Continuing my way through the Iron Maiden studio catalog with the eleventh studio album which was second and the last to feature vocalist Blaze Bayley. In some ways an upgrade over the previous album with much better production, less songs, and musically a little more to the point and not quite as dark and progressive as the X Factor had been. The one thing wasn’t an improvement was the abysmal album cover that tried to combine gaming with the World Cup so you get a kid with a virtual reality game on his head and some random soccer players in the background and a strange looking Eddie as well. I thought this was a really good album at the time and I played it a lot but over the last 20 years I’ve always said it’s my least favorite Maiden album and I flipped sometime over the years and prefer X Factor. Listening to it several times over the last few days I’m actually enjoying a little more again and while it’s still towards the bottom of my Maiden albums list it’s better than I have given it credit for. Even with me enjoying the Blaze era at times, the bigger issue was the band wasn’t really going anywhere new while Bruce was killing it with his solo career specially with the 97/98 era with Accident of Birth and Chemical Wedding. The album opens with the fast paced “Futureal” which is a solid opening track that was played live on this tour and even on some of the Reunion tour shows with Bruce. “The Angel and the Gambler” was released as a single which is crazy considering it’s almost 10 minutes long but the single was edited to a little over 6 minutes and that version should have been on the album. The song is very 70s UFO inspired with a lot of keyboards and at a shorter length would be a better song but my god the chorus is said over and over and over and seems to go on forever and just gets very boring. “Lightning Strikes Twice” is a solid uptempo song and I like the guitar solo but again the chorus is just the song title over and over and gets old very quickly. “The Clansman” is arguably the best song of the Blaze era. Just a classic musically and lyrically. An epic track at almost 10 minutes and lyrically about the whole Braveheart Scottish freedom fighting. It’s even better with Bruce on the Rock in Rio live album. “When Two Worlds Collide” starts slow and builds before locking up the pace and at 6 minutes doesn’t stay at the party too long. Love the chorus and it’s not overdone like several songs on the album and probably one of the more underrated tracks on the album. “The Educated Fool” starts softly but gets more aggressive about a minute in and has a really good very classic Maiden like melody. This was probably my favorite track at one point and I still think it’s a solid song. At 8 minutes “Don’t Look to the Eyes of a Stranger” is a little too long but it’s an interesting song that starts very slow in the verses and gets heavier as it moves on and goes into a different breakdown in the middle of the song. The chorus is very repetitive again but doesn’t bother me as much as some other songs on the album.
“Como Estais Amigos” is a great ballad about the Falklands War and Blaze sounds fantastic on it and proof to the naysayers that he does have a great voice. One of the more memorable Blaze era songs in my opinion. Overall better production and songs that fit Blaze’s voice better but still not a classic album and by this point it wasn’t that Blaze was doing anything wrong it’s just for many fans he wasn’t Bruce. So at this point we say goodbye to Blaze and welcome in a Brave New World with a couple of old friends.
Iron Maiden – Virtual XI (1998)
