Customer Reviews

As Live As It Gets

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

To start, Blaze Bayley is probably best known for his work in Iron Maiden - which did not come off well with fans.

Individually, Blaze is a fantastic singer and his major obstacle with Maiden was that his voice is much lower than Bruce Dickinson's. Then when you factor in the concept of Maiden's music taking a different direction and a different route in production, our sideburned front man had a lot stacked against him. To many a person's suprise, he did a rather damn good job live as testified to many a bootleg and review. That ability to stay spot-on in a concert is seen here with this album.

After leaving Maiden, Blaze created his own band and created two rather good albums which then culminated into this live version one. Some highlights follow.

When Two Worlds Collide: A holdover of Blaze's from his Maiden days, this piece was just okay when it was first recorded. Here on the other hand Blaze plays with it a little and the tone the guitarists use really thicken it up making it a great addition to the set.

Steel: A song from Wolfsbane, Blaze's original band, the energy here is great and lends nicely to the transition throughout the song selection.

Dazed and Confused: Actually, a Led Zepplin cover, Blaze really shows some flexibility here. Slow, heavy and churning, Blaze's voice turns into a more blues player style which is fun to listen too and a good way to end the first disc.

The Brave: This song is fast and the "galloping" guitars lend nicely to the atmosphere it creates. Once again, the energy stays high and keeps the listener interested.

Sign of the Cross: Another Maiden song - see a pattern here? I'm a big Maiden fan - this one was actually preformed by Iron Maiden in their Rock in Rio set with Bruce but I like this version better. They take it up tempo to the recording on The X Factor and once again the sound is huge as they utilize their guitarists as much as they can to make a fatter sound. This one is a little under ten and a half minutes and does not get boring in the least. A fun one to listen to and also I would like to think of it as a slap in the face of all those people who think that Metal is just devil worship.

Futureal: Great song progression here and yet again, another Maiden song - the last I promise. Anyways, they fiddle with the arangement here and after the first 16-bar phrase, they actually extend one guitar part up a thrid or fifth and by doing that alone increase the energy of the piece. The solos fit great and it shows their maturity that they did such a taxing piece as Sign of the Cross, followed it up with Futureal a burner, or as a jazz muscian would say "a hot one", and were still able to keep that energy up like this. Incredibly fun to listen too and catchy like you would not believe.

Born as a Stranger: This was the first Blaze song I heard and became a favorite of mine from their catalog and still is. A catchy chorus and some audience interaction that is fun to listen too. Hopefully, it will be a favorite of yours as well.

Now, granted I mentioned a lot of Maiden pieces, but the rest of the songs are fantastic as well and rather enjoyable to listen to. Blaze gives his own little introduction to many pieces and the speech before Kill and Destroy and Dazed and Confused will give you a nice laugh.

Two things I should mention though:
1. This was recorded at two different concerts, a disc to each respectively.
2. My only grievence with this is that the production is done so well that the audience is almost not there at times. You might even forget that it is a live recording.

All in all a great Metal CD that is a good buy and fun to listen to. Do not skip this one and the price for a two disc set is rather nice.

I'm quite enjoying this 2 CD live album. I learned of Blaze by way of the 2 Iron Maiden albums he recorded with the band. I picked up Blaze's first album post-Maiden and was very pleased; Tenth Dimension was also great. This live album has great recordings of osme of the best songs from those 2 CDs. In addition, there's tracks from Blaze's Maiden years, a Wolfsbane tune (Blaze's pre-Maiden group) and a cover of a Led Zeppelin track.

Some songs here are better than their studio recordings. Virus is definitely one of these; if you picked up the Iron Maiden single, you may have found the audio levels a bit poor. The live version is much more vivid.

Blaze's energy is high on all tracks, creating a great live feel, even if the fans aren't always loud; this brings me to my one criticism: not enough (or loud enough?) fan screaming and sing-along to help flesh out the live presence.

Man, this is great. The production is amazing, all musicians sound crystal clear, the energy is amazing, the songs are dark, energetic, inspiring, catchy, classic heavy metal at his best.

It's one of the best things I've heard in a long, long time.

Blaze rocks! Another great metal band lost overseas. Bailey shows that there's more to him than Iron Maiden. The reason he didn't win over Maiden fans was because he wasn't Bruce Dickinson. On his own, Bailey and his gang shine with agressive, fist pounding anthems, with the underlying theme of man vs. machine. I have my doubts to how live this CD gets. If you're unfamiliar with Blaze, this disc will deliver all you need to know.

Awesome live recording from Bayley and a mix of all era's of his career. EPIC!

just go this cd today! its an instant classic live album! great sound! great songs! Blaze rules!! people need to just shut up and listen to his albums with maiden cause they are just as good as all the others! the x factor is just as epic or more than seventh son of a seventh son! you dont believe me? just go listen to it! virtual XI is also epic as hell! and did i forget his band BLAZE? just as epic or more! a lot hevier and just a little more to offer than maiden! great epic bands!

An excellent live album that belongs up there with the greats. Why the hell doesn't Bayley get the recognition he deserves?

No,it's not as good as Live After Death but there aren't many live albums that are.It is pretty great though.Yes,I'm a Blaze fan.Don't get me wrong,I'm still a huge Maiden fan but anything Blaze has done since Maiden is better than anything Maiden has done since losing Blaze.Sorry,that's just my opinion.Now for the music.It covers his first two albums Silicon Messiah and Tenth Dimension,a tune from his Wolfsbane days Steel,and four Maiden tunes When Two Worlds Collide,Virus,Sign of the Cross,and Futureal.Oh yeah,and the only weak spot on it.A cover of Zeppelin's Dazed and Confused.Overall it's a great start if you haven't heard any of Blaze's solo stuff.

If you enjoy Iron Maiden's X-Factor or Virtual XI -this will not disappoint. I personally love Maiden's New stuff (A Matter of Life & Death, Dance of Death, Brave New World)....

but Virtual XI got me back into Maiden after 10 years... Now, Blaze is on top of his game here and I cannot stop listening to this Live cd! First I down loaded all the songs but then, I had to get a quality hard copy. Do not doubt this message and get it!