obviously) much weaker supporting cast than he had with Maiden; but I like his delivery while acknowledging that it is definitely an acquired taste and leads to very different places than the epic, melodic style that Bruce is so good at.
If anyone is to blame for the Blaze era being that bad it's surely Steve, I mean with Bruce and Adrian gone two main songwriters were gone and that meant Steve had to become the main songwriter again. It was pretty similar to Maiden stepping back too the Dianno days and Steve wrote everything and although he was writing around a different voice too, hed done it before. Did Blaze not work or did Maiden or Steve at his most uninspired let Blaze down? Did the band rearrange the old songs to suit a new voice change keys or whatever? Ive seen comments from other maiden fans who said the band were playing the older songs a bit faster than they would with Bruce too, they were actually more critical of the band letting Blaze down more than the other way round. But the biggest problem for Blaze and what was left of Maiden was we are talking of a band very well established by then and by then the fans would be less receptive to change. Take ACDC and their recent shows with Axl Rose replacing Brian for a tour or so, how much flak did the band take for that, that had more to do with not accepting change from the videos Ive watched than Axl's actually performance (and also how you felt about Guns n roses beforehand I guess too).
I still really love x factor to this day. When it came out good new metal was thin IMO. That's a great album. Also love the first 2 with Paul. Killers and X factor make top 5 for me.
Never saw him live, but there are too many moments even in the studio albums where Blaze wanders off-key.
I din't get the sense that people in this thread are going out of their way to trash Blaze. But yeesh.....he wasn't that good with IM, and that's most folks' answer to the OP's question. There's a reason why the kept Janick after the reunion and Blaze got sent on his way....
I love Blaze Bayley, both his solo albums and his 2 IM albums. The X Factor is a masterpiece and Virtual XI is a flawed album with a few great songs. As a long time Maiden fan I think it’s great that 2 completely different IM albums exist and I wouldn’t want to be without either of them. I realise many people don’t like his voice or the albums he recorded with IM but I think Steve and the boys made the right choice by going with a completely different kind of singer instead of finding a cheap knock-off of their previous one (cough*JudasPriest*cough).
I’m sorry…..if you can’t sing this song you don’t belong in Maiden. This is terrible His solo stuff is good, at least the first couple that I heard. The two IM albums with him have some good stuff. He can’t sing the Bruce stuff other than a few songs
Here’s another……Not as bad as the trooper but doesn’t sound good and he skips the higher notes (again not his fault, it’s just not in his range) The songs where Bruce stays in his lowers register for hits of it he is ok on. Wasted Years wasn’t awful, and Hallowed was passable. As someone else said, Afraid to Shoot strangers was great. It’s not just the range either, it’s his annunciation/inflection whatever the right word may be. It’s just awkward at time. But this is Maiden. Passable and ok don’t fly. And we haven’t even started discussing stage presence……not even remotely close. If you listen to his solo stuff it works. Because it’s written for his voice. He’s a solid singer and does well with his more limited range.
BB is probably the worst frontman i ever saw. Zero charisma, not a single clue at manipulating an audience. I'm not a mega Dickinson fan but he's a bonafide showman and knows a to build tension a play with his crowd. Bayley is pure amateurism.
I thinks he acquits himself just fine here. It would be better if they played it a few steps down to better suit his range but I honestly don’t see the problem.
Blaze grew up near me, and a few years back he was at a Car boot sale just outside Birmingham selling off all his Iron Maiden stuff. there was loads of it. load s of merch, shirts, tour stuff.
Which is quite sad because he seems like a super nice bloke and probably saw his life blown to pieces when shown the way out. Must be also quite painful to see that Maiden is now way bigger that it has ever been. Guess his royalties from XF and VXI are minimal these days.
One of the sad things with Blaze now is that his first few albums post maiden were really good. He had a professional band backing him up and writing with him, he had a legit label supporting him and a real producer guiding him in the studio. I think starting in 2012, he lost all of that, and the quality and sound of his records became horrible. There was an interview awhile back where I think he said something like, he wasn't making any money having to pay for the musicians in the band and the producer, so he has to get cheaper musicians and produce himself to make any money. I definitely don't blame him if that is the case, he has to survive.
That was tough to watch and even harder to listen to (although the band sounded great). Could have turned very nasty with his “kill him” threats.
Allow me to provide a reality check here. You’re right that around 2011/12 things went a bit south for him and he struggled to get a stable band around him and the album he released at this time “The King of Metal” is not very good. However, since 2016 he’s had a great collaboration with the band Absolva, who besides releasing their own stuff, functions as his backing band both in the studio and on the road. He’s done a great sci-fi trilogy of albums from 2016-2018 which also yielded 2 live DVD/CD releases and this year he released another great album (War Within Me) with the Absolva guys. He’s not enjoying anything close to mainstream success, but he’s able to record the music he loves and play live across Europe to his fans so let’s not write the guy off yet
It's true. I like The X Factor a fair bit, but even on first listen that much was obvious. "The siiiiign of the rooOOOoooose..."
Yeah, Steve was probably afraid he'd be the recipient of one of Janick's high kicks if he tried to fire him.
