Iron Maiden - Virtual XI

What an underrated album. Futureal, The Clansman, Don´t look to the eyes of a stranger and Como estais amigos are amazing tracks. And there is some good stuff in many of the other tracks as well. At least a 7, for sure.

Guys....I am in with you who loved this album. It's got few exceptionally good songs and I don't know why fans hate it so much just bcoz Bruce is not there.

Written by metalbrat on 10.06.2020 at 19:48

Guys....I am in with you who loved this album. It's got few exceptionally good songs and I don't know why fans hate it so much just bcoz Bruce is not there.

Same quastion here, maybe in that time i would have same feeling, but later as now i dont know, boat blaze era has good tunes, Bruce sings them live, so. I dunno.

Written by Bad English on 12.06.2020 at 16:24

Written by metalbrat on 10.06.2020 at 19:48

Guys....I am in with you who loved this album. It's got few exceptionally good songs and I don't know why fans hate it so much just bcoz Bruce is not there.

Same quastion here, maybe in that time i would have same feeling, but later as now i dont know, boat blaze era has good tunes, Bruce sings them live, so. I dunno.

This has happened to me also in so many other cases. Bcoz nowadays i listen and like more of Gothic Doom Black Metal but it was a transition from Heavy Metal to Thrash to MDM to Gothenburg to Death to Black to Gothic and finally to Doom through 25 years. Still i sometimes visit to old Super 4 bands and still i like those 2 albums of Iron Maiden which are rated as worst by fans. We think alike.

Don't you think I'm a savior?
Don't you think I could save you?
Don't you think I could save your life?

I’m revisiting every album in Maiden’s discography and this still isn’t that great. It’s such a dull listen and the production sounds completely neutered and lifeless. There are some highlights of course like Futureal and The Clansman but songs like The Angel and the Gambler and Don’t Look To The Eyes of a Stranger just keep on insisting that they beat you over the head with the same hackneyed chorus until you transform into a dead horse. What was Steve Harris thinking when he wrote these? Did he want to troll his audience perhaps? They’re mostly just skating by on this release. It’s not terrible, but it’s not all that good either.

I still think this is a fairly decent album. Futureal kicks the album off and is one of Iron Maiden's best songs period. The transition into Angel and the Gambler is very weird, and the whole song is so out of place. That being said, I kind of dig it. The instrumentation on that song is killer, the leads are amazing, and Blaze's vocal lines are super catchy. If you are gonna be critical of the chorus repetition, you have to be ten times as critical of the same on the 21st century albums, there are much worse offenders there. For the Greater Good of God is a way worse example of that. At least The Angel and the Gambler has some interesting variation in the instrumentation underneath, and how it is actually song varies a lot.
Besides the two first song, The Clansman is the stand out track, and a great epic, packed with riffs and tempo changes. When two Worlds Collide and The Educated Fool work fine for me, the rest I am less fond of. But this is probably the most upbeat album they have released post Fear of the Dark, it never drags.
And to adress the elephant in the room: Blaze is fine. I love some of his solo material, and he is fine in Iron Maiden. I think he gets a lot of shit for entering a band that was clearly past its prime and tried to go in a slower direction with lengthier songs. He isn't nearly as good a singer as peak Bruce, but much better than current day Bruce for sure, and honestly I think they would have taken their music much further, had they not decided to sell out by bringing Bruce back.

Written by Vinther1991 on 24.04.2022 at 19:03

I think they would have taken their music much further, had they not decided to sell out by bringing Bruce back.

I disagree. I think their best songwriting was during their reunion era with Bruce. Not saying this is a bad era for them by any means.

Written by Vinther1991 on 24.04.2022 at 19:03

I think they would have taken their music much further, had they not decided to sell out by bringing Bruce back.

I deleted my first few comments, and decided to be civil. Please explain what you mean by your comment.
Futureal is good, Lightning is decent, and The Clansman is great (and orders of magnitude better when Bruce sings it on Rock in Rio), but the rest of the album is embarrassingly wretched, and contains much of Maiden's worst material

Written by sgtrobo on 01.05.2022 at 09:24


I deleted my first few comments, and decided to be civil. Please explain what you mean by your comment.
Futureal is good, Lightning is decent, and The Clansman is great (and orders of magnitude better when Bruce sings it on Rock in Rio), but the rest of the album is embarrassingly wretched, and contains much of Maiden's worst material

What I meant was, regardless of what one thinks of Dickinson's vocals, the decision to bring him back was a commercial decision. That was done, because they wanted to play at arenas, and the only way that would happen was to bring back the singer the mainstream fans associate with the band. There was no shortage of brilliant vocalists they could have picked, yet they opted for him.
I do agree with you on the Rock in Rio version of The Clansman though, even if I really like the studio version as well. The song was written to be played live.

Ok, but...I'm still a bit confused. Bruce + Maiden is (in my opinion) the best metal band ever. They work well together. Sure there are a ton of other 'brilliant vocalists', unquestionably so. But that doesn't mean they are well suited to the band's sound. If you take a look at when they split, the music Bruce released solo was orders of magnitude better than anything Maiden released throughout the 90s (yes, I understand the first 2 had Bruce).
They mesh.
Van Halen wasn't Van Halen without DLR, and it had nothing to do with the singing. The band just clicks better

Their most underrated album

After listening to this again I decided up my vote to 6. The X Factor wasn't necessarily a good Maiden album, but I think the songs did suit Blaze's voice better. Virtual XI on the other hand has good Maiden songs, but Blaze's flat vocals sound way worse. Futureal, The Clansman, When Two Worlds Collide and the last two are legit good songs, but the underwhelming vocals drag them down. Live versions with Bruce sound so much better.

Oh yeah, and The Angel And The Gambler is one awful crappy song. That lame chorus is repeated frigging 22 times over and over, like you'd think they were proud of it, wanted to tease their fans or something.

I don't know why a lot of people downright hate this album. It sounds fine to me, that is if I manage to not fall asleep listening to The Angel and the Gambler lmao (seriously what were they thinking with repeating those sections), and successfully pass over to the third song. Futureal is a good fun short strong, Clansman is a beast, and When Two Worlds Collide and The Educated Fool are excellent songs. This album is way better than the X-Factor IMO. Don't Look to the Eyes of the Stranger also has the repeating parts, but it is not a borefest.

I would put V XI in my "5 Worse Maiden records". But since they released Senjutsu this went up. I would put NPFTD below this also.

Faves: Futurreal, Lightning Strikes Twice, The Clansman, When Two Worlds Collide and The Educated Fool

This album is the most underrated album in all Iron Maiden albums. If we can put The Angel and The Gambler disaster aside, there are many excellent songs such as Futureal, The Clansman, When Two Worlds Collide, The Educated Fool and Como Estais Amigos.

My personal Top 3 songs from the album:

Futureal
Como Estais Amigos
The Clansman

The Angel and The Gambler has to be one of the worst Maiden songs ever
Apart from that the album is way better than X Factor since all the other songs range from very good to excellent
The Educated Fool and Como Estais Amigos are probably the best among them
Perhaps the secret of the success is that Virtual XI is the only album since Sevent Son that keeps the tracks limited to only 8 avoiding mediocre additions

Written by Ulquiorra on 17.05.2026 at 13:30

The Angel and The Gambler has to be one of the worst Maiden songs ever
Apart from that the album is way better than X Factor since all the other songs range from very good to excellent
The Educated Fool and Como Estais Amigos are probably the best among them
Perhaps the secret of the success is that Virtual XI is the only album since Sevent Son that keeps the tracks limited to only 8 avoiding mediocre additions

"Secret of the success"?! what success?! the album was a big flop, the tour ticket sale dropped, the album didn't get positive reviews. That was why they got Bruce back. And Bruce got Adrian back with him.

Written by John_Doe on 17.05.2026 at 16:13

Written by Ulquiorra on 17.05.2026 at 13:30

The Angel and The Gambler has to be one of the worst Maiden songs ever
Apart from that the album is way better than X Factor since all the other songs range from very good to excellent
The Educated Fool and Como Estais Amigos are probably the best among them
Perhaps the secret of the success is that Virtual XI is the only album since Sevent Son that keeps the tracks limited to only 8 avoriding mediocre additions

"Secret of the success"?! what success?! the album was a big flop, the tour ticket sale dropped, the album didn't get positive reviews. That was why they got Bruce back. And Bruce got Adrian back with him.

The success is referring to me and my taste of music compared especially to the diasappointing X Factor

Written by Ulquiorra on 17.05.2026 at 18:35

Written by John_Doe on 17.05.2026 at 16:13

"Secret of the success"?! what success?! the album was a big flop, the tour ticket sale dropped, the album didn't get positive reviews. That was why they got Bruce back. And Bruce got Adrian back with him.

The success is referring to me and my taste of music compared especially to the diasappointing X Factor

That's different.
I like X Factor and dislike Virtual XI.

What is going on with our minds anyway?
Maybe i ll give X a try if you give XI
The fact is that Bruce is simply irreplaceable

Written by Ulquiorra on 17.05.2026 at 19:24

What is going on with our minds anyway?
Maybe i ll give X a try if you give XI
The fact is that Bruce is simply irreplaceable

I have given Virtual XI enough chances. There is so much music to enjoy out there, getting back to something like Virtual XI is not worth it to me.