IRON MAIDEN — The X Factor (review)

Album · 1995 · Heavy Metal

3.5/5 · 2015-07-10
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The X Factor (1995) is the tenth full-length studio album by UK heavy metal act Iron Maiden. It is the first of two albums, the other being Virtual XI (1998) to feature the voice of singer Blaze Bayley, who replaced Bruce Dickinson, the band's better known and more iconic frontman. After the two albums Blaze would ultimately be asked to leave the band again in 1999, which left the opening for Dickinson's return.

The Blaze Bayley era of Iron Maiden is certainly the least loved and regarded. A lot of the blame seems to be laid at Blaze Bayley's feet but I don't think that's completely fair. His voice isn't a bad one by any means but I do not think it works very well with Iron Maiden's style the way Bruce Dickinson's does, or even Paul Di'Anno on the first two albums. The bigger problem for me though is not the vocals on The X Factor, but the compositions themselves. They are so damn repetitive. Almost every song on the album follows a similar pattern, starting off light before turning heavy, single Man on the Edge being the notable exception. There's also a lack of energy in the band's performance, like the record was made when they were still feeling the blow of Dickinson's departure and haven't worked out how they're going to come back from it. It's a pretty long album too, over seventy minutes, and it's the only Iron Maiden album I find to drag on too long. While the music has its moments of greatness, it generally doesn't sound too inspired to me.

The funny thing is, I used to quite like this album. But it's an album that hasn't stood the test of time for me. I've not been listening to Iron Maiden since this album was first released, but it'll be nine years this year (2015) since I got my first Iron Maiden albums (I always remember the date as it was the 6th of June 2006, AKA 06/06/06) and started collecting their stuff, which included The X Factor I reckon sometime in late 2006 or early 2007. Back then it was something a bit different in their discography and I actually wrote a much more positive review for it some years ago, though it's never been an Iron Maiden release I've played that often. But people and tastes change and over the years I've heard a lot more music. As a reviewer the more music I hear the higher I seem to find my standards creeping, and The X Factor isn't the first album I've revisited after a long time and not been so impressed with as I remember being.

As a heavy metal album The X Factor is pretty bland, in desperate need of more tracks in the vein of Man on the Edge which really hit home with some heavy metal power. As an Iron Maiden album it seems even worse though. I don't think the nineties were the band's best period but any stretch of the imagination; neither No Prayer for the Dying (1990) or Fear of the Dark (1992) are really up to the high standards of the three releases before them, but The X Factor and it's follow-up Virtual XI are Iron Maiden's all time low. As I said, I don't blame Blaze, the band was clearly with the group as a whole. I'm going to go with 2.5 stars.