"Tenth Dimension" is the sophomore effort of the former Maiden frontman's band. As was the case for the debut "Silicon Messiah" this album is a very strong heavy metal record that will please fans of heavy metal in the vein of such bands as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Blaze's vocals are even better here than they were on the band's debut, more diverse, better controlled and better "integrated" into the songs - the songwriting is in fact showing a good improvement over the previous album, this one holds itself together better than its predecessor.
The highlights here are the vocals and the guitar work. First off, the vocals should convince anyone that Blaze had nothing to do with the mediocrity of his two albums with Maiden - just excellent work here. The guitar work is very good also, the melodies will simply cause you to sort of get lost into the album. Of course the aggressive riffs that you'd expect from metal guitars are there. There are quite a few songs that have an audible Maiden influence, but without sounding like a ripoff either - the band's own sound is still present everywhere and there's no denying it has its own identity, something that was already established with the first album.
The second CD on the limited edition contains a few live tracks: "The Launch", "Futureal" (Iron Maiden), "Tough As Steel" (Wolfsbane), "Evolution" and a studio track named "Living Someone Else's Life". Also included are two mp3s and a video of "Ghost in the Machine".
Those who may have held back from buying Blaze's material because of some resentment over the Maiden albums should get over it already, then do themselves a favour and pick up this album. Highly recommended.
