"It is so dark...it's not accessible like some of the other Maiden albums." Ex-Iron Maiden singer Blaze Bayley explains why he feels many fans didn't warm up to their divisive The X Factor album

Former Iron Maiden frontman Blaze Bayley has offered his explanation as to why the two albums he recorded with the band - 1995's The X Factor and 1998's Virtual XI - remain somewhat divisive within Maiden's considerable fanbase. The singer suggests to metal podcast The Metal Command that The X Factor in particular may have been a little too dark to instantly connect with many longtime fans.

"Some fans go, 'Of course I've got every Iron Maiden album, but the ones I haven't listened to are The X Factor and Virtual XI,'" says Bayley (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). "'And now that's all I can listen to that I haven't listened to a hundred times. I have to listen to those.'

"The X Factor's got some incredible music on it, but the sound of it is so dark, and the way it was produced, it's not accessible like some of the other Maiden albums," Blaze continues. "You've gotta live with that for quite a few spins until you're tuned into what things are doing. Then you can get to the music. I think that was maybe a problem with it at the time. It's so dark and the sounds of things were quite different to what came before. People who did live with it, managed to find it. And it's different cultures as well, different countries. In Sweden and Spain, those albums, people loved them as much as every other [Iron Maiden] album. But in other places, people didn't. It's a different thing."

Blaze Bayley joined Iron Maiden in 1994 following the departure of Bruce Dickinson. He would leave in 1999, just one year after the release of Virtual XI, to make way for the very man he replaced as Dickinson rejoined the band (alongside former guitarist Adrian Smith). Last year, he opened up to Metal Hammer on the devastating impact being let go from Maiden had on him.

“It was horrific," he explained. "I’d be making all these plans for my solo career: ‘I’m going to come back with a new project, I’m going to use everything I learned from Maiden and from songwriting with those guys, it’ll be incredible.’ And then a couple of hours later, I’d be sobbing. I couldn’t say so at the time, but I was destroyed.”