Part Three…
The X Factor. First up, I love the cover, the photographic image of Eddie on the vivisection table. It’s different, and I really wish they’d have returned to this approach again, it’s one of my favourite Maiden covers. Everytime I listen to this album, I’m struck by how good it is. Sign of the Cross is a great Steve Harris epic to open, love the Gregorian choir on the intro, but you can hear the ghost of Bruce Dickinson hitting the high notes that Blaze doesn’t go for. Lord of the Flies and Man on the Edge really show what Blaze could do, the latter track has so much energy and stands up well next to anything the band had recorded up to this point. The album is dominated by Steve Harris compositions, but he mostly keeps them under the 7 minute mark, a degree of economy the band might benefit from today. Fortunes of War is unlike anything the band had done, The Aftermath is great, Blood on the World’s Hands has a bass intro that could be Geddy Lee or Flea, and 2AM is one of the most beautiful, personal and intimate songs the band have ever done, I love this track. This album reinvents Maiden without Bruce, reinvents Maiden for the 90s grunge era and screams that this is still a contemporary, relevant band with a solid future. It's an incredibly strong album and one of their best.
Virtual XVI. Futureal is brilliant, a solid ball of energy to kick start the album, but after that things go downhill. The Angel and the Gambler is horrible, I hate the “parp parp” keyboards, after using a real choir on the last album, they really should have used a real horn section for this. It’s also the point where the repetitive choruses, which have often been an issue, really become a problem. If you’re singing the same lines over and over, then the job of a good singer is to put a different inflexion onto each line. Blaze really doesn’t. In fact, for much of this album he seems to be phoning it in. The rest of the album is a lot better than I recalled, but there’s very little that’s memorable, When Two Worlds Collide being a surprise stand out. The Harris epics dominate the album, but this time they go on too long and unlike the last album there’s no concession to Blaze’s vocal range. The Clansman is perhaps the best known tune from this album, but this version makes little impression, Blaze is doing his best to sing a vocal line clearly written for Bruce, but his heart just isn’t in it. A lot of the songs are quite good in isolation, but in the context of the album are just more of the same. It’s not a bad album, but everyone involved seems to just be going through the motions. Oh, and it's got one of the worst covers of any IM album.
Gonna take a break before hitting the reunion era.
Topic: The Iron Maiden Thread v. The Merge of Souls (Read 566433 times)
