Blaze is a really good singer. Unfortunatelly, Steve and the guys did not have the balls to create something new and fresh, which was brought by Blaze. Instead, they were still clinching to Bruce's songs, which Blaze was trying to sing, without any success. When Ripper Owens came to Priest, they tuned and adjusted their whole sound and playing to his voice and singing. That did not happen with Blaze. He payed the ultimate price. Instead, Steve should have hired a singer in Bruce's singing grade, instead of Blaze. Bruce is tenor and Blaze is barritone, so any comparison is useles. It was better for Blaze to leave Maiden, to preserve his voice which has been damaged due to his attempts to sing Bruce's songs and to create his own career and fate. I'm a huge Bruce Dickinson fan and for me he is one of the best singers out there, but I cannot be unfair towards Blaze. He is a solid metalhead and his solo stuff is great.
I can only tell you my perception. As you can notice, Bruce's voice on his last two studio albums before he departed Maiden, No prayer for the dying and Fear of the dark, was really damaged. His singing was not that crisp and high pitched like it used to be on previous albums. Long tourings were destroying his voice. And his first solo album Tatooed millionaire was excepted extremelly well by the fans. So, I gues that he needed a brake, to recover his voice and to pursue his solo career. But I guess that there were also more things to it, tension between him and Steve. Steve then hired an english born singer, he insisted on that. Normal thing would be for the rest of the band, to adjust everything to the singing style and vocal range of Blaze. Just a reminder - Blaze is barritone and Bruce is tennor. Steve had more other choices, regarding singers which were close to Bruce's vocal range. He went for Blaze, anyway. So this is kinda unprofessional from his side. So, Blaze was expected to sing Bruce's songs and it was destroying his voice. He was embarrased because he wasn't backed up by the rest of the band. It seems to me that he was used deliberately, to be there, until Bruce returns. So, it happened eventyally. I heard in one interview that Blaze had plans for future Maiden album and that he even wrote Blood brothers and Dream of mirrors. Wow! I don't think that he left because he wanted. They just used him as a bypass for Bruce. Nevertheless, Blaze is a good guy, that event did not leave him bitter and angry. He made some great solo albums
They got rid of Blaze because of albums not selling for the reasons you iterated which was also fulled by the ban not showing strong support in front of fan's confusion. It looked like the band thought they could put anyone and fans wold be "grateful". I thought Blaze's 2 albums with Iron Maiden would have been a bigger success if the name Iron Maiden was not written on them. I believe Steve selected Blaze because he is English, he is scary (good for metal) and because he has a great voice, and the rumor has it that the demos used to make the decision were not actually Iron Maiden songs but Blaze's own material, and as you said Steve thought this would work somehow but it did not (usually baritone voices could actually sing tenor songs because they do overlap). The real winner here is Bruce because he has established himself as the sine-qua-none ingredient for success and he effectively became as dominant as Steve while before the break he was always one foot behind.
_The X Factor_ was a nice change of pace from their two previous albums at the time. _Virtual XI_ was a step down due to _Angel and..._, but the rest of the tracks are pretty great. But holy hell, did the production suck on those two albums! And the band wasn't even trying their best to make great albums with Blaze. The only one who was trying was Blaze, and he was being dragged by Maiden. It's like they wanted to make less-than-decent albums on purpose or something. I have a feeling they were. Another problem I have with _The X Factor_ is the gross cover art. Some hand-drawn Eddie would've been nice. Also, I've always wondered why their albums with Blaze aren't named after one of the tracks in the album. 4+ years of being treated unfairly and singing less-than-great new material like this track. I would've loved to hear _Blood Brothers_, _Dream of Mirrors_, _The Mercanary_ and _The Nomad_ sung by Blaze on _Virtual XI_, although with a better album name and better production
I have to say. I’m 40 years old and have been listening to Maiden since I was 9. This is still one of my favourite songs. I love the Blaze era. I love all of their music.
@@mutate34 so do I, there was a lot of incredible songs written and performed in this era and I must confess I love the voice of Blaze, in the Maiden, maybe even more in his solo career...
Say what you like, I´m extremly impressed by the guy for even trying to sing in their original key, if the band had lowered their tuning we had heard an entirely different voice, because the power of his voice is incredible.....he´s without any doubt what so ever, THE magical voice of metal.....
Say what ever you want but I love it....I love the Maidens dark era, and I LOVE THE VOICE OF BLAZE...there´s a real metal voice, the dark, intense, powerful and emotional voice gives the song the meaning and atmosphere that was intended, and please don´t comment about this songs repetetive chorus, there´s a load of newer songs with the same repetetive chorus....
I'm gonna be that guy and say that this song and by extension all Blaze songs were great and still are. People become highly critical when they learn that everyone else thinks that way instead of coming up with their own ideas. I think the "tuning" that so many of you complain about is just fine and Blaze works great in his role. Maybe you should give him a shot with an open mind, who knows you might like him.
I don´t care what anyone thinks, I just LOVE it...look at the guys, GLOWING on stage, so free, relaxed and SO professional......to me this era seems like a missed opportunaty somehow..........STUNNING GUYS !!
I live in Japan, have for the past 15 years...I have seen Maiden 3 times here. The one thing I love about Japan is the respect they give to the performers.
Dave L If it was shorter I would probably like it a lot more. Even if the lyrics were still repetitive, as long as they don’t repeat for too long I don’t have a problem with it. It would be similar lyrically to running free.
How I wish Maiden would make another show with this incredible guy, and NOT play all theese classics that his vocal range can´t really handle....if that ever happened I would be running to get first in line, and THAT´S a promise...
Steve is best bass player,good footballer.a wonderful father and a husband,he has all the good qualities.he is a good fighter too ,dont mess around with him,i hv seen that
Blaze is a good singer that got stuck singing bad songs that IM wrote at the time which wasn’t his fault, they also sabotaged him by not supporting him live so he could perform better, and also they wouldn’t tune down for him so that he wouldn’t strain his voice. Blaze was the right man at the wrong time unfortunately, but he kept IM going so for that he deserves credit.
@@Tallinn8786 Steve messed up a bit. Rod wanted futureal to be the first single but Harris put his foot down and insisted on this silly song being the first single. He also decided to make the album version nine minutes which was bizarre. The four minute version is fun. Also the ridiculous repitition on Don't look eyes of a stranger was weird. And his production wasn't good either. Then they had the weird football tie in to the album and it all seemed like it was destined to fail. Shame as I like the album
blaze had a brand new expensive pair of in ear monitors so he could hear everything probably on stage , before the sound guy kept everything the way bruce had had it and blaze said he could n't hear dave proberly the sound guy and maiden ignored blaze' saying he couldn't hear dave and he had too much bass in his ears, new moitors new sound guy blaze could sing so much better he he said he was able to move around more on stage and he didn't have to stand near dave to hear him properly, in greece he did an amzing show steve said he sang great them someone plugged in a battered old kettle and all the lights went out some one bumped into table in the dark backstage and knocked blazes in ear moitors on floor and Janick stood on them so sadly he said the last part of 98 was a struggle again. Also maiden refused to tune down which in my book is a shitty thing to do when they knew he couldn't hit bruce's range.
This would have been a good catchy 3:20 length song, but as a long song it just goes on and on for no good reason. Harris writes plenty of great long progressive songs, but this is pop song that should have ended 5 minutes before it does.
come on it's not a pop song. seriously? it is more catchy, commercial and lighter than their usual material, but that's exactly the reason to call it a rock song. when heavy metal softens it becomes more rock. when rock softens(too much) it becomes pop
the short version with the official video is great. i think it's 4 minutes or something like that. honestly AATG would've been a great song if there wasn't so much repeating. the instrumental is awesome the lyrics themselves and vocals are great. just too much repeating of the same lyric and not enough of other lyrics.
Dylan Willis Are you sure? I can't see very well on this video and I'm not a musician so it is hard to know only by listening. If so.. yeah, then he only uses his fingers. Glad I was right before.
+Thiago Faro he absolutely 100% uses his fingers. When he plays power chords he uses the nails on his hand. I copy his technique when I play. In many songs you will often see him switch between strumming chords and plucking with his fingers.
This song is a mess :D Steve looks like he doesnt want to be there, blaze is high, and janick is just all over the place :D They are both dancing around with dave :D
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Financially, and commercially it was by far their lowest point, seperate yourself and your personaly opinions because VXI is still the only IM album to not ship at least 1 million copies, and the subsiquent tour was the worst drawing in the history of the band, objectively speaking, it was their lowest point.
While The Number of the Beast has those undying classics like Run to the Hills, the title song and Hallowed be thy Name, that's all it really has going for it. Most of the other songs are just filler.
ZealSeraph That is true, however number of the beast’s filler is at least competent. Other than the opening track Virtual XI’s tracks are terrible, and not even close to how even some of the worst songs ok number of the beast were.
The drums are so diffrent to the recording..really sloppy too...almost like he didn't know it too well. I swear on the album it's not Nicko on drums. No drum fills, didn't sound like him at all. Thoughts...
it’s most likely not nicko on drums, apparently he couldn’t stand to be near blaze so he didn’t play on virtual xi (i don’t know about the x factor) but they really didn’t get along
