Anyone who has a clue about metal knows who Blaze is, so I won't waste time with an historic. Following the return of Bruce Dickinson, Blaze left Maiden to form his own band. Of course, the two albums of the Blaze-era being renowned as the worst in Maiden's history, a lot of people will dismiss this new offering, being still busy blaming Blaze for the "failure" (to some extent) of those albums. Big mistake. With Silicon Messiah, Blaze offers a strong heavy metal record, which some say beats Iron Maiden's Brave New World. I won't go that far, but this is certainly a very good album.
This is a semi-concept album, with some songs rallying around the nearby future and the control that machines may have over the world. The other songs are unrelated. No real "downer" on this album, most songs are at least good, some being excellent, like Ghost In The Machine, the first song of the album. I found that a couple of songs seemed to have a little Maiden influence in them, which is not surprising considering that he was with the bands for many years. Influence, not rip-off, as the songs all bear Blaze's unique signature - and unlike in his Maiden years, this is a good point. Some of the songs are very catchy, both musically and vocally, which often prompted me to give the CD quite a few spins.
This is one of the good releases of 2000, and one would be a fool to not check it out. Forget his Maiden years, this is Blaze the way it was meant to be. Enough said.
