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Blaze Bayley: The man who would not die
17/07/08 || Euthanatos
After the Gods finally struck a bolt of lightning into Steve Harris’ thick skull, Blaze Bayley got the boot from Iron Maiden and went on to have a solo career. The interesting thing about that is that his debut, “Silicon Messiah”, was a really fucking good record. Solid songs, no fillers, and ironically the heavier style would fit Blaze’s hated vocals perfectly. Who knew, right? But since life is hard and never fair, Blaze quickly descended the heavy metal ladder. “Tenth Dimension”, though not bad, wasn’t nearly as good as its predecessor. And when “Blood and Belief” came about, everyone was ready to stick a fork into Blaze’s back. That was it. Done deal. Maybe in another life. Now fuck off.
See, but that’s the beauty of metal, you can never write anyone off, no matter what god-awful fuck-up they have done. Finally, in his fourth album, Blaze delivers a decent follow up to “Silicon Messiah”, a darker record, with as much punch and aggressiveness as one could ask for in a heavy metal album. I mean, just listen to the title-track, it has great riffs, a somber tone which makes Blaze’s vocals shine. Another interesting tidbit is that Blaze thew a hissy fit around 2004 and threw everyone of his band out, which didn’t come as a surprise to me at all, as I saw him live once and he comes off as a total cunt. Nevertheless, the new guys, which have been aboard since 2007, are a great bunch and certainly fill the positions brilliantly.
Now I don’t know who really produced this, as it is credited to Blaze himself, but whoever did it did an amazing job. The guitars sound heavy as fuck, Blaze sounds in tune, drums are crisp and the bass sounds amazing (listen to “Samurai”). Still, if this really was Blaze who produced this baby, all the more props to him.
There are many highlights, like the aforementioned title-track, “Blackmailer”, “While You Were Gone” has some neat Iron Maiden moments, “Samurai” is a really strong track, “Robot” has some differentiated riffs, “Serpent Hearted Man” sounds fucking epic and has some of the best vocals of the record; just listen to the album as one cohesive unit, it’s actually really worth it.
Good to have you back, Mr. Bayley.
The cover: Looks cool, coherent with the album name. I like the beast-headed beings. Still, a drawing or painting would be cooler than photoshop.
8 short, kinda fat, balding vocalists out of 10.
- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Metal Mind
- Website: www.planetblaze.com
- Band
- Blaze Bayley: vocals
- Nico Bermudez: lead guitar
- Jay Walsh: rhythm guitar
- David Bermudez: bass
- Lawrence Paterson: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. The Man Who Would Not Die
- 02. Blackmailer
- 03. Smile Back at Death
- 04. While You Were Gone
- 05. Samurai
- 06. A Crack in the System
- 07. Robot
- 08. At the End of the Day
- 09. Waiting for My Life to Begin
- 10. Voices from the Past
- 11. The Truth Is One
- 12. Serpent Hearted Man
