Author Topic: [Music] Iron Maiden - The X Factor  (Read 3516 times)

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Offline tri.ad

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[Music] Iron Maiden - The X Factor
« on: April 27, 2009, 08:29:36 AM »
Artist: Iron Maiden
Release: The X Factor
Genre: Heavy Metal
Released: 1995
On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/X-Factor-Iron-Maiden/dp/B000063DGJ/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1240842499&sr=8-1

Reviewed by: Nicolas Xander


Iron Maiden‘s tenth album was created under difficult circumstances. Bandleader Steve Harris went through a rough time in his life, Bruce Dickinson has left the band two years earlier, and it was not sure how the fanbase would welcome new vocalist Blaze Bayley (formerly singer of „Wolfsbane“).

More than a decade later, we know that the Blaze-era albums are generally regarded as very weak, and much of this „negative credit“ goes to the singer. But regarding The X Factor, which gets a nice share of this criticism, it really is not justified.
This album mostly deals with topics Iron Maiden are known for: War, religion and history. However, the band also takes a step on previously unknown ground, writing about conflicts in the human mind that extend themselves to the point of self-abandonment. The music is incredibly fitting for these rather dark subjects: It‘s darker than Iron Maiden has ever been, and Blaze Bayley‘s voice surely helps strengthening this uniquely brooding atmosphere.

„Sign Of The Cross“ opens this album with an 11-minute long journey that could be easily described as „epic“. This track‘s style is classic Iron Maiden and overall, it is without a doubt one of the best songs on the album.
„Lord Of The Flies“ and „Man On The Edge“ were released as singles and are two rather fast-paced rockers. Also, they can be seen as some kind of transition between the typical Iron Maiden style and the general mood of The X Factor which is definitely represented by „Fortunes Of War“, a rather slow, but still very heavy song about a soldier‘s life and problems after war (similar to „The Aftermath“ on the same album and Dream Theater‘s „War Inside My Head“) that might suffer a bit from Steve Harris‘s affection to massively extend the songs he writes, but it is still a great effort that should not be overlooked.

„Look For The Truth“, „The Aftermath“ and „Judgement Of Heaven“ cannot compete with the preceding and succeeding songs. While „Look For The Truth“ comes closest to them, both of the other songs are rather weak and can be classified as filler material.
„Blood On The World‘s Hands“, however, is a strong return, mostly due to a killer bass lead at the beginning. The next song, „The Edge Of Darkness“, has recently overtaken „Sign Of The Cross“ as my favourite song on the album. Possibly the darkest song on the album, it deals with a soldier‘s situation in the War of Vietnam and is based on films like „Platoon“ and „Apocalypse Now“. The only possible flaw one might consider is the slight inconsistency of the lyrics.
„2 AM“ is a song that often gets overlooked. Not justified, because it is a great song that fits the album‘s mood very well. The X Factor could have ended after this song, because „The Unbeliever“, the final song, does not work well as a closer and it is a rather weak song compared to the rest of the album.

The production is somehow two-edged. One one hand, it is perhaps the last great sounding Iron Maiden album in terms of loudness and clarity, on the other hand, the guitars really don‘t sound like guitars. In fact, the sound is rather similar to orchestral strings on overdrive. Also, the snare drum is too quiet and lacks a bit of punch. Still, the enjoyable level of loudness that does not grate your ears after twenty minutes is a great plus and easily evens out the questionable aspects of the production.

The X Factor is probably the epitome of an underrated album. Many Iron Maiden listeners avoid it because of the lack of Bruce Dickinson, but Blaze Bayley gets too much undeserved criticism for actually doing a great job on this album. I have only a few complaints: Three songs that can‘t really keep up with the high quality of the rest, and the production that makes some instruments sound somewhat strange. But the greatness of most of the songs and the amazing dark and brooding atmosphere outmatch the flaws very easily.

tri.ad‘s Rating: 8.5-9/10
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Offline aurorablind

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Re: [Music] Iron Maiden - The X Factor
« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2009, 09:26:57 AM »
I absolutely agree with you!
I am probably one of very few people that actually got into Maiden because of this record, and since then they have been my favorite band.
I remember buying "The wicker man"-single, and i really liked the live version of "man on the edge", so i bought the album that contained it.
I have allways loved this album, and allways will!  :metal

Offline Nick

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Re: [Music] Iron Maiden - The X Factor
« Reply #2 on: April 27, 2009, 09:33:15 AM »
Blaze Bayley is not a bad singer, he really shines on his solo albums, but the parts that Steve Harris wrote for him are nothing short of awful half the time. He just did not sound that great in Maiden. However Blaze is not the primary reason that those years are often so avoided by Maiden fans in my opinion. I would say that those two albums show Steve Harris especially at a song-writing shortfall. It is generally bland and repetitive. There are of course a few gems on each album, but I certainly would not say either of these albums are underrated.
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Offline tri.ad

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Re: [Music] Iron Maiden - The X Factor
« Reply #3 on: April 27, 2009, 11:05:00 AM »
I actually agree on Steve Harris' songwriting in the 90s, but it was way, way worse on Virtual XI than on TXF. I mean, stretching a song to 10 minutes when five are almost too much? Come on. And the over-and-over repeated one-line choruses are also mainly his fault (The Mercenary, Blood Brothers, For The Greater Good Of God). That's one of the few things to criticise on The X Factor imo, but I still think that it shouldn't be overlooked that obviously.
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Offline GuineaPig

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Re: [Music] Iron Maiden - The X Factor
« Reply #4 on: May 01, 2009, 01:01:46 PM »
I think with better production, inclusion of Judgment Day, and an actually good Blaze performance the X Factor might've been my favourite Maiden album.

I disagree with your opinions on Judgment of Heaven and the Unbeliever.  I actually really enjoy both songs, as they are amazing lyrically and have some great bits.  Judgment of Heaven suffers from some over happy melodies and an awful vocal performance, and the Unbeliever from some jarring verses, but there are some absolutely amazing parts in both that make them strong songs in my book.
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