Resurrections [5]: BLAZE – Silicon Messiah (2000)
An underrated modern metal classic!
After leaving Iron Maiden in 1999, Blaze Bayley didn’t hang up his boots; although nobody would have blamed him for quitting the music business for good. Instead, Blaze soon bounced back and surprised an unsuspecting world with Silicon Messiah (2000), a beast of an album released under the BLAZE moniker and a storming comeback if ever there was one!
Silicon Messiah is everything you want metal to be. Heavy as hell, perfectly produced and packed with stellar musicianship, with the 10 tracks found here overflowing with frustration and anger – delivered by a man who had lost it all. A man who was coming back to reclaim all that was rightfully his!
With a modern sheen that prevails today, its fair to say that Silicon Messiah could be released now and still sound fresh. It’s also on a par with everything Iron Maiden released after Dickinson’s return.
Lyrically speaking, Silicon Messiah is a mix of concept album (something Blaze would go on to explore on 2002’s follow-up album, Tenth Dimension), describing a dystopian society ruled by machines – check out blistering opener “Ghost in the Machine” and the title track) alongside Blaze‘s own personal musings, ever-present on “Stare at the Sun” and “The Brave”.
Although we believe Silicon Messiah should be revered as one of the heavy metal landmarks of the new millennium, it wasn’t to be. Despite being critically well received it was hardly a roaring success – being released only one week prior to Iron Maiden‘s reunion album, Brave New World, certainly wouldn’t have helped!
If you worship metal, you should definitely right this wrong by giving Silicon Messiah a spin as it’s a modern metal classic that deserves reappraisal.
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