591. Blaze Bayley / The King of Metal. 2012. 3/5

Given Blaze's track record in the early 2000's with his initial releases after leaving Iron Maiden, he has had plenty of credits in the bank with me. The albums Silicon Messiah and Tenth Dimension and Blood & Belief were all super albums that at least matched what Iron Maiden were putting out at the same time. The last two albums have been good without the spectacular nature of the afore-mentioned albums, and so perhaps Blaze has been eating into those credits.
Still, given that he has come out and named this album The King of Metal he has either put himself under enormous pressure to match the title, or he has succeeded.

As much as I would have liked to be able to report that this was indeed a return to the best that Blaze can produce, it isn't in me to do so. That isn't to say that this is a bad album - it just isn't a great album. No doubt that one of the things about not having a stable band line-up is that you can't co-create an album, and have a vision of this album and future albums. When you only have hired hands, they can't always be involved in the creative process. In this case, I think that has affected the content of the album.

I think the songs vary in great degree from the good heavy material that Blaze has become known for ("The King of Metal", "The Black Country" and "The Rainbow Fades to Black"), to the very ordinary slower ballad like material ("One More Step" and the closer "Beginning") to the confused 'not really sure what this song should be like' material ("Fighter").

I admire Blaze for the way he is continuing his career, and doing so in a cost effective way so that he can get to all his fans all over the world. To be honest, I think that to stretch himself in the future he needs to find himself a collaborator, much in the way Bruce Dickinson and Roy Z worked in the late 1990's together. Someone to help filter the good material he is still coming up with, from the filler that just isn't up to standard.
The King of Metal doesn't quite come up to the standard of his previous material, but it is a damn sight better than the stuff that was recorded on the new Wolfsbane album that came out at about the same time. Stick with your own stuff Blaze, and steer clear of that rubbish!