Wednesday, September 23, 2015

X Iron Maiden X

Iron Maiden released a new album recently, but before we get to that, I'm going to take a trip back to 1995, for their first album without Bruce Dickinson...X Factor.

When this album was originally released, I was so entrenched in Hardcore that I don't think that Iron Maiden was anywhere close to being on my radar. I can't even remember if I was aware that Dickinson had been replaced with Blaze at the time. It probably took me around 15 years after the release of X Factor before I even bothered to check it out, and as someone that grew up on Iron Maiden through the 80's, my first impression was not that favorable. This is a much darker period for Maiden...hell, most Metal bands were trying to figure out how to survive in a Grunge/Nu Metal world at the time, and Maiden were no exception. Over last couple of years however, I've really grown to appreciate Blaze-era Maiden...much more than I ever expected.

I remember when I first started to get into record collecting, and was chasing Maiden vinyl back in 2005/2006, I figured that Blaze-era vinyl would be a relatively cheap score...I mean no one liked those two albums, so how expensive could they be? Apparently the answer was "holy shitballs" expensive. I quickly backed off, and resigned myself to never owning a copy on vinyl, and at the time I was okay with that since I didn't have a whole lot of love for those two albums anyway.

Well, as I mentioned, I've really come to appreciate X Factor and Virtual XI over the past couple of years, and the itch to own one of these became unbearable, and I added it to my 2015 Top 10 Want List. Once Doug picked up a copy, all bets were fucking off. I couldn't let him show me up, and I was on a mission to grab one too. I bellied up to the discogs marketplace bar, and laid my money down. Hell yeah. There is something oddly satisfying in buying a piece of vinyl that you know the majority of people don't give a shit about.

4 comments:

Doug W said...

Great score! One more to check off the side bar. Now I just got something in the mail today you will definitely want to pick up! Up the Irons!

J@screamingforrecords said...

The only time I've ever seen Iron Maiden was on this tour. My main memory is that Blaze Bayley had the mic strapped to his hand and had a little run way that extentended from the stage for him to run down. Decent show but I feel I really should catch 'the real' Iron Maiden at some point before it's too late.

xtinox said...

man, i know that album and i can understand why it isn't that well recieved. i checked the prices for it on discogs and was totally blown away by how high they are. insane for a record the majority doesn't like. you must be truly dedicated!

Mike said...

The price is most likely dictated by the fact that it was 1995, and there was not a lot of vinyl being pressed at that time. Trying to find any release on vinyl for this year is going to cost you some money...and since I love this album, it was well worth the money spent!