Customer Reviews

Virtual Xi

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

After the introduction of vocalist Blaze Bayley, they recorded X Factor in 1995 and got mixed results from fans. The band continued with Virtual XI in 1998, which is now considered one of the worst albums in Maiden's career. Here's the lowdown:

Futureal - This opening track is not bad at all. A good, solid rocker. I think it opens the album well.

The Angel and the Gambler - The hit off of this album, but unfortunately, it isn't that great at all. Not really Blaze's fault, but the chorus is weak.

Lightning Strikes Twice - The best track on the album. This one's a midtempo rocker/"gloom and doom" ballad hybrid. It's pretty good and Murray's blistering solo is brilliant.

The Clansman - The big epic of the album. I have absolutely no complaints with this song and Blaze's vocals are excellent.

When Two Worlds Collide - This song is just bizarre to me. After hearing the previous two tracks, Blaze just doesn't sound good here at all. I wonder if perhaps this was last minute?

Educated Fool - Ugh, the weakest song on the album. Kind of has a galloping structure, but doesn't quite come off well.

Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger - Not bad, but Blaze's vocals kind of derail this one. He's certainly not a bad vocalist, but he sings this one rather lowkey. You have to wonder if Steve Harris wrote this one with Bruce in mind.

Como Estais Amigo - The ballad of the album. The instrumentation is quite good and Blaze's vocals are good, but this one has some poor lyrics in my opinion.

The problem with this is not Blaze's fault. Virtual XI maintains the sound of Maiden (which X Factor didn't), but X Factor seemed tailor made to fit Blaze's singing style. Had Bruce sung this one and some of the songs been tweaked a little, this COULD HAVE been one of the best Maiden albums ever. Sadly, most of the songs seem to have been writing for Bruce's singing talents (because of his high vocal range) which Blaze can't achieve. I don't believe Blaze is bad at all, though... check out his own band, Blaze. I just get the feeling that this album seems rushed and perhaps there was a lot of creative headbutting over this (Blaze left the band shortly after this album's release). Overall, I don't recommend this one. Only get it if you are a DIE-HARD Maiden fan, especially since this CD hasn't been enhanced (to my knowledge).

I'm a huge maiden fan and if your like me you should like this album. I've read some harsh reviews but it's easy to say it's a bad album when your given a copy of the album for free and be paid to review it even if you've never heard maidens work. Personally I think virtual 11 is better than the x factor. It sounds more like maiden(the x factor is good but the sound they were going for didn't suit them)

Futureal is a great album opener thats very short and snappy. nothing complicated just a very solid rock song.I give this song 10/10

The Angel And The Gambler is a good song but it's a bit dragged out.Half the song is Dont You Think I'm A Saviour..........etc.
It's Different which is good so i give it 7/10

Lightning Strikes Twice is one of the best songs.Very catchy. It starts of with a very sorrowful intro but soon gets heavy.I give this song 10/10

The Clansman Is The epic of The Album based In Medievil
Scotland.Bruce Does A great version of this song.Not That It's better ,the two versions are equally great. I give this song 10/10 (obviously).

When Two Worlds Collide is good. It Starts Of similiar to lightning strikes twice.it then goes into the famous galloping guitar riffs. I give this song 7/10

The Educated Fool Is In my opinion the best song on the album. I Cant Say More Than it's very catchy. I can't explain it,the lyrics and the music just struck a chord with me. I give this song 11/10.

Don't Look To The Eyes Of A Stranger Is A Good song. Not My Favourite but it's still a good song. I give it 6.5/10

Como Estais Amigo is the final track which Opens with a very sorrowful melody.but as usual the distortion comes in.I give this song 8/10


Don't take any notice of any other reviews. if your a true maiden fan you'll like this album. stop bitchin about blaze. He's an extraordinarly talented vocalist and he made two great albums with maiden

Alright in this review I'll not only(dare I say it)praise blaze for his efforts in maiden I.E. x factor and virtual XI I'll also leave a note for all you "so called" Maiden fans out there.
First off I'd like to say that I think bayley's vocals are solid and he was just what they needed at the time, blaze brings a darker element to maiden and I think it's a great thing, yes I will admit here that Bruce is the best one but don't overlook bayley, he brought some very solid material to the band.
Secondly quit dissing Janick gers, apparently I must be hearing a whole different set of albums then some of you are cause in my opinion Janick is an awesome guitarist who's helped to write some very good material, hell I was happy to hear that he would be working with adrian in the later albums.
Lastly if you don't like all the albums after seventh son of a seventh son then quit listening to them and save us "true fans" the headache of all your bitching, you say if your a true fan then you'll only like the 80's stuff, well I contest that, I say if your a "true fan" then you stick by the band now matter what, being a fan means you love the band for what the band is not for what you think it should be.

in my opinion maiden will always rule the heavy metal airwaves, viva la maiden.

I preordered this cd because I couldn't find it anywhere. I was greatly anticipating this cd because I already had X Factor. That cd blew me away. I was very impressed. This was my last installment of Maidens' studio albums. I will say I didn't have as high of hopes for it as the other cds because of all the bad things I heard about it. Believe me when I say that Blaze does not dissapoint at all as many of the fake Maiden fans like to say. Sure, this cd is no Powerslave or Piece of Mind, but it is so much different from them and that is what makes it so great. So many people won't accept the change, but why not change and get some more variety. Who wants to hear the same thing time after time. Change is not always good, but many times it is. And this is deffinitely one of those times. Just imagine if Blaze didn't come around, there would be no epic Sign Of The Cross or Clansman. Between Blaze's two cds with Maiden, X Factor is the darker of the two. Virtual XI is more upbeat and fast-paced. Hear's how I rate each song individually.

Futureal- 10/10-One of Maiden's best songs with Blaze. Fast-paced, all around rocker. The entire way through quick and never lets down. One of their shortest songs clocking in at 2:55.

The Angel and the Gambler- 7/10-This songs starts out quite diff. from anything Maiden has ever done. The song would be very good if not for the major downfall. While my friend and I were listening to this song, we were hoping and wishing that Blaze would not keep repeating the same words over and over again. He does though and that is the thing that really kills this song.

Lightning Strikes Twice- 9.5/10- Great piece of work. Starts out with a great, slow-paced guitar riff and then gets extremely heavy as the song goes further on. Blaze sounds excellent the whole way, but especially near the end.

The Clansman- 10/10- An Epic. There is no other word to describe it with. Possibly Blaze's best song with Iron Maiden. Contains Maiden's signature sound with epic proportions.

When Two Worlds Collide- 8.5/10- Starts out soft and gets heavy on the chorus. There's keyboard in the background at the beginning that sound very cool.

The Educated Fool- 9.5/10- This song really surprised me in how great it was. This is a very catchy song the entire way through. It will be stuck in your head after hearing it. Great guitar, vocals, and as always bass.

Don't Look To The Eyes Of A Stranger- 8/10- Weird guitar and I believe keyboard at the start. After it gets going, its very upbeat and energetic. The one downfall as in Angel And The Gambler in repetitiveness. He repeats "Don't Look To" for it seems an eternity as an interlude. Gets annoying.

Como Estais Amigos- 9/10- Known as the ballad of the album. The song is not sung in Spanish. It has a great guitar part near the middle and end that is awesome.

So go out and pick your self up a copy if you haven't done so. Good luck finding a copy. Took me forever. Don't blow this cd off because of bad reviews. Those people don't know what they're talking about. This is one of the most underated cds out there. There are only eight songs, but this cd is well worth the money. This cd clocks in at around 50 minutes. So it's not a short cd.

Yep, this is it right here. Of all 12 studio Maiden albums, this is the worst one. The playing is fine, but where are the songs? This pales in comparison to even the X Factor. At least the X Factor has "Sign of the Cross." Virtual XI is just devoid of strong material. "Futureal" and "The Clansmen" are pretty good, but nothing special. And the rest of the album is not even as good as that. They simply aren't writing good riffs or good hooks anymore. Blah. At least they regained their dignity with Brave New World, their most recent album.

The X Factor was bad enough, but Virtual XI cannot be viewed as anything other than a slightly heavier version of the Caddyshack soundtrack.

Luckily, there aren't too many songs here...

Futureal: "Sometimes it feels like a game of deadly hide and seek." Try not to laugh. It's a song about cyberspace and people preferring the virtual world over reality; pure silliness, despite good intentions.

The Angel and the Gambler: Sounds like something off of John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China soundtrack, only not as cool. Steve should have changed the lyrics to something more suitable for Blaze's tenure in Maiden
"Don't you think I'm a singer?
Don't you think I'm a singer?
Don't you think I can sing a song?"
Repeat another 67 times.

Lightning Strikes Twice: starts off okay, with a lone atmospheric guitar, then degenerates into a bizarre power metalish song about the mystery of weather.

The Clansman: Maiden's tribute to Mel Gibson is nothing more than a parody of their past epics. Couldn't they have done a song about the Road Warrior...with Paul Dianno on vocals instead? Or at least Bruce.

When Two Worlds Collide: Inspired by the movie Deep Impact. If that isn't enough to make you skip the track, it has one of the worst choruses and most inane lyrics ever committed to a song about the apocalypse.

The Educated Fool: If you can remember this song, you're too much of a Maiden fan.

Don't Look into the Eyes of a Stranger: Evidently this is a song about Steve's inability to make eye contact. The intro is especially ridiculous.

Como Estas Pendejos: Maiden tries to write a socially significant war song on an album chock full of nonsense. It's an admirable effort but in the end it's a crippled tune.

Aside from the goofball lyrics and Blaze's awful belching, the album also graces us with Steve's horrid production. One of the band members said that they tried to make the guitars sound futuristic, in keeping with the theme of first track...well if 'futuristic' means 'out of tune,' 'retro 70s,' or 'completely lacking in authority,' then they achieved that sound. To put it simply, the songs just sound silly and childish; there's no other way to put it. Nicko sounds bored as well. Blaze...well, he's moved on to other things.

Unless you're a completist or demented, avoid this album.

First thing I'd like to say about this album is that it's very good, and that the singer isn't bad, like everyone says. Nobody really listens to it, people only say: "Dickinson is gone, there is no better, so Bayley has to suck!" They're wrong, they don't even give him a chance. But don't see him as a replacement for Dickinson, see him as a totally new singer in a totally new band. Cause I know Dickinson is better.

My second Iron Maiden album, and I was shocked by the reviews. That's why I bought it carefully. But I was shocked again by the album, perfect songs, different voice, but not bad at all. I think that voice is a part of the music. I really like this album, and I love to listen to it time after time.
Here's a closer look at the album:

Futureal (10/10): Good opening song, good guitars.

The Angel And The Gambler (7/10): Good, just to much keyboards and boring chorus.

Lightning Strikes Twice (11/10): The best song of the album really fantastic vocals and guitars. Perfect song

The Clansman (10/10): Perfect song, very good lyrics and strong guitar play.

When Two Worlds Collide (9/10): Nice song, very good indeed, but sometimes I'd like to skip it. But it is very good.

The Educated Fool (8/10): A major song really, very nice, but weak chorus.

Don't Look To The Eyes Of A Stranger (6/10): Too long, to boring, it has good points, but it's still the worst song of the album.

Como Estais Amigos (10/10): The ballad of the CD, very good vocal and guitars.

Keep On Rocking!!!

When you look at the Cover of the album you a see real demonic depiction of Ed. He looks like he's going to rip your head off. Overall, a Pretty cool looking picture. So you figure The music inside of the case lives up to the ferocity of the cover. Unfortunatly, this is the perfect example of the saying to not judge a book by its cover.

Don't get me wrong, there is a few decent tracks on this album but nothing really exciting or comparable to previous greats.
Here are a few tracks worth noting.

The fist track and shortest song on the album is Futureal. The song is short and simple, fast paced and somewhat heavy. This makes for a decent opener but nothing too memorable.

Another song you should be able to stomach is the third track Lighting strikes twice. This is a decent track with a moody opening followed by punchy sounding guitar riffs and leads.

The 7th track, Don't look to the eyes of a stranger, has enough little changes to keep you listening to the song. The synthesized string section used in the begining and throughout the track is interesting.

The funny thing about this album is most of the the songs are fairly long (with the exception Futureal)which you figure is no big deal due to the fact that most Iron Maiden songs tend to be in the 6 minutes and up range. But in this case the songs should have been cut down to make it a more tolerable album to listen to. Instead you have to put up with repetitious verses and choruses.
A perfect example of this is the song The angel and the gambler. The bland 9 minute plus song could have been cut down to at least 4 minutes making that at around 5 minutes less of the constantly repeated lyrics "Don't you think I'm a savior, "don't you think I can save you, don't you think I can save your life" you don't have to hear. Or course you could always just skip to the next track and save your self the trouble.

This is the return Bayley on lead vocals which isn't a bad thing as many people go off about. In fact it's not necessarily his singing that is bad, it's the band he has to sing along with. Iron Maiden is suposed to be a Heavy Metal band but for some reason they decided to elbow their crunchy sounding guitars for a more bluesy feel to their sound.
When Bayley's more Hard Rock voice is paired with this so called "improved" Maiden sound, it dosn't match up very well with a good portion of the songs. In hindsight, If the album was more heavy, Bayley's voice would have fit in alot better. Oh well.

At any rate, If you are looking for a positive review on this album you may have come to the wrong place but I'm sure you MIGHT come across one or two more mediocre rated reviews out of the many negative reviews posted. Me personaly, I give the album a 2 out of 5 stars even though the chart says I put in 3 stars which was actualy a mess up on my part. I'm sorry to say, but there just isn't enough good songs to carry the wieght of all the bland ones.

This is definitely the worst Iron Maiden album, let's get that out of the way. That being said it's not bad. I rated it a two and have no idea what people were thinking when they rate it 5 stars and start the review with "it's not that bad." What are 5 stars for guys? C'mon. Blaze sounds pretty good in spots but the lyrics seemed forced. It's almost as if he is compelled to tell a story and has to rush each lyric in to get his point across. I haven't listened to his solo stuff, and I'm probably going to pick something up as I kinda like him, but his style seems....well....constrained. It doesn't sound like he is trying to sing like Bruce but rather mimic Bruce's style which I didn't see on "The X Factor." This hampers his performance. The band is tight as usual and the guitar riffs save several songs most notably "When Two Worlds Collide."

The album starts out great with "Futureal" and I thought it had a very Paul Di'Anno style. I quickly learned that style was only contained to that song. Blaze has a decent voice and sounded a hell of a lot better on "The X Factor." You can tell he isn't being himself here. I didn't like "The Angel and the Gambler" and thought that the guitars sounded like keyboards and the song was very repetitive.

This album is worth picking up if you are a Maiden fan as it is pretty good. If you are new to the band though, you probably want to wait a while before getting this one. You will want to pick up "Number of the Beast", "Piece of Mind", and "Powerslave" to start off. Once you hear those, you will be back, I guarantee, but please don't start with this album. It would be a shame if one came to the conclusion that Iron Maiden was an average band with a few good songs. If you are a Maiden fan and are looking to hear Blaze, you will want to pick up "The X Factor" first. The two Blaze albums are good, the band is legendary. Don't confuse the two.

For an explanation as to why Blaze Bayley destroyed Iron Maiden, read my review of the X-FACTOR.

Now that that's out of the way, there are only two redeeming elements in this recording - 'Clansman' and 'Futureal'. These are both well written Iron Maiden songs that sound fantastic when Bruce sings them at concerts and on live albums, but you will not enjoy the songs nearly as much on this piece of junk that they tried to pass off as a Maiden album. Don't waste your money. Please.