Label: Blaze Bayley Recordings
Release date: Feb 23, 2024
Production: Blaze Bayley & Chris Appleton
Album length: 44:08 min
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 8.5/10
Blaze Bayley is an unstoppable warrior. The man who held Iron Maiden together during Dickinson’s absence, from 1994 to 1999, has a creative core that just won’t burn out! With his previous album “War Within Me” (2021, RockLine review), released almost three years ago, Mr. Bayley hooked up with a fascinating artistic through-line to his two career peaks, “The Man Who Would Not Die” (2008) and “Promise And Terror” (2010), which are still very likely unbeaten.
The new album, “Circle Of Stone” – the eighth overall released under the Blaze Bayley name – keeps that thread going in a seriously fascinating way. Bayley and his crew (he’s backed by Absolva, where bassist Luke Appleton returned after bailing on Iced Earth in 2021) have served up another powerful record, loaded to the core with volleys of raw emotion, pronounced gloom and darkness, and hungry old-school guitar phrases that vividly tie back to the N.W.O.B.H.M. legacy.
“Circle Of Stone” is probably a more important achievement for Bayley than it first appears. Last year the unlucky vocalist suffered a serious heart attack that required surgery with no fewer than four bypasses. So the question was when, and whether at all, he’d be able to pull himself back together. Not just for the studio, but for the road too! Bayley is here! He’s driven off all the demons again and come back even stronger, even more defiant and unshakable. Just like the title of his 2008 studio album says. His voice remains the essential element that makes his heavy metal instantly recognizable. And it’s no different on “Circle Of Stone”. The occult and all the superstitions spring to life instantly, along with all the paranoia of inner, personal battles. Nobody comes close to that distinctly hollow, muffled, low-to-mid-range voice and its character. With an exceptionally good run of new compositions, where the band strings together one dark epic after another, the album’s trademark pomp is dialed in to perfection. Mood-wise, Bayley shines in the conviction of his ‘martyr’s confessions’. The album ‘flies’ on the wings of the old British school of phrasing, and the similarities to Iron Maiden are definitely there. Only Bayley is more concrete. No rambling. He gets straight to the point. In how the songs develop. That’s the essence. The very essence his former Maiden mates last nailed somewhere around the “Dance Of Death” era.
“Circle Of Stone” is an album you surrender to with pleasure. It grabs you from the first second to the last and doesn’t let up in its highly dynamic flow. You’ll have to find your own favorites. There’s no dip in quality between them. The album holds the listener tight and keeps them busy. Not because it brings a musical revolution, but because of the ‘hypnotic power’ delivered by a bundle of outstanding phrases and a gripping, genuine atmosphere that gives you goosebumps while you listen to “Circle Of Stone”. That last bit is the trump card of Bayley’s heavy metal expressionism – the artistic stance this vocal oddball has stayed true to all along. It has to be said that without a crew like the one Bayley found in Absolva (the Appleton brothers are now both guitarists, so Blaze Bayley are now a five-piece), “Circle Of Stone” would have a hard time grabbing you with the conviction it does, pulling you through an immensely strong, old-school classic metal substance packed into just over 44 minutes. An album with exceptional artistic character. All you can add is: ‘hats off to a legend’.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Mind Reader
2. Tears in Rain
3. Rage
4. The Year Beyond This Year
5. Ghost in the Bottle
6. The Broken Man
7. The Call of the Ancestors
8. Circle of Stone
9. Absence
10. A Day of Reckoning
11. The Path of the Righteous Man
12. Until We Meet Again
Lineup:
Blaze Bayley – vocals
Chris Appleton – guitar
Luke Appleton – guitar
Karl Schramm – bass guitar
Martin McNee – drums
