This would actually be chronological and is my preference, but I don't want people to feel like it's being dragged out.
I don't think too many of us would think it's being dragged out. Loving reading every post in the thread!
Same here. Let's go all the way!
So, being away for vacation I come back and find many interesting posts about The X Factor... this is where I come in! ...sort of.
I had become a Maiden fall around the time the album was released, but I don't consider it properly my "first" new Maiden album. As I explained before, my introduction to Maiden happened thanks to cassette compilations made by a school mate, so I can never answer to the question "Which is the first Maiden record you heard" 'cause it was all songs here and there, took me probably a year or two to listen to the proper albums, and The X Factor was just happening as soon as I was discovering Maiden, so I was not anticipating it.
Still, it was thanks to The X Factor that I got my first and sadly only chance so far to meet the band. I didn't elect to go the concert, I was still very young and shy and at the time I felt that a concert wasn't for me, but they had a meet n' greet session scheduled in my town, and on which day it was? MY BIRTHDAY!!! So me and a couple of other school mates stayed after school, went to the Virgin Megastore in the very centre of Milan where the signing session was held.
I still remember everything vividly: Me printing the lyrics to Revelations (My symbolically "favorite" Maiden song, the one that made me fall in love with them) to have the back signed by them; me walking up to Nicko, the first of the row, and telling him "Today is my birthday, could you write Happy Birthday?" and his big smiled "Of course!!!" as a reply, Blaze signing my school bag, and me shaking hands with everyone. Nothing fancy but it was nice to have them at least once all in front of me!!! To this day, I still keep carefully and with jealousy the signed autographs, I still have it at hand and I keep my incoming ticket concerts in the same slip case.
About the album... I agree with the general consensus that it seems to have arised from the last pages of discussions. Polarizing album, I understand those who love it and at the same time I understand those who hate it. I agree that Blaze is a very nice guy, I applaud his dedication to the music and his fans and I sympathize with the personal tragedies he endured, but he wasn't a good fit, especially since he couldn't sing properly the back catalog.
This album is the embryo of "modern" Maiden, and Sign of the Cross is by far the greatest thing on it. It probably has the last of the big, glorious and insane solo sections, the long and carefully composed sections like Phantom and Seventh Son, in later years they became more standard but the whole progression from when the song "stops" and then builds up to the blistering fast solo, and then winding down for the final chorus, is an absolute and complete masterpiece.
I like also Lord of the Flies, Man on the Edge, Fortunes of War, The Afermath a very great deal, but I didn't seem much love for The Edge of Darkness. That is another minor masterpiece and had Bruce sung it, it would be probably better received. And 2 A.M. as simple as it may be captures well the everyday working man's delusion.
I'm not the biggest fan of the album (yes, the production is kinda meh), but I like it and respect it as something daring and bold. I would never scratch my head at someone declaring it one of his/her favorites, I completely see the appeal of such a dark, brooding and uncompromising album.