It’s Thursday, so naturally, it’s time for another Throwback! Today marks the 19th birthday of a…shall we say divisive?…Iron Maiden album, so naturally, for this week’s #tbt, we’re going to go back and revisit it. Let’s take another look at 1995’s The X Factor:

By now, you all know the story behind The X Factor. Singer Bruce Dickinson had left the band two years earlier (and beaten them to a follow-up album with the release of Balls to Picasso in 1994) and been replaced by the well-meaning but unfortunately not-as-air-raid-siren-y Blaze Bayley, formerly of Wolfsbane. Steve Harris began upping the frequency of his slow bass intros from every fourth or fifth song to…what, two out of every three? Three out of four? (Regardless, this album marked the birth of Maiden’s “bass intro phase,” which the band is still really struggling to outgrow. Or not even trying to do so at all, perhaps.) And Bayley, try as he might to reach Dickinsonian heights (and, more importantly, pitch levels), simply didn’t cut it. There’s very audible strain in his voice as he struggles to sing out-of-register–which, to his and the band’s credit, he did a whole hell of a lot less on their next album, Virtual XI.

Either way, you can see why The X Factor is generally considered one of Maiden’s weaker efforts–along with the band’s last two albums with Dickinson, but minus Adrian Smith, to be fair. So much of what had made the band tick up to that point was gone, with inadequate replacements and an unclear sense of direction coming in their stead.

But that’s not to say that The X Factor is a complete loss. Against my better judgment, I still love the goofy lead single, “Man on the Edge,” and songs like “Sign of the Cross” and “Lord of the Flies” have bite as well. (Both have been performed live since Dickinson returned to the band, and he improves both quite considerably.) For this week’s clip, however, we’re going to revisit an oft-underrated gem from the middle of the album, “Blood on the World’s Hands.”

Bass intro? Check, and a bit of an over-long one at that. But still, once this thing gets going, it’s quite a treat. Cool melody in the main riff, an appropriate apocalyptic feel throughout, and one of Bayley’s strongest, most impassioned vocal performances on the entire album. Say what you will about the album as a whole–and believe me, I’m no great fan of it–but “Blood on the World’s Hands” stands up very well.

So that’ll do it for this week. Check back later today for our Quickies!

-Dan

Live. Love. Plow. Horns Up.