Iron Maiden: EVERY Album Ranked Worst To Best
15. The X Factor
In 1995, three years before Virtual XI, came Blaze Bayley's debut album with the band, The X Factor. Though it is still a part of what is widely thought of as the darkest time in Iron Maiden's career, this album stands some way above Virtual XI.
The opening three tracks kick the album off incredibly well, with Sign of the Cross, Lord of the Flies, and Man on the Edge remaining popular among the fans even after Bruce Dickinson returned. However the rest of the album is never able to reach those same heights.
As with Virtual XI, there is nothing particularly wrong with this outing from the band, as they tried something completely different to what had come before. It just missed the killer riffs and energy that were usually expected from Iron Maiden. These 11 tracks are generally slower than a typical Maiden album, and focus on a lot of darker material.
For this, you could argue that Blaze Bayley's voice fit the bill perfectly well, but unfortunately, he will just never be able to compare to the Air Raid Siren.