Fear Of The Dark is a little bit darker than previous albums, featuring songs with more sombre lyrical themes and different musical styles. Album opener "Be Quick Or Be Dead" was likely picked to lead into the record because of the aggressive chorus and fast tempo typically found on Speed Metal tracks, as it's a great start to a relatively slow album. Sadly, the band haven't quite captured the same energy that the stellar material from the 80's had. In a way, this is quite good.
It's a respectable decision to continue to produce art your way rather than buckling under commercial pressure and just giving into what you think people want, which is what makes Iron Maiden different to Def Leppard. Instead of writing another Powerslave the band continue to develop their sound and even though they made a few mistakes along the way, namely in the form of a power ballad ("Wasting Love"), at least they're willing to try.
Most fans will know this album for the title track alone, as it's probably one of the band's best songs despite coming from a remarkably average album. Overall, there are several decent tracks but as I mentioned in the last post, decent tracks aren't enough when the band have created several years worth of amazing songs. This album is more likely to be someone's favourite if they're into Metal with a grander sound and mature lyrics, as there's plenty of that on Fear Of The Dark...even if some of the song titles sound plain silly.
1. Be Quick Or Be Dead
2. From Here To Eternity
3. Afraid To Shoot Strangers
4. Fear Is The Key
5. Childhood's End
6. Wasting Love
7. The Fugitive
8. Chains Of Misery
9. The Apparition
10. Judas Be My Guide
11. Weekend Warrior
12. Fear Of The Dark
ALBUM RATING - 6/10
Having lost Adrian Smith during pre-production for the last album, the band suffer another line-up change as Bruce Dickinson decides to walk in favour of a solo career. Replacing him was Wolfsbane vocalist Blaze Bayley, a sort of cross between Di'Anno and Dickinson without any distinct vocal traits of his own.
If you thought the last album was a little bit too moody, you probably won't think much of The X Factor. Everything right down to the grotesque album cover feels dark and depressing, although this is generally considered to be down to Steve Harris' ongoing divorce during the writing process. 11 minute album opener "Sign Of The Cross" starts off with a Gregorian chant and after nearly 90 seconds of this, a melancholy riff introduces us to Blaze's hushed vocals. If I'm honest, there are far better ways to open a Metal album with a new line-up than something that sounds too dark to be played at a funeral.
"Lord Of The Flies" probably would've been a better choice for album opener, as it actually makes me want to listen to the rest of the record and has a great performance from each band member...except Blaze, who sounds like a parallel version of Bruce who's making up how to sing each line as he goes along. This album returns to the progressive format with longer song lengths and frequent tempo changes but since most of the songs start with the same atmospheric guitar/bass intro, the amount of songs that you could call filler is higher than ever before.
Even the better songs on this album aren't significant when compared to other popular Metal tracks released before 1995. It's genuinely difficult to remember more than about three different songs on The X Factor after listening to them and regardless of whether you're into Metal or Iron Maiden specifically, you could easily miss this album and not lose out on anything. THIS is the first "bad" Iron Maiden album in my books, not No Prayer For The Dying.
1. Sign Of The Cross
2. Lord Of The Flies
3. Man On The Edge
4. Fortunes Of War
5. Look For The Truth
6. The Aftermath
7. Judgement Of Heaven
8. Blood On The World's Hands
9. The Edge Of Darkness
10. 2 A.M.
11. The Unbeliever
ALBUM RATING - 2/10
As much as I'd love to say that this was the last album with Blaze Bayley on vocals, there's one more fans had to sit through. Virtual XI was released three years later to tie into both an Iron Maiden video game and the 1998 World Cup, for some reason.
Having got over their personal problems, Iron Maiden return with a slightly more energetic offering. "Futureal" is a perfect album opener following The X Factor and probably the one song where Blaze doesn't sound poor behind the mic. The rest of the album isn't half bad either, as each song has a slightly more distinct sound from the last. The quality of each track is also more in touch with 80's material and even though the second half of the album starts to trot out the homogenised intros en masse, at least the first half is enjoyable.
It's not the band's best when it comes to songwriting, especially when you compare the opening riff of "Don't Look To The Eyes Of A Stranger" and Nirvana's "Heart Shaped Box", but for fans of the long Maiden tunes, this is probably somewhat of a guilty pleasure. If you can ignore the vocals and focus on the music, you might get something out of it.
Virtual XI deserves points just for giving fans hope, more than anything. If Iron Maiden released another X Factor or No Prayer For The Dying, they could've gone out with a whimper and become another Deep Purple, periodically touring capital cities after releasing a Greatest Hits/live album every five years or so. Fortunately, this album is indisputably better than the last one and proves the band are capable of slowly returning to glory after a down period, even if it's by taking baby steps.
1. Futureal
2. The Angel And The Gambler
3. Lightning Strikes Twice
4. The Clansmen
5. When Two Worlds Collide
6. The Educated Fool
7. Don't Look To The Eyes Of A Stranger
8. Como Estais Amigos
ALBUM RATING - 3/10
In 1999, the band kicked out Blaze Bayley and Bruce Dickinson returned to the mic, bringing ex-member Adrian Smith along with him to become the third guitarist for the band. This is still the current line-up for Iron Maiden and it doesn't appear to need changing any time soon.
Brave New World marks the start of Iron Maiden's journey into the third decade of their career (ignoring demo tapes and gigs before their first album's release) and thankfully, it's a good start! Album opener "The Wicker Man" is just what fans needed to remember why they fell in love with the band in the first place, hearing all three guitars going at it with Bruce confidently belting out each line again. Whilst the main responsibility for songwriting tends to be with Steve Harris, Bruce is no slouch when it comes to writing himself. His return meant both his vocal AND creative talents could be put to good use again.
As is often the case on highly regarded albums, there are longer tracks for the Prog Metal enthusiast ("The Nomad" and "Dream Of Mirrors") and shorter tracks for casual Metal fans ("The Mercenary" and "The Fallen Angel") but all in all, the whole album is enjoyable regardless of which type of song you prefer. Anyone who compares it to earlier albums like Piece Of Mind or Somewhere In Time is completely wrong though; it's a completely different sound and use of musical structure to those albums. It may have similar traits of Iron Maiden albums in the past but as the title suggests, it's the band exploring a new millennium with different expectations of musical talent and Metal.
It's a bit of old and a bit of new, creating something relatively unique and more memorable than anything from the Blaze era, for sure. Above all else though, this album is a return to form. It's a great band that's back on track after some four albums that collectively missed the mark. If you listened to Brave New World after Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, it might not sound as great due to the lack of disappointing material you've had to endure in the middle. However, if you ignored No Prayer For The Dying and listened to this one after Fear Of The Dark, it would probably sound like a flawless transition.
1. The Wicker Man
2. Ghost Of The Navigator
3. Brave New World
4. Blood Brothers
5. The Mercenary
6. Dream Of Mirrors
7. The Fallen Angel
8. The Nomad
9. Out Of The Silent Planet
10. The Thin Line Between Love And Hate
ALBUM RATING - 7/10
Since I've already reviewed The Book Of Souls on this blog, the last part of this Shout Out will only contain three albums: Dance Of Death, A Matter Of Life And Death and The Final Frontier. Probably should've thought about that before writing these, as I could've done three parts with five albums each. Ah well.
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