I don't think there ever was a more difficult period for heavy metal as a genre (at least when you look above the underground) than the second half of the 1990's. The silly argument about metal being a 'dead' form of music was pretty much everywhere, and the scene as a whole was struggling, with many bands simply being unable to record new albums or book enough shows for a tour. To make matters even worse, most of the behemoths of the metal universe were having quite a bad time, and therefore unable to guide their followers out of the storm. Metallica were trying to be something else with their "Load"/"Reload" experimentations; Pantera, who had taken the world by storm earlier on the decade, were now clearly falling apart; Judas Priest, now without Rob Halford, tried to set a trend (building a bridge from traditional metal to the whole nu metal thing on "Jugulator" and "Demolition") and, perhaps for the first time in their career, failed miserably. Thrash metal luminaries like Slayer were far from their prime, and as for Iron Maiden, well... Let's say that things weren't very dandy on their camp either. After being initially well received by the fans, new singer Blaze Bayley was now clearly struggling to fill Bruce Dickinson's shoes, and the general consensus of opinion (no doubt reinforced by some less-than-flattering live bootlegs floating around) was rapidly turning against him. Though musically a worthy release, 1995's "The X Factor" sold poorly, and the fact they were forced to book smaller venues (most of all in the USA) for the promotional tour to be completed was a clear warning of danger on the horizon. The "Best of the Beast" compilation package probably helped to stabilize their finances in the short term, but it was pretty obvious that Iron Maiden needed to reconnect with their now-dwindling fanbase in order to improve record and ticket sales and, you know, stay on the road as a viable enterprise. Being Iron Maiden is not exactly cheap, you know.
The way I see it, "Virtual XI" was an honest attempt to properly address all these issues into the shape of a typical, easily-recognizable Iron Maiden album. A common criticism towards it is to label it as a disjointed, half-baked Maiden record, that fails mostly because it didn't receive a serious, highly focused treatment like "The X Factor" before it - and, though I don't disagree entirely with such diagnosis, I personally don't think this is the whole truth either, as a more careful approach can easily read between the lines what the band (and their management) had in mind for this release. They wanted to keep some of the unique bleakness of "The X Factor" (as it obviously better fitted to Blaze's voice), but also channeling higher doses of their trademark upbeat, dynamic sound. They also wanted to keep touching more contemporary issues, such as the Malvinas War and the development of virtual reality, and would not give up on their newfound passion for longer, more intricate tracks - though also including a few more straightforward numbers to balance things up and keep all fans happy. Even the ill-advised idea to tie the album with the 1998's World Cup in France (that resulted in some cringeworthy photos and a pretty pointless retouching of the CD's cover art) makes a little more sense when viewed under this particular light. In a sense, I think they were trying to stay connected to the times they were living in, while also offering the metal community a 'normal' Maiden record everyone could relate to - something way more akin to what bands like Motörhead and Helloween (after some serious misfires) were doing at the time, rather than the previously mentioned luminaries that were trying to reinvent their own wheel. It's a pretty respectable approach if you ask me, and maybe "Virtual XI" could have been a way better album if some of the pressures upon it weren't present. The way things turn out to be, unfortunately, the record is quite a flop: in fact, it beats "No Prayer for the Dying" by a mile as the band's worst studio release up to that point, and I still think it's the nadir in the group's discography, making more recent minor disappointments like "The Final Frontier" sound like world-conquering monsters in comparison. Yeah, I'm sorry, but it's pretty bad.
What went wrong, you ask me? Well, I think that the biggest problem is that the songwriting simply wasn't there, you know. I wouldn't say the songs are interchangeable, but still they bear a feeling of self-repeating that is too strong to be ignored: the melodies are tired, the song structures are predictable, the hooks are virtually nonexistent. You can listen to the whole 58-minutes-plus experience without getting a single moment of genuine surprise - a situation that gets even worse with the unimaginative, bland production applied to the whole thing, making all instrumental performances sound kinda stolid and lacking in energy and drive. As for the vocals, you can clearly hear how Blaze is genuinely stretching his pipes and working his ass off in order to do the right thing; the record is full of problems for sure, but Mr. Bayley's general performance is surely not one of those. Still, he's singing largely uninteresting lines to some truly unmemorable songs, so you'd be hard-pressed to find any real highlights on his performance here. It's not really his fault, but the record as a whole simply don't work, and his commendable hard work is far from enough to really get the thing off the ground.
Of the eight tracks here featured, I'd only pick "Futureal" and "The Clansman" as high spots - the first being a blood-pumping, fast-moving heavy rocker that works quite well as an opening number, and the latter a convoluted, epic tale of resistance and freedom inspired by the Braveheart movie that is genuinely good and easily (easily!) the best song on the entire package. It's no surprise that it survived into the band's live repertoire well into the 2000's, being featured in setlists in as late as 2019: this is a song crafted for the arenas, with many moments of deep emotional connection and a lot of oh-oh-ohs for the crowd to sing along to. Truly outstanding. From the other songs, maybe "The Educated Fool" (a rumination on themes of inadequacy and personal confusion explored throughout "The X Factor") is slightly better than the rest, and final ballad "Como Estais Amigos" is also not that bad, though the production surely missed the point on this one, making a sulky, ugly sound of what should have been passionate and reconciling.
Still, "Virtual XI"'s final undoing is not on individual tracks, but on the impression they cause when presented as a unity: far from simply showing Iron Maiden having a bad day on the office, they picture a band that came to a dead end, struggling to remain relevant and without any proper clue on what to do next. What came next seemed to corroborate this eerie scenario, unfortunately: "Virtual XI" is still their lowest-charting studio record, and the tour to promote it was sometimes close to a nightmare, with cancelled dates in the USA and many complaints about the band's performances, most of all Blaze's singing - in at least two infamous situations (Santiago, Chile and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil) the shows were cut short after some hot-tempered reactions from the crowd. It was clear for everyone that things had to change, and Blaze Bayley would finally be shown the door in January 1999 - something unfortunate, that's for sure, but obviously necessary in order to get the band back on track. Credit where is due, the man never badmouthed his ex-bandmates, and always shown himself as honoured and blessed for having had the chance to be part of a metal giant like Iron Maiden. A class act, no doubt, and I really enjoy most of what he did on his post-Maiden career, so God bless him. Some inevitable changes were on the horizon, and the whole "Virtual XI" fiasco would soon be left behind by everyone involved, which is all perfectly understandable, I guess. You're well excused to sit this one out if you're not a particularly devoted Maiden fan, and most of us will buy a copy for completist purposes only, though it's a record that will hardly be revisited more than once in a blue moon.
Blaze Bayley (V), Dave Murray (G), Janick Gers (G), Steve Harris (B/K), Nicko McBrain (D).
01. Futureal (Harris/Bayley) 3:00
02. The Angel and the Gambler (Harris) 9:51
03. Lightning Strikes Twice (Murray/Harris) 4:49
04. The Clansman (Harris) 9:06
05. When Two Worlds Collide (Murray/Bayley/Harris) 6:13
06. The Educated Fool (Harris) 6:46
07. Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger (Harris) 8:11
08. Como Estais Amigos (Gers/Bayley) 5:26
Have you been involved with any of the bands mentioned here? Have any extra info and/or corrections? Please e-mail me (drequon@gmail.com) and let me know!
