Blaze Bayley
Infinite Entanglement
Blaze Bayley Recording
2016
While a couple of albums, that Briton Blaze Bayley did after his departure from Iron Maiden, were decently produced and even quite OK, material wise, the slew of most albums he did ever since, suffered in one way or another, or even in a couple of cases in all areas. More line-up changes than one would care to mention can’t have helped either.
With some 3 albums in band format, before reverting to a solo artist guise, to release the next four, including this one, Blaze’s efforts are melodic, if not by the numbers metal that is sort of classic, but doesn’t sound retro. The production here is “good” but clinical and not really “rich” and organic, quite “plastic” really, with only the guitars and the vocals benefiting from the mix clearly. Mind you this album is also a concept (again) so expect to have spoken parts and some interludes here and there.
A few tracks initially are not bad “Infinite Entanglement”, “A Thousand Years”, “Human” I guess have some endearing qualities about them.
The ballad “What Will Come” proves that while Blaze has passion, he’s not a good singer. You can produce him enough and make him sound “quite good”, but overall he’s rather limited. His passion makes him likable (no question about it) but while he tries to sound commanding and grandiose here, the results are mediocre at best.
A bunch of second rate material follows until “Calling You Home”, which is quite better, but the attempt to mix some female vocals in the background is ill-fated.
“Dark Energy 256” is an energetic little tune, but when it comes to that “dark matter” I’m all for Darkology’s “Dark Energy” (a far superior track in every possible way).
“Independence” has a nice riff, but a rather dull chorus (just repeating the title a few times) so it doesn’t really manage to keep the listener too excited, while “A Work of Anger” both because of its ambitions and Blaze’s inability to really turn it into a big symphonic number (ie there’s again that female backing vocal – instead of a choral arrangement on the middle-lower range of thing) sort of fails, despite having some nice ideas. Only to exit with the odd little outro “Shall We Begin?”, which sounds a little “backward”.
Sorry but for a guy that has been in Iron Maiden and released a couple of albums, I’d expect a bit more really!
With some 3 albums in band format, before reverting to a solo artist guise, to release the next four, including this one, Blaze’s efforts are melodic, if not by the numbers metal that is sort of classic, but doesn’t sound retro. The production here is “good” but clinical and not really “rich” and organic, quite “plastic” really, with only the guitars and the vocals benefiting from the mix clearly. Mind you this album is also a concept (again) so expect to have spoken parts and some interludes here and there.
A few tracks initially are not bad “Infinite Entanglement”, “A Thousand Years”, “Human” I guess have some endearing qualities about them.
The ballad “What Will Come” proves that while Blaze has passion, he’s not a good singer. You can produce him enough and make him sound “quite good”, but overall he’s rather limited. His passion makes him likable (no question about it) but while he tries to sound commanding and grandiose here, the results are mediocre at best.
A bunch of second rate material follows until “Calling You Home”, which is quite better, but the attempt to mix some female vocals in the background is ill-fated.
“Dark Energy 256” is an energetic little tune, but when it comes to that “dark matter” I’m all for Darkology’s “Dark Energy” (a far superior track in every possible way).
“Independence” has a nice riff, but a rather dull chorus (just repeating the title a few times) so it doesn’t really manage to keep the listener too excited, while “A Work of Anger” both because of its ambitions and Blaze’s inability to really turn it into a big symphonic number (ie there’s again that female backing vocal – instead of a choral arrangement on the middle-lower range of thing) sort of fails, despite having some nice ideas. Only to exit with the odd little outro “Shall We Begin?”, which sounds a little “backward”.
Sorry but for a guy that has been in Iron Maiden and released a couple of albums, I’d expect a bit more really!