Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Maiden At Their Blazeing Best!, 26 Jul 2004
Like many fans, I was initially turned off by the drastic change of vocal style when Bruce Dickinson left and Blaze Bailey stepped in. Bailey's style is so different to Dickinson's that the 'Maiden' sound took a step towards another dimension!
At first, I could not get into this new sound, particularly Bailey's style of singing.
But, as all the best albums achieve, 'Sign Of The Cross' began to grow on me. I found myself humming the title track, 'Lord Of The Flies' and 'Man On The Edge' without realising it. More importantly, this new arrival breathed a new life into the band's writing and performance. Maiden's music became more disciplined, yet more emotional (very lacking with the Dickinson era).
It still took more time to get used to Bailey's style but, honestly, there is something addictive about his voice.In fact, it was so addictive that I eventually went out and bought the 3 'Blaze' albums he produced once he left Maiden! The man has become one of my favourite vocalists!
If you are new to Iron Maiden, then a 'Best Of' compilation is best. This should also feature Maiden's original singer, Paul Di'anno. You will then have a broad idea of what Maiden are all about.
Essentially, the ultimate Maiden sound is the band that featured Dickinson, but 'The Sign Of The Cross' and, more importantly, Blaze Bailey, gave the band the kick up the a** it needed.
All the songs on the album are pretty much classic, full of energy, and have a catch to 'em that will make them hammer around your brain.
Personally, this is my favourite Iron Maiden album. But, be warned, give the album a chance to grow on you. You will learn to love it!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Definatley something different, 13 Dec 1999
By A Customer
After the evil sounds of Paul Di'Anno and the class orchestra-esque wailing of Bruce Dickinson, once again Iron Maiden have/had a vocalist (Blaze Bayley) whose voice reflects the music. Compared to albums like The Number Of The Beast, Powerslave etc, this is more of a darker nature. More so than the Iron Maiden and Killers albums. Along with the morbid nature of most of the songs, this gives a feeling of the evilness that people sometimes tend to stereotype Maiden with.The first track , Sign Of The Cross, is an 11 minute monster with chanting monks. Personally, I think that this does wonders for the effect. But I know people have found this off-putting. If you feel uncertain about your opinions of Maiden, then this will probably tip it towards the negative side. At least you get plenty for your money. 70 odd minutes. Considerably longer than some of the stuff out there. Personally, I think this albums kicks. But if you only ever buy one Iron Maiden album, you may be better off with The Number Of The Beast.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
One of Iron Maidens best albums of their latter years (and under the circumstances a great achievement), 14 Aug 2007
Sometimes I wonder if the people who give this album bad reviews have actually bothered themselves to listen to it. I've read a lot of rubbish and I'd like to get the record straight for those who are considering buying The X Factor.
The X-Factor was the first Iron Maiden album to have a new lead vocalist since Number Of The Beast. However, whereas Bruce Dickenson warmed quickly to a still pretty niche Iron Maiden in the 80's, new singer (ex-Wolfsbane vocalist Blaze Bayley) was thrust into a now metal juggernaut. He suffered a lot because of this and so did the band. It had nothing to do with his singing its just, well, Dickenson IS the voice of Iron Maiden. Because of this some fans turned their backs on the band, Blaze suffered less than a lukewarm reception to him at early gigs and people slated this album without really listening to it.
Well it's been a while now and looking back or should I say listening back it's hard to really find much fault with this album. Opening track Sign Of The Cross is a Maiden classic and should definitely go down as one. It's never appeared on any best of's but it's sometimes played live and has that same haunting quality about it that Hallowed Be Thy Name has. Lord Of The Flies was played on the recent Maiden live album and is an excellent edition, a fantastic song. Man On The Edge is on many a Maiden best of and rightly so, a pure metal classic. Fortunes Of War and Aftermath are excellent `horrors of war' pieces. There are also some very personal songs here in 2 am, Judgement Of Heaven and Unbeliever (some of Steve Harris' best writing).
The X Factor is a very dark album (no one would deny that) but song-wise its got everything, great riffs, excellent lead work from Murray and Gers, excellent lead-bass work from Steve Harris, some of Nicko's most contained drumming ever (he usually over does the bass drum and the ride for my liking). But most of all the new vocalist Blaze Bayley performed excellently and on songs like Sign Of The Cross he puts in as good a performance as Bruce ever did. A great album and should never be considered to be a lesser release. Buy it now and forget the general negativity surrounding the circumstances of this album.
P.S. Blaze made one more album with Maiden Virtual XI, it wasn't as good and this (well it was utter rubbish actually) but along with his poor vocal performances of classic Maiden songs live meant he got the sack.
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