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Review: Blaze Bayley - Promise and Terror
Blaze Bayley
www.blazebayley.net
Promise and Terror

Label: Candlelight Records
Year released: 2010
Duration: 55:36
Tracks: 11
Genre: Heavy Metal

Rating:
4.25/5


Review online: June 22, 2010
Reviewed by: Michel Renaud
Readers' Rating
How do you rate this release?

Rated 4.25/5 (85%) (20 Votes)
Review

Upon getting this album I was surprised to see that I hadn't listened to any of Blaze's material since 2004's Blood & Belief. Time really flies. My impression of the first three albums was that Blaze shined more outside of Iron Maiden, and Promise and Terror is just one more proof of that fact. The album is a good mix of old and new Heavy Metal with some subtly hints of Power Metal here and there. This album is a bit weird in that in sounds both dark and positive at the same time – you can just feel a kind of melancholy shadowing just about every melody here, yet you get some very upbeat guitar playing coupled with Blaze vocals which are more often than not also a mix of emotions and the result is that you don't really know if you're supposed to feel good or bad while listening to this. That's a feeling that's got me going back to this album time and time again over the past few weeks – not quite a mindfuck, but rather an album that somehow adapts to your mood – or is it your mood that adapts to it?

Blaze is in good form here, with once again some vocal work that's more alive and diverse than it ever was on the much-maligned "Blaze-era" Maiden albums (and come to think of it, I think he has enough stuff under his name now that we don't even need to refer to that era as a basis of comparison.) Whether it's slow, emotion-filled singing or speedy, word-tripping-over-each-other style, the delivery is there. It's sometimes a bit off, but charmingly so. As for the music, there are no surprises here: Solidly performed, mid to fast-paced catchy Heavy Metal that doesn't invent anything and doesn't need to – sometimes you just have to appreciate good songs when you hear them and not worry about them being the next big thing or whatever the fuck... Once again a solid metal-as-fuck album from Blaze. If you didn't like his earlier material, there's little chance that you'll like this. Otherwise, this is pretty much a must have for fans.

More about Blaze Bayley...
Review: Blood & Belief (reviewed by 4th Horseman)
Review: Infinite Entanglement (reviewed by Bruno Medeiros)
Review: Silicon Messiah (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: Tenth Dimension (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: The Man Who Would Not Die (reviewed by Hermer Arroyo)
Review: War Within Me (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Interview with vocalist Blaze Bayley on June 30, 2018 (Interviewed by Luxi Lahtinen)
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