Blaze Bailey. A man who's name got great publicity when back in 1995 he would be Bruce Dickinson's replacement in Iron Maiden and would be singing on the “X-Factor and “Virtual XI (1998) albums. Before Iron Maiden he was the singer for England's Wolfsbane and together they released four albums which really got to be widely known after people had learnt about Bailey during his short career with Iron Maiden. Then one day…in 1999, his ways with the N.W.O.B.H.M. giants parted and Bayley decided to start his own thing, his own band. So he formed Blaze together with Rob Naylor (bass), John Slater (guitar), Steve Ray (guitar) and Dave Knight (drums) and debuted with “Silicon Messiah (2000) which was kind of a promising effort by Baylay. Then “Tenth Dimension (2002) followed and now it's time for me to review their latest release, “Blood & Belief. Believe me…I hadn't self-tortured myself for some time now… “Blood & Belief is supposed to be an album filled with Blaze Bailey's inner feelings (as usual) but actually he neglects to take in consideration what all those people listening to this album might feel like. Boring riffs, boring vocals (instead of getting better, his voice is getting worse) an unbeatable, sleepy feeling conquering my body and soul. It's really upsetting you know, every time you expect something good from a famous artist and he comes up with something like this…oh please. The only less boring songs are, in my opinion, “Win To Win and Soundtrack Of My Life…it sort of distracted me from my intense boredom…but just for a short while, nothing much to make a fuss about. There are times I wish Blaze Bailey could simply continue doing great things like he used to with Iron Maiden but on his own now…I'm sorry Blaze but it's the gutter for this release…
Tracklist:
Alive Ten Seconds Blood And Belief Life And Death Tearing Myself To Pieces Hollow Head Will To Win Regret The Path & The Way Soundtrack Of My Life
Lineup:
Blaze Bailey - Vocals Rob Naylor - Bass John Slater - Guitar Steve Ray - Guitar Dave Knight - Drums (? - not mentioned on the official website)