The Official Blaze Bayley Thread

[Mladen]

Since the Iron Maiden thread very often turns into a discussion of Blaze Bayley's solo albums, I figured the man deserves his own thread. So, here's a place to discuss his solo career, as well as maybe his days in Wolfsbane. Of course, we may discuss his work in Iron Maiden, but that's what the Iron Maiden thread is for as well.

For starters, how about kicking things off with ranking his solo albums? I'll break the ice:

Promise and terror
Silicon messiah
The Man who would not die
Blood and belief
Infinite entanglement
Endure and survive: Infinite entanglement III
The Tenth dimension
War within me
The Redemption of William Black: Infinite entanglement III
The King of metal

The top four are all five out of five, while the ones near the bottom I'm not too crazy about.

[MirrorMask]

I must confess I lost track of him after King of Metal.

The third three albums came out as "Blaze", or stylized "B L A Z E", and they're absolutely great. Silcion Messiah and The Tenth Dimensions are both classics, and Blood of Belief was defined as "criminally underrated" in the Maiden thread... I agree, it's dark and raw and not as classic-sounding like the first two, but it's one of those personal and visceral albums that you have to be in the mood for.

After that, I have to say I remember only the tracks rather than the full albums. The Man who Would Not Die has two of his very best songs ever, the title track (love the ferocious lyrics) and Smile Back at Death; don't remember much about Promise and Terror and from King of Metal I remember the weird production with some gems here and there, as Judge Me for example.

Guess I'll have to catch up with him sometime in the future.

[Shalev Amir]

I'm a big fan of his solo stuff. My Spotify Wrapped in 2019 is like 33% Blaze

Been a while since I listened to some of those, but I'm feeling:

1. Tenth Dimension
2. Blood & Belief
3. Endure and Survive
4. The Man Who Would Not Die
5. Infinite Entanglement
6. Promise and Terror
7. Silicon Messiah
8. The Redemption of William Black
9. War Within Me
10. The King of Metal

I only don't like WWM and TKOM. Tenth Dimension at 1 is kind of an auto-slot, it's been there for so long. The others are pretty much interchangeable, I love them all.

[wolfking]

Let's see;

The Man Who Would Not Die
Sillicon Messiah
Blood and Belief
Tenth Dimension
Promise and Terror
War Within Me
The King of Metal
Trilogy

Something about the Trilogy I didn't take to at all.  I should revisit them but all three were a low point for me.  King of Metal has a certain charm if you ask me.  Not the greatest but some interesting stuff.

[WardySI]

I thought the trilogy was quite strong material wise but lacked in production, some may disagree but considering the concept was quite epic the records needed to sound that way too although I get it was done on a budget (which explains the terrible videos for those too, should've avoided those and gone with lyric vids IMO)...

Still overall the trilogy was a tremendous return and set him on course for War Within (little surprised after your top choices you didn't rate War Within a little higher Shalev? )

[wolfking]

Yes, the production on those trilogy albums was absolutely terrible.  Certainly didn't do it any favours.

[Shalev Amir]

Still overall the trilogy was a tremendous return and set him on course for War Within (little surprised after your top choices you didn't rate War Within a little higher Shalev? )

I'm interested, why do you think WWM is similar to my top choices?

It's more power metal than the others, and I don't like the feel-good lyrics at all. It's less my style.
Then there's Witches Night, ruined by the start and stop guitars in the chorus. Really jarring. Some songs have autotune(?) on Blaze and it sounds bad. The title track comes to mind. Just little stuff that bring it down.

[Mladen]

Yes, the production on those trilogy albums was absolutely terrible.  Certainly didn't do it any favours.

As much as I love the songs, I don't like the production on the first part of the trilogy, but Endure and survive was an improvement in that department. The third part of the trilogy had neither the songs nor the production, though.

[WardySI]

Still overall the trilogy was a tremendous return and set him on course for War Within (little surprised after your top choices you didn't rate War Within a little higher Shalev? )

I'm interested, why do you think WWM is similar to my top choices?

It's more power metal than the others, and I don't like the feel-good lyrics at all. It's less my style.
Then there's Witches Night, ruined by the start and  bystop guitars in the chorus. Really jarring. Some songs have autotune(?) on Blaze and it sounds bad. The title track comes to mind. Just little stuff that bring it down.

Fair enough.  So far as your question goes I just remember getting the vibe that most folks liking War Within seemed it was some of his best material and not unlike Tenth Dimension, certainly a few of us my end of the world thought so and I noted you rated that one pretty highly but that's like, a few of us at best LOL...

Thinking about it yeah I can see the powermetal comparison you make particularly the 3 song finale, although I think there's some decent balance and could've seen 18 Flights fitting on Tenth Dimension or Silicon and Pull Yourself Up might've fit on Blood and Belief perhaps?  For my ears anyway

Didn't really hear the auto-tune thing but I often don't these ears aren't what they used to be but I was certainly impressed with the improvement in production and killer artwork overall presentation.  Anyway all that said considering Witches Night was my favorite off the album particularly for the stop start riffing during the chorus we clearly different pages with this one

Tempted to grab his recent Tenth Dimension LP pressing though, that looks awesome!

[Shalev Amir]

Still overall the trilogy was a tremendous return and set him on course for War Within (little surprised after your top choices you didn't rate War Within a little higher Shalev? )

I'm interested, why do you think WWM is similar to my top choices?

It's more power metal than the others, and I don't like the feel-good lyrics at all. It's less my style.
Then there's Witches Night, ruined by the start and  bystop guitars in the chorus. Really jarring. Some songs have autotune(?) on Blaze and it sounds bad. The title track comes to mind. Just little stuff that bring it down.

Thinking about it yeah I can see the powermetal comparison you make particularly the 3 song finale, although I think there's some decent balance and could've seen 18 Flights fitting on Tenth Dimension or Silicon and Pull Yourself Up might've fit on Blood and Belief perhaps?  For my ears anyway

I think 18 Flights and Pull Yourself Up were my favourites from the album! As I said, I don't think they'd fit in the early albums because they're just so much more uplifting. Actually, maybe yes on Silicon Messiah because it had songs like Born as a Stranger, The Brave, The Launch...

Agree on the artwork, I loved the trilogy's artworks and WWM also has this sci-fi feel. Don't know if I agree on the production. I'll have to hear the IE trilogy again because I don't remember the production being that bad there...

[Shalev Amir]

Wow, only today I saw the binary on the Tenth Dimension art. I always thought it looked blurry and now I know why...

[wolfking]

Still overall the trilogy was a tremendous return and set him on course for War Within (little surprised after your top choices you didn't rate War Within a little higher Shalev? )

I'm interested, why do you think WWM is similar to my top choices?

It's more power metal than the others, and I don't like the feel-good lyrics at all. It's less my style.
Then there's Witches Night, ruined by the start and  bystop guitars in the chorus. Really jarring. Some songs have autotune(?) on Blaze and it sounds bad. The title track comes to mind. Just little stuff that bring it down.

Thinking about it yeah I can see the powermetal comparison you make particularly the 3 song finale, although I think there's some decent balance and could've seen 18 Flights fitting on Tenth Dimension or Silicon and Pull Yourself Up might've fit on Blood and Belief perhaps?  For my ears anyway

I think 18 Flights and Pull Yourself Up were my favourites from the album! As I said, I don't think they'd fit in the early albums because they're just so much more uplifting. Actually, maybe yes on Silicon Messiah because it had songs like Born as a Stranger, The Brave, The Launch...

Agree on the artwork, I loved the trilogy's artworks and WWM also has this sci-fi feel. Don't know if I agree on the production. I'll have to hear the IE trilogy again because I don't remember the production being that bad there...

I thought the Stephen Hawking song was amazing!

[MinistroRaven]

Blaze Bayley to Release New Studio Album in 2024 – Interview Reveals Exciting Plans
https://lotsofmuzik.com/blaze-bayley-to-release-new-studio-album-in-2024-interview-reveals-exciting-plans/

[WardySI]

Wow he's not mucking around then is he?  Good for him and will be interesting to see which direction he takes his new music.  Looking forward to it

[Qrusher14242]

I remember buying Tenth Dimension at Tower Records years ago, and played the hell out of that CD. I haven't listened to much after 'The Man Who Would Not Die'. I have most of the albums afterwards, but haven't listened to them much.

1. Tenth Dimension
2. Silicon Messiah
3. The Man Who Would Not Die
4. Blood & Belief
5. Infinite Intanglement
6. Promise and Terror
7. The King of Metal

I need to go back and listen to more of his later solo cds. Tenth Dimension/Silicon Messiah are both just so good. Just amazing albums. I'm glad to see he's better and going to release a new cd.

[WardySI]

Can't recommend enough you dig into his last album War Within Me which for my ears nods back to lots of his early albums.

Personally Silicon Messiah is my go-to Blaze and Tenth Dimension a close 2nd but again am drawn to War Within Me for those comparisons which I'd now rate in his Top3.