Customer Reviews

Silicon Messiah

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In my humble opinion, Blaze (Bayley)'s album "Silicon Messiah" is a masterpiece, one of the best metal albums of all time. Exaggeration? Some of you may think so. I don't. His voice is amazing (which could lead to conspiracy theories: was Harris doing something "bad" to it when producing Bayley's albums with Maiden?), the band plays brilliantly, the lyrics are great too, and it's one of those albums which will be hard to take out of your CD player.

Totally refreshing... sounds both 'old' (in the classical sense, meaning it doesn't sound like 90s metal at all :) ) and new.

It really has a style of its own, so it's hard to compare to other bands... let me think... it doesn't sound like Maiden (both old and new) at all. Bruce Dickinson's "Chemical Wedding" is a bit closer to this one. Maybe also a little bit of Dio's "Strange Highways". Or... yes, that's it, Rage's "Ghosts".

I'm almost "afraid" to say this, but as much as I love Maiden, Bruce and "Brave New World", I think "Silicon Messiah" completely and absolutely outclasses it.

A concept album about the quest to attain immortality and massive power by downloading conciousness into a comuter and save the world, becoming its 'Silicon Messiah', and the horrible turns of events that follow, this first solo album by Blaze Bayley - vocalist for Iron Maiden's "X Factor" and "Virtual XI" albums - is a masterpiece from the first track to the last, rivalling anything Iron Maiden's ever done with any of their vocalists.

Personally I think Blaze's work with Maiden is vastly underrated, although I've noticed that even those who hated the above albums seemed impressed by "Silicon Messiah" and the subsequent albums, and it's not hard to see why. This is a disc that should go over well with all of heavy metal fandom, not just certain subgenres of it, because it's not an album that neatly falls into one category (power metal, thrash, death metal, whatever) and stays there. Blaze and band - Steve Wray and John Slater on Guitars, Jeff Singer on drums and Rob Naylor on bass, who succeeds in a particularly hard slot by having to live up to the legacy of Maiden's Steve Harris, considered by many the greatest bassist in metal history, are all incredible musicians, dare I say on level with Blaze's previous bandmates in the immortal Maiden? - seem to have drawn from influences all over the map - Helloween-style power metal, early seventies metal/proto-metal, stoner rock, classic 80s metal when all the top bands (Maiden, Judas Priest, Accept, etc.) shared traits but were so wonderfully distinct from one another, even influences as far out as industrial music and King Diamond can be heard, blended into a fresh, unique concoction.

Although this is a concept album, the songs can be taken as individual entries just as easily - the inspirational "The Launch" and "The Brave", the all-too-real-life "Evolution" - with its chillingly devastating outro effects, whose meaning can be interpreted by each individual listener; myself I'm thinking of a terrifying progression of the song material of Skyclad's "The Disenchanted Forest" (off the "Folkemon" CD) in the possibly not too distant future; the aptly named "The Hunger" with immense, march-like drumming; everything's great.

It's worth noting that although the band goes by Blaze's name, all the musicians had plentiful input on the songwriting and are given ample time to shine on the tracks themselves; this is truly a band effort, not really a solo album with backup players. I hope that this new domestic release has the same liner booklet as the Import version I got a few years ago; it goes along great with the whole album story.

Indispensable album; recommended for All metal fans.

I must say that I hate nu-metal, but Blaze successfully mixes new style instrument work with older styles, and it comes out amazing! I bought this over a year ago and still listen to it almost constantly! Here's how the songs break down:

Ghost in the Machine- Rating: 5
I love this song. Very heavy, starts the story of technology destroying humanity.

Evolution- Rating: 3
This song could easily have been a 4 or higher if he didn't have the high pitched guitar part in the opening and the chorus. I love all the other stuff in it!

Silicon Messiah- Rating: 4.5
Amazing song. Very dark, I love it! The first softer song on the album.

Born As A Stranger- Rating: 4.5
Fast, upbeat, fun song! Easy to headbang to, great lyrics!

The Hunger- Rating: 4
A slower, darker song. The Hunger is very powerful and keeps you listening.

The Brave- Rating: 5
My favorite song on the cd. The Brave is simply unforgetable!

Identity- Rating: 3.5
I don't no why, even though I really liked Identity I never am able to listen to it. That is the big problem with this one.

Reach for the Horizon- Rating: 4
Pretty cool song that starts the second story about space travel.

The Launch- Rating: 4.5
The badass brother of Man on the Edge! The Launch is amazingly great, one of my favorite songs on the cd!

Stare at the Sun- Rating: 4.5
An end to the story, a man stuck in space with no way home. A soft song that fits the story very well. A great end to a great cd.

In my humble opinion, Blaze (Bayley)'s album "Silicon Messiah" is a masterpiece, one of the best metal albums of all time. Exaggeration? Some of you may think so. I don't. His voice is amazing (which could lead to conspiracy theories: was Harris doing something "bad" to it when producing Bayley's albums with Maiden?), the band plays brilliantly, the lyrics are great too, and it's one of those albums which will be hard to take out of your CD player.

Totally refreshing... sounds both 'old' (in the classical sense, meaning it doesn't sound like 90s metal at all :) ) and new.

It really has a style of its own, so it's hard to compare to other bands... let me think... it doesn't sound like Maiden (both old and new) at all. Bruce Dickinson's "Chemical Wedding" is a bit closer to this one. Maybe also a little bit of Dio's "Strange Highways". Or... yes, that's it, Rage's "Ghosts".

I'm almost "afraid" to say this, but as much as I love Maiden, Bruce and "Brave New World", I think "Silicon Messiah" completely and absolutely outclasses it.

I am not a huge fan of Iron Maiden, though I loved the very early work; so I cannot give a very strong opinion of Blaze in Maiden. To me, his work with Maiden sounded bland and without energy, but Maiden's work has never really appealed to me, too much repetition. This work, however, shows that maybe Blaze was a bit held down by the Steve Harris formula of Maiden. Though Blaze's voice is not in the same multi-octive singing category as Bruce Dickenson or Rob Halford, the songwriting and music are amazingly stellar, and far superior to to either Maiden or Judas Priest. This music has its roots in NWOBHM, with some power metal influences, the twin axe work sounds of Judas Priest, and the speed of the aforementioned with the occasional brooding evil grind of Saxon. You can also feel some of the more modern American influences in the music with the rhythm "heaviness" and modern subject matter of the writing. I really dig this music, and am ordering the three newer releases of Blaze, as they have all received great acclamation from the fanbase at Amazon. This IS heavy metal, guys. It mixes the best across the boundaries of styles, but don't take MY word for it; LISTEN!

I love X Factor. I've listened to that Maiden a lot lately, and it's great. Silicon Messiah, however, blows it away. Blaze's voice has improved a lot and fits better with the music. Not a flat note at all in here, and there were a few in X Factor.

If you're not willing to pick this up because you didn't like X Factor and/or Virtual XI, you really have no excuse not to, except maybe the high price.

.... This album rocked. Released on the same day as Brave new world. BNW won the album sale, SM won the critics praise. Silicon Messiah is a masterpiece. The 2nd best album which a features and ex-Iron Maiden. (The Best being Chemical wedding with Bruce Dickinson) All of these songs are great the only weak song in my opinion is 'Reach for the Horizon'. Bayley has put together one of the best metal bands ever to grace the earth. Musically and lyrically it is a masterpiece. The guitars are simple and straightforward, but they deliver the goods with terrific solos and great rythm. The bass is also simple and holds the tempo amazingly and the drummer drives the rythm and the tempo. Blaze has certainly never sounded as good. I thought he sang well on Virtual XI and he was brilliant on The X-Factor, but he never belonged in Iron Maiden. But he has found his home, here it is visable why Steve chose him to sing in Iron Maiden.

Blaze found some new guys that really know how to make a metal album. Also, producer Andy Sneap is a genius of this genre, and his production is flawless, the sound is crisp, bright, heavy and very tight.

His first solo album is very good, giving hope for the albums to come (TENTH DIMENSION and BLOOD AND BELIEF, bothof them better than this one). HIs guitarists, Wray and Slater, are typical British metal guitarists, like if they were already around the scene around 1980...They play with passion and a sense of melody seldom witnessed.

"Born As A Stranger" and "Stare At The Sun" are the highlights here, in my opinion. The last one is a masterpiece, with a lot of tempo changes.

Make no mistake, there is a lot of Maiden's influence here, mainly in the song structures, but Blaze added his own agressiveness, and the production is much, much better than the Maiden albums without Martin Birch.

Silicon Messiah is one of the greatest albums in the history of heavy metal. It combines earth shattering guitar riffs with some of the most thought provoking lyrics the metal genre has ever experienced. Additionally, the vocal performance by Blaze Bayley is by far the best of his career.

Even many of those who were critics of his work with Iron Maiden will be swayed by this album when given a chance. Andy Sneap, producer, brings out the most from Blaze's deep and powerful voice. Something which bass player extraordinaire, Steve Harris, was unable to do while producing Blaze's two albums with Iron Maiden.

This album is packed with excellent songs. There is not a single weak track out of the bunch. Themes include the future of humanity as it expands into outer space, the evolution of computers into sentient life forms, human psychology, and alienation. The music is obviously influenced by diverse forms of metal. Many of the guitar riffs will remind one of ferocious thrash a la Iced Earth, while many of the solos remind me of Iron Maiden. All I can say is that it works very well!

If you like metal, you will like this album.

First let me say I've been a huge Maiden fan since 1980. Like many people I found the selection of Blaze Bayley to replace Bruce a little lame, whereas the replacement of Dianno with Bruce had made some sense -- in the context of X Factor and Virtual XI he did come off sounding like a not-quite-there Bruce copy, but I blame 'Arry and the guys at Sanctuary for that. But...I got hold of several live recordings from the 1995-98 tours, and there was something there that was off, but also a hint of Blaze having a greateness within him that was getting lost in the Maiden-as-Maiden-cover-band thing. So Bruce and Adrian are back -- the real Maiden is back, thank the metal Gods. But guess what? Far beyond the boring noise of Wolfsbane and using the Maiden years as a launching pad, Blaze has spent a year and put together a SMOKING band of unknowns and a SMOKING album of classic-cum-modern metal. Terrific production, nice writing, a few slight prog edges, plenty of thud and clear influences ranging from Maiden to Alice in Chains come through without obscuring the originality of the tunes. And guess what? Blaze CAN SING. I'm now certain that Steve Harris kept him on a leash or in the Maiden-zone or whatever. Freed to use his whole range on songs designed for it, this stuff is great. The live show, if they ever get to the States, is certain to include the strongest of the Maiden material (Man on the Edge, Futureal, etc) as well as these great songs. Easily in the top 3 metal records this year along with Maiden's stunning Brave New World and Dio's Magica. I'm also glad to see that the Maiden boys continue to cross-promote Blaze on their website...fans of classic metal, prog metal (i.e. Savatage), Maiden, Dio, even the harder side of the Seattle sound (early Soundgarden, AIC) you'll love this.