IRON MAIDEN — Virtual XI (review)

IRON MAIDEN — Virtual XI album cover Album · 1998 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
adg211288
Virtual XI (1998) is the eleventh album by UK heavy metal act Iron Maiden. It is the second and final album with singer Blaze Bayley, who would be replaced in 1999 by the very singer he replaced in the band, Bruce Dickinson. As guitarist Adrian Smith also returned after this, Virtual XI is the last Iron Maiden album as a five piece. They've continued with a three guitar line-up ever since.

Though I personally once held some appreciation for Blaze Bayley's first outing with Iron Maiden, The X Factor (1995) my regard for the album has evaporated over the years. My experience with Virtual XI is a bit different. Out of the two from the Blaze Bayley era I initially liked Virtual XI a lot more, but quickly grew tired of it. Now years later after first getting them (circa late 2006/early 2007) and I actually find that while my views on Virtual XI haven't drastically changed in the manner that they did with The X Factor, I do in fact find this album to be a small improvement on its predessor after all.

While the band make a lot of the same mistakes, mostly to do with repetition (there's no way that a track like The Angel and the Gambler needs to be almost ten minutes long), it does actually sound to me as if they really were trying that bit harder to make their sound work with Blaze as their singer, and I think that there are more genuinely strong points to be found on the album, such as the instrumental section in Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger, which is pretty epic to my ears, while The Clansman is a great song, though I do prefer the later live version with Bruce Dickinson from Rock in Rio (2002).

Virtual XI is not exactly a recommendable heavy metal album or Iron Maiden album any more than The X Factor was, but it does slightly edge ahead for me to avoid me labelling it was their weakest release the way most fans seem to. Both the Blaze Bayley fronted Iron Maiden albums are, I think, for the completionists only. I'm going to go with 3 stars for this one.
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powermetal2000 wrote:
more than 2 years ago
It would be even better if cut down to 0:00 minutes. ;)
666sharon666 wrote:
more than 2 years ago
The video version is cut down to about four minutes, which I think should have been done for the main, album version too, though it's still a far below standard song from them.
powermetal2000 wrote:
more than 2 years ago
"there's no way that a track like The Angel and the Gambler needs to be almost ten minutes long"

Truer words were never spoken! (or maybe that should be typed).

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