Stratovarius Community

Its only me that thinks X-Factor is a fucking great album?

or the others maiden maniacs here thinks like me?

Its fucking great...heavy, obscure...totally different from the 80's old maiden...i love this album!!!

And hell no...Blaze didnt ruined any song here...he was great, in this album the singer wouldnt change the feeling of the songs...maybe live Bruce can be better, but this time nope.

tell me your oppinion...maybe this is the first topic without spam in ages...

My opinion is just the same as yours. VERY underrated album.

MaFiaBoY wrote:My opinion is just the same as yours. VERY underrated album.

what? where do you saw "underrated" ?

This album is good , very good ! Bayley is a very good heavy singer , but this album doesn't have the same quality than the albums with Bruce Dickinson .

But , you're right , this album is good , very good , but not great !

StragOvariuS wrote:

MaFiaBoY wrote:My opinion is just the same as yours. VERY underrated album.

what? where do you saw "underrated" ?

between the lines of your post...

stratokiller wrote:This album is good , very good ! Bayley is a very good heavy singer , but this album doesn't have the same quality than the albums with Bruce Dickinson .

But , you're right , this album is good , very good , but not great !

Yep...but have more creativity than No prayer for the dying i think(just to compare with an album from bruce's era.)

Lilith wrote:

StragOvariuS wrote:

MaFiaBoY wrote:My opinion is just the same as yours. VERY underrated album.

what? where do you saw "underrated" ?

between the lines of your post...

well...then,


*damn beer...

I love the X Factor. It's one of my favourite Maiden albums. Dark, heavy, and stripped-down yet still atmospheric sounding. One of the strongest Maiden albums ever, in my opinion.

True classic.

it is great, but i think that album draws the current line of writing songs, from that album ' til now they abuse of using 5ths..., i am not saying they don't rule the heavy metal kingdom, Iron Maiden is my fave band ever, but i believe they should go back to that old formula they used to work with, if you want to understand what i mean make a comparission between "Somewhere in time" and "Dance of Death"

Up the Irons!

I think there are only two weak albums from Maiden: "No prayer for the dying" and -perhaps and only partly- "Dance of Death". Actually, there are some really strong numbers on it, "Face in the sand" or "Paschendale" for instance." Brave new world" was great, because it sounded different from the others in a way but still distinctively like Maiden.

Regarding Blaze Baley: He is a great singer, and his live performance is also great. I saw him twice with Maiden and once with Blaze and he really rocked the hall! :headbang:

However, I like "Virtual XI" more than "The X-Factor". Especially "Como Estais Amigos" is such a great song...

hold up, i thought bruce was back in maiden?

stratoplayer wrote:hold up, i thought bruce was back in maiden?

mm, yeah, he is

To be honest, The X-Factor is one of the worst Maiden albums

But there is one song that I like very much, The Sign of the Cross.

In fact I haven't heard X-Factor album... only songs Lord of the Flies (there is even some good parts in that song) and Man on the Edge. But I don't like these very much because IMHO Blaze is horrible singer and there isn't very much interesting music there... Shame.
But luckily Bruce returned after some years!

Stratofanius wrote:In fact I haven't heard X-Factor album... only songs Lord of the Flies (there is even some good parts in that song) and Man on the Edge. But I don't like these very much because IMHO Blaze is horrible singer and there isn't very much interesting music there... Shame.
But luckily Bruce returned after some years!

Listen to it. 'Sign of the Cross' and 'Edge of Darkness' are absolutely fantastic tracks. Also, 'The Aftermath' is amazing. 'Blood on the World's Hands' has a great bass solo intro, and is a heavy, dark, moody song.

NeonVomit wrote:

Stratofanius wrote:In fact I haven't heard X-Factor album... only songs Lord of the Flies (there is even some good parts in that song) and Man on the Edge. But I don't like these very much because IMHO Blaze is horrible singer and there isn't very much interesting music there... Shame.
But luckily Bruce returned after some years!

Listen to it. 'Sign of the Cross' and 'Edge of Darkness' are absolutely fantastic tracks. Also, 'The Aftermath' is amazing. 'Blood on the World's Hands' has a great bass solo intro, and is a heavy, dark, moody song.

Maybe I should, but I HATE Blaze's voice so it's hard...

I also like it.

NeonVomit wrote:Also, 'The Aftermath' is amazing.

I totally forgot that song! The Aftermath really is amazing song and one of the first maiden tracks that I learned to play with guitar. But I agree with Stratofanius, Blaze isn't a good singer at all.

The only way this album would have made it was if Bruce was singing it with the great music that was on it. Bruce has proven that when he did songs like The Clansman and Lord Of The Flies. Respectively done on Rock IN Rio and Death On The Road.

I think the X-Factor made it. Given the circumstances.

Still one of the strongest Maiden albums ever, in my opinion.

Its just not my thing, I feel that Blaze was a weak singer for the style that was demanded.

This must be one of those everyone posts how much they like Blaze Bailey era Maiden so we can look unconventional, not mainstream, and cool boards.
Right?

I bought X Factor and took it back to trade it in for something else the next day.

Paschendale wrote:This must be one of those everyone posts how much they like Blaze Bailey era Maiden so we can look unconventional, not mainstream, and cool boards.
Right?

I bought X Factor and took it back to trade it in for something else the next day.

Um, no actually, I really like Blaze's singing (I have his solo work too) true he was never going to be the same as Dickinson, but it was foolish to expect anyone to be able to sing like Bruce anyway. He has a deeper and more aggressive sounding voice which suited the stuff on the album. The X-Factor is a far stronger album than either No Prayer for the Dying or Fear of the Dark, I don't think anyone can deny that.

And to clarify, I don't just like it because it's 'unconventional'. My tastes have never been affected by convention in any way, shape or form. Plus, I really don't like Virtual XI apart from a couple of songs on it which Bruce managed to perform in a better way anyhow.

The reason I like the X Factor is because it's so atmospheric and really has its own unique sound amongst Maiden albums. It's really dark and moody, which reflected the personal lives of the band at the time. And I honestly don't think anyone can claim that 'Sign Of The Cross' is anything less than a total masterpiece, even with Blaze singing it.

It's not an accessible album, it requires more than just a few listens to really appreciate it. However, all the best albums are always like that.

NeonVomit wrote:X-Factor is a far stronger album than either No Prayer for the Dying or Fear of the Dark, I don't think anyone can deny that.

Even I haven't heard X-factor, I have to say this: Fear of the Dark is damn underrated! I can understand your point of No Prayer for the Dying, but what's always wrong with Fear of the Dark? Usually name "Fear of the Dark" appears in mind by awesome title track, but in Fear of the Dark -album, there is much more Maiden classics than many others Maiden albums: Afraid to Shoot the Strangers, Childhood's End, Wasting Love, Judas Be My Guide and as I said the title track. There is just one boring song (The Apparition)...
I love Fear of the Dark and it's one of the best Maiden albums, say whatever to my opinion.

Stratofanius wrote:

NeonVomit wrote:X-Factor is a far stronger album than either No Prayer for the Dying or Fear of the Dark, I don't think anyone can deny that.

Even I haven't heard X-factor, I have to say this: Fear of the Dark is damn underrated! I can understand your point of No Prayer for the Dying, but what's always wrong with Fear of the Dark? Usually name "Fear of the Dark" appears in mind by awesome title track, but in Fear of the Dark -album, there is much more Maiden classics than many others Maiden albums: Afraid to Shoot the Strangers, Childhood's End, Wasting Love, Judas Be My Guide and as I said the title track. There is just one boring song (The Apparition)...
I love Fear of the Dark and it's one of the best Maiden albums, say whatever to my opinion.

Whatever to my opinion

Stratofanius wrote:

NeonVomit wrote:X-Factor is a far stronger album than either No Prayer for the Dying or Fear of the Dark, I don't think anyone can deny that.

Even I haven't heard X-factor, I have to say this: Fear of the Dark is damn underrated! I can understand your point of No Prayer for the Dying, but what's always wrong with Fear of the Dark? Usually name "Fear of the Dark" appears in mind by awesome title track, but in Fear of the Dark -album, there is much more Maiden classics than many others Maiden albums: Afraid to Shoot the Strangers, Childhood's End, Wasting Love, Judas Be My Guide and as I said the title track. There is just one boring song (The Apparition)...
I love Fear of the Dark and it's one of the best Maiden albums, say whatever to my opinion.

The problem of FOTD songs is because they didnt promoted the other songs as well, they always played in the gigs many songs of the tour album, look how was in the powerslave tour...they played even The rime of the ancient mariner and in the FOTD tour they played really few songs of the album( fotd, afraid to shoot strangers and wasting love all the time) and the others didnt appeared so much and they released 3 live albums that time with many older songs then that's why people always will remember only 3 or 2 songs of FOTD.

Stratofanius wrote:

NeonVomit wrote:X-Factor is a far stronger album than either No Prayer for the Dying or Fear of the Dark, I don't think anyone can deny that.

Even I haven't heard X-factor, I have to say this: Fear of the Dark is damn underrated! I can understand your point of No Prayer for the Dying, but what's always wrong with Fear of the Dark? Usually name "Fear of the Dark" appears in mind by awesome title track, but in Fear of the Dark -album, there is much more Maiden classics than many others Maiden albums: Afraid to Shoot the Strangers, Childhood's End, Wasting Love, Judas Be My Guide and as I said the title track. There is just one boring song (The Apparition)...
I love Fear of the Dark and it's one of the best Maiden albums, say whatever to my opinion.

I agree, Fear of the Dark is underrated. It's also a very special album to me, it's the first Metal album I ever heard or owned. Basically, FOTD is what got me into metal in the first place, and its a shame that tracks like Afraid to Shoot Strangers and Chains of Misery aren't remembered anymore, they're truly amazing.

X-Factor is however, even more underrated. You should listen to it to understand what I mean.

I still don't think that FOTD is underrated..

NeonVomit wrote:X-Factor is however, even more underrated. You should listen to it to understand what I mean.

If Bruce sings in X-Factor, I would buy it even I already would know is it good or bad, because Bruce is always Bruce.
And MAYBE X-Factor is a good album, but the singer sucks so hard that half of enjoying is lost... From those 6 Blaze songs which I've heard, the only ok one of singing is Afraid to Shoot Strangers -song's version where Blaze sings...

StragOvariuS wrote:and in the FOTD tour they played really few songs of the album( fotd, afraid to shoot strangers and wasting love all the time)

Don't forget Be Quick or Be Dead, it appears on those live albums

So does From Here To Eternity mind you.