OneMetal.com REVIEW:
Blaze Bayley – Promise and Terror

2010- a new year and a new decade of metal is upon us and what better way to kick things off than with a new slab of good old British metal from one of this countries biggest exponents of balls-to-the-wall, in your face rock anthems- Blaze Bayley!!!

For the uninitiated among you, Blaze first came onto the scene fronting midlands based noiseniks Wolfsbane- their mix of traditional british metal and punk with Bayleys no-nonsense approach as a frontman, led to Wolfsbane rapidly becoming the UK`s biggest band on the underground metal scene in the 80`s and their live shows were always chaotic with Blaze often yelling at people in the audience to “get your hands in the air or f*ck off”!!!

His notoriety as a great entertainer and frontman later led to Blaze joining Iron Maiden for 5 years during which time he sang on the albums “The X Factor” and “Virtual XI” before unceremoniously being replaced by the returning Bruce Dickinson. From here on in, Blaze started afresh with a new band of musicians under the moniker “Blaze” and in 2000 released his first studio album “Silicon Messiah”.

10 years on and Blaze Bayley (the band) are about to release “Promise and Terror” – the follow up to 2008`s critically acclaimed “The Man Who Would Not Die”- and the fact that he`s still giving it his all is testament to the sheer determination, and passion that drives this man on. Over the past decade Blaze has had to deal with countless line-up changes and personal tragedies that would be enough to make most people question the point of carrying on but like a world war hero, he struggles on in the face of adversity.

Thankfully, things are starting to look a lot more settled in the Blaze camp at the moment, with the current line-up being the same as that on “TMWWND” completed by guitarists Jay Walsh and Nico Bermudez alongside drummer Larry Paterson and bassist Dave Bermudez but does this new found band cohesion mean that Blaze Bayley has produced a calmer, less frantic album in “Promise and Terror”? Well the answer is a resounding OF COURSE NOT!!!!

Opening the album with two back-to-back double-bass drum driven songs shows that things are pretty much full steam ahead, albeit a little “trad”-sounding but by the time they slow the pace down a little and add some nice groove to the third track- 1633- you find your neck muscles loosening up for a good workout.
What comes next though, for me, is by far the best track on the album- God of Speed – a song that sounds alot more modern and fresh, with an epic intro and a great stomping verse riff over which blaze himself puts in an instantly memorable vocal delivery accompanied by some nifty guitar work from Walsh and Bermudez- this is a MUST for the live set!

Elsewhere, Time To Dare gallops along with a hint of Helloween but then everything changes- up to this point the songs have been just that- individual average length heads down no nonsense metal but the last four tracks, totaling over twenty minutes altogether, all blend seamlessly into one another giving the impression of being one long and epic track akin to Maidens “Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner” (extended version!!)

Whether it was decided to break what is essentially one track down into four parts to avoid criticism for producing a twenty minute album closer, your guess is as good as mine, however I think it would`ve been a better idea to title it as one song- after all, music is art and how the individual or collective express that art is entirely up to them- there will always be those who criticise but at the same time there will be just as many, if not more people who appreciate what the artist is trying to convey and I`m definitely part of the latter.

As one song this truly is EPIC, changing from acoustic serenity one minute to bludgeoning metal the next- taking the listener on a journey through wave after wave of differing emotions and is by far the most ambitious thing I`ve heard Blaze ever do since his time in Maiden but I feel that as four individually titled songs:- “surrounded by sadness”, “the trace of things that have no words”, “letting go of the world” and “comfortable in darkness”, it doesn`t do justice to the overall effect- if you played this album on random play and got the first part of this section sandwiched between the first two tracks on this album, it wouldn`t sound right- it`ll be interesting to see what they do with this in the live setting.

Bottom Line

Overall a well-played solid metal album with great musicianship- my only gripe is that Blaze seems to be clinging to the glory days of his time in Maiden by including way too many "maidenisms" in his vocal delivery which isn`t necessary- get back to your own original wolfsbane style and move on!!