This Limited version features vinyl replica packaging.

Iron Maiden: Blaze Bayley (vocals); Dave Murray, Janick Gers (guitar); Steve Harris (bass); Nicko McBrain (drums).

Additional personnel: Xpresion Choir.

Recorded at Barnyard Studios, Essex, England.

Iron Maiden: Blaze Bayley (vocals); Dave Murray, Janick Gers (guitar); Steve Harris (bass); Nicko McBrain (drums).

Additional personnel: Xpresion Choir.

Recorded at Barnyard Studios, Essex, England.

Personnel: Blaze Bayley (vocals); Dave Murray , Janick Gers (guitar).

Photographers: Ross Halfin; Tony Frederick.

Unknown Contributor Roles: Les Lambert; Michael McKenna.

When longtime vocalist Bruce Dickinson left Iron Maiden in 1993, many fans feared that the band was finished. But the rest of the band decided to stick it out, finding a replacement in ex-Wolfsbane frontman "Blaze" Bayley. On Maiden's first recording with Bayley, 1995's THE X FACTOR, the band sticks to the same musical direction of its early-'90s work: straightforward, heavy tunes.

Bayley's voice couldn't have been more different than that of his predecessor. While Dickinson sang in a higher register (often in an operatic style), Bayley was more of a bassy, low-down belter--just listen to such tracks as "Man on the Edge" and "Lord of the Flies" for proof. Unfortunately, the new lineup didn't have the same staying power as the Dickinson-fronted era, lasting for only one more recording.

Suffering from a lack of powerful riffs and tightly written songs, The X Factor is a lackluster latter-day album from Iron Maiden. Although the band doesn't sound particularly bad on the record, they don't sound inspired and there's a noticeable lack of energy to the performances which makes the lack of imagination all the more apparent. There's a few cuts that almost deliver the goods, but it's not enough to raise The X Factor above the merely adequate. [On all of Iron Maiden's 1998 reissues on Raw Power a multimedia section is featured on the CD, which includes videos, band biographies, tour date history, and photo galleries.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Q (12/95, p.140) - 3 Stars - Good - "...X FACTOR is still what the band do best: highly portentous, often refreshingly catchy....no real deviations from a proven formula..."

NME (Magazine) (10/14/95, p.35) - 6 (out of 10) - "...Blaze [Bayley]'s lyrics eschew any nonsense about elves and psychopaths, favouring instead ruminations about the nature of war....probably...their best album..."