With the turn of the decade in 1990, it looked like the best days of Maiden had seemingly passed overnight. Attempting to remain true to themselves while remaining relevant their next two albums, No Prayer For the Dying and Fear of the Dark, despite a few good songs, both met with negative reviews. After a terrible tour in 1993, where anger flared between bandmates on stage, Dickinson left the band to go solo. Blaze Bayley, the singer of Wolfsbane, promptly replaced Bruce. Adrian Smith had already been replaced by Janick Gers three years prior. The new line up went on to release two more studio albums, The X Factor and Virtual XI. The chart performance of both albums was abysmally their worst to date. After another half-hearted tour they gathered to face the music, so to speak, and told Blaze it just wasn't working out. To be fair, Janick pointed out that Maiden songs were often beyond his vocal register, which had caused his voice to strain on tour. Even then Steve was still hesitant to ask Bruce to come back, still being bitter about their last tour together. However, in the end, Bruce and Adrian were invited back. If they hadn't Iron Maiden may no longer exist, a truly depressing scenario to consider.
aka The Thompsonator. Action movie & shooter game fanatic. Biggest weakness? Taking things over the top... The internet is the disease. Meet the cure. Find more action on my Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/ActionRation
