Blaze Bayley review – Sabaton Open Air 2018

6/10

First of all there is a matter I have to clarify, and probably the most hard rock fans in the world agree with me on this one. Blaze Bayley is definitely not one of the best singers in the hard rock business. But he has something else and that’s called charisma. Blaze is one of the most humble man in our hard rock sphere and he’s got a lot of creds from almost everyone I think, which he has earned over the years. Last year Steve Harris played in Falun with his band British Lion and this year Blaze Bayley entering the same stage, playing a few Iron Maiden songs which mr Harris didn’t do. The band Blaze are having by his side is the Manchester-based Absolva. They are doing a great job this afternoon.

Blaze are also doing a great job as an entertainer. He knows how to take a crowd after 35 years in the business, from Wolfsbane to Iron Maiden and from there to a solo career that still are in progress. Over the last three years Blaze have released the trilogy “Infinite Entanglement” and from those three records he gave us “Are You Here”, “The First True Sign” and “A Thousand Years” among others. The most cheers from the crowd are when he play some songs he record with Iron Maiden. “Futureal” is the one that works best of the trio. “The Angel And The Gambler” is probably one of the worst Maiden songs ever but he manage to get it pretty interesting because he’s presenting the band during the song. The third one is of course “Man On The Edge” which I think is one of the best songs in the Maiden discography, sorry to say they do a pretty crappy version of the song, they throw it away to speak in different words.

Blaze Bayley deserves all the respect he achieves. He always give something back to his audience and I can bet that every single person walked away after the show with a smile on their face.

Who: Blaze Bayley
Where: Sabaton Open Air, Falun
When: 18/8-18
Stand out track: Calling You Home
Rate: 6/10