10 Hard Rock Albums Artists Want You To Forget About

It's hard to really think of the metal scene expanding into what it is today without the help of Iron Maiden. Across records like Powerslave and Number of the Beast, Maiden's way with words and amazing songwriting have laid the groundwork for what metal would become. However, things start to really go down a notch once you remove the Air Raid Siren from its post.

Around the early '90s, Bruce Dickinson left Maiden to focus on a solo career, leading Steve Harris to carry on with Blaze Bayley at the helm. While X Factor is still a decent record by metal standards, it has no real business being called a proper Iron Maiden release. As far as the backing band is concerned, the foundation is still great, with Harris' trademark low ending still anchoring everything down. When it comes to Bayley though, he doesn't really have the chops to really pull something like this off.

While not necessarily a clone of Dickinson, Bayley's scream is a lot more guttural than Bruce, which makes for some weird tonal clashes when he tries to go for the ethereal sounds across the record. After Bruce was brought back into the fold though, Maiden have seemed to have forgotten this album, leaving it in the dust as they moved to Brave New World at the dawn of the '00s. X Factor may have its bright spots, but for any serious Maiden fan, this is only for the diehards.