I'm sad to say that I haven't been good at keeping track of Blaze's career over the years. I've only heard maybe four of his albums, which I liked, but the others flew below my radar. For some reason, there never seems to be much noise around those releases and it's easy to miss them. For those who don't know, Blaze sung on Iron Maiden's The X Factor and Virtual XI albums back in the '90s. Much reviled albums that nonetheless include a few killer tracks.
War Within Me shows that Blaze's voice is in top shape, I'd even say he sounds better than he did the last time I heard him, some 11 years ago. He still has a bit of a Dickinson influence in his style, but here he's more melodic and less dark than I remember him being in the past, especially if you compare this against his debut, Silicon Messiah. This album's backbone is basic, no-frills heavy metal, but there's also a power metal vibe going on as well. The music is quite melodic, but without compromising the "hard and heavy" that you expect from a metal album. This is not as Maiden-ish as his early stuff, though like a lot of heavy metal albums, you can find stuff that's kind of reminiscent of their material. Some really good rockers on this one, but also some slower and deeper numbers that just grab you by their intensity. War Within Me doesn't break any new ground, but it's a solid album of melodic yet sharp heavy metal.
