Dickinson's replacement in the 90's

Melomaniac wrote: The T wrote: Yesterday I heard the X Factor after a few years without having touched it... My feeling were proven true: I LOVE that album, and the music is highly progressive and excellent. I would give it 5 stars with no doubt except for one little factor: the AWFUL voice of Bayley. He's not a good singer, and yes, he was a bad choice. I'd just love to see XFACTOR being recorded again with Dickinson... It would so totally rule the world.....   No replacement for Dickinson..   That would be awesome indeed.  Why not do the same with Virtual XI ?  It would be that much better too, even if only half the album is really good.

Definitely Dio for me. He's the closest theatrical singer to Dickinson. Personnaly, I think the whole idea around the use of Bayley was a trick to get Dickinson back in Maiden... Harris just couldn't do that to Maiden, Bruce had to return one day or another!

TheProgtologist wrote: Arch would have been awesome in IM.

considering how much Fates Warning sounded like a proggy Maiden during that era...

Ricky Van Helden, His band Attack (German metal band) was really good. His vocals on the album "The Secret Place" are great. I also prefer his bass work to that of Steve Harris.

Ronnie James Dio is a very good singer, but Dio in Maiden? Doesn't make any sense in my opinion.
Blaze Bayley was a good replacement. The X-Factor is an excellent album, and it's very dark and heavy, and Blaze Bayley's voice is just perfect for those songs. The only problem was that Blaze wasn't very good at singing some of the older Maiden-songs from the Bruce-era. Well, Blaze DID sing Afraid To Shoot Strangers well. But songs like The Evil That Men Do etc? Horrible!

For those who hate Blaze Bayley, check out his solo albums. They are actually very good and I really like Bayley's vocals on those albums.

I 'm glad that they choose Blaze Bailey and not the vocalists listed above. Because except for Dio and Bach the rest of the singers are in that typical powermetal vein what doesnt fit with the classic hardrock of Iron Maiden. Blaze on the overhand if you like him or not did have the right attitude. Because allthough Iron Maiden had some long complex songs they still had a rock n roll attitude that lot of these bombastic and overblown powermetal bands didnt. RJD and SB would not have been a good idea because it is not good to use well established singers unless your Black Sabbath. I personly think Steve Grimmet of Grim Reaper would have been a good choice because he could sing really well but he also had a rough sound and the right heavy metal attitude to go with it

Somebody mentioned Attack. That is a good band. Not very wellknown.

I think Blaze was the right choice becouse he had a pretty good voice ,(altrough different than Bruce`s) X factor is way better than No prayer.... or Fear of....Besides the man had a lot of energy and passion on stage.I have a bootleg of a concert in 1995 on Argentina and he sounds honest , I don`t know how to explain it... like when he says "Canten conmigo!!!" on the trooper.

I'm apt to agree with Rudder'ead.  I can't imagine a power metal-type vocalist fitting at all well to Maiden.  (Okay, a more power metal-type vocalist. than Bruce.)  I can understand why, at the time, Blaze seemed like a good choice, even if it didn't quite work out.  Bringing Di'anno back would have simply looked embarrassingly desperate.  Not to mention that, at least going by thing's he's said in interviews, the man's a right pillock.

Perhaps, given Steve Harris' supposed desire at the time to reinvent the band's sound as something heavier, darker and more contemporary, they should have been a little more adventurous, and looked for an aggressively modern-sounding vocalist.  It's a stretch of the imagination, but I can almost hear Chris Cornell's voice working.  Or maybe not.

Out of interest, I recall reading at the time that both James LaBrie and Doogie White were supposedly in the frame, but can anyone remember who else, as well as Kiske and Matos (both of whom were news to me), was actually rumoured for the job back in '94?

I heard a rumor once that Kiske was offered the job but he didn't want it. Might be getting my rumours mixed up... but that would have been AWESOME