HISTORY OF IRON MAIDEN: CRISES AND COMEBACKS II (1990 - 1999)

 1990–1999: Crises and comebacks

Steve Harris deeply surprised by the decision of band's frontman, considered the possibility of closing the band's activities. He was dissuaded from this intention by Dave Murray, who suggested finding a new vocalist.
Eight thousand potential successors to Dickinson responded to the management's appeal to submit their candidacy for the position of the group's frontman, of which 1,500 sent professionally recorded vocal recordings for Iron Maiden's compositions.
The most serious candidates for this position were Doogie White, Damian Wilson and Blaze Bayley, previously the vocalist of the group Wolfsbane, which opened Iron Maiden's concerts on the British part of the tour in 1990. Ultimately, Dickinson's replacement was the aforementioned Bayley.

With this lineup, the band recorded the album The X Factor, which signaled a change in the group's musical style, influenced by, among others, Steve Harris' personal tragedy (the bassist struggled with family problems).

The album was characterized by an extremely dark, gloomy atmosphere, intensified by the singer's low voice with a medium range and pensive lyrics touching on existential problems.
In fact, only the singles "Man on the Edge" and "Lord of the Flies" promoting the album referred to the hit for which the band was famous.
The first of them reached the Top 10 in Great Britain and the first five best-selling singles in Europe. Unfortunately, the album aroused incomparably less interest than the previous albums, reaching number 8 in Great Britain and only number 147 on the Billboard 200. It meant Iron Maiden's commercial downfall, especially in comparison to Fear of the Dark sales.

 

After a year, it sold a low circulation by Iron Maiden standards, estimated at only 1.3 million copies. The "The X Factour 1995/1996" tour promoting the album lasted over a year, covered five continents and 145 concerts, the group reached places such as South Africa and Israel for the first time. The group also planned a concert in Beirut - the capital of Lebanon. There were even official announcements, but the authorities caused the event to be canceled due to religious reasons. The group presented a show partly reminiscent of performances from the 1980s, but much more limited, for example due to the need to perform in much smaller venues than was the case some years ago.
 

On October 23, after nine years of absence, Iron Maiden performed at Torwar Arena in Warsaw, receiving a warm welcome from the Polish audience. A great reception also awaited the musicians in France, Greece, Spain, Italy and all over South America, where they performed in huge halls and soccer stadiums. The biggest concert of this stage of the tour was a performance as the star of the Monsters Of Rock Festival 1996, in São Paulo, Brazil, for around 60,000 people. It was one of the most notable Iron Maiden's performance of an era. In September 1996, EMI Records summed up the group's 20th anniversary of performing on stage with the special compilation entitled Best of the Beast, released in several versions and led by a single with the new composition entitled "Virus". 

 

The musicians received commemorative reliefs in recognition of the sale of 42.3 million copies of albums released during this period with the label of the British label and its branches.
Taking into account the circulation of albums distributed by other labels (Epic, CMC / BMG), the 13 catalog LPs were sold around the world in approximately 45 million copies.
After twenty years of live activity, the band could boast of a number of distinctions and awards, including over 150 gold and platinum records, not counting the silver ones.

 

In September 1996, the band was inducted into Madame Tussaud's Rock Circus. In this way, Iron Maiden was commemorated among other famous artists, including: in the form of wax figures, on video along with historical memorabilia. The handprints of the members of the then band were recorded on the "Wall of Hands" among the handprints of the awarded representatives of popular music. In connection with the celebration of EMI's centenary in 1997, a limited CD included an interview from the then popular In Profile series, in which the history of the quintet was recalled from the beginning of its existence.

 The next studio album was finally released in March 1998, and it was intended to be a return to the classic sounds of Iron Maiden from their prime.
The album entitled Virtual XI, led by the eleven-minute single "The Angel and the Gambler", was a disappointment and a commercial fail as no other before.
Enoght to say it failed to reach a circulation of one million copies (1 MLN) despite being promoted by a nine-month world tour and special football meetings attended by musicians and football stars all over the Western Europe just before EURO Championships 1998. The production and mixing of the album once again proved to be beyond Steve Harris, who took on production duties along with Nigel Green. Once again it was a bad decision for him and the rest of the band, Additionally, Bayley's experienced critical voice problems during the Noerth American leg of the tour.

As announced by the musicians, the "Virtual XI World Tour 1998" covered the entire globe and was intended to be a return to the stage spectacularity for which Iron Maiden were famous. The band even tried to involved in the process some people which were behind the whole tour conceptions in former decade (as Dave Lights, Loopy). Unfortunately, the management's intentions were again verified by the size of the venues in which the band played in Great Britain, the USA and Germany, usually accommodating only a few thousand people. This time a little bigger than they used a two years ago. In many cities they played in venues and stadiums with tens of thousands of seats, as was the case during concerts in South America.

 

In Argentina, they performed for nearly 70,000 people as the headliner of the sold-out Monsters Of Rock Festival 1998. In September, the band performed again in Poland, in Spodek in Katowice for more than 10,000 fans from all over the country. At the same time, the single "Futureal" was also released, enjoying considerable success (Top 10 in the UK, at the top of the US Metal Radio charts for two weeks) and a remastered, enriched with multimedia tracks, collection of twelve classic albums of the band, published in 1980–1993.
As Steve Harris saw no further prospects for Iron Maiden's artistic activities, in December 1998 he decided to disband and notified manager Rod Smallwood.

 

However, he did not make the information public, but it led to changes that were important for the group's future. In February 1999, Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith returned to the band. This information electrified fans around the world, and the group - from then on, a sextet - announced a series of thirty concerts in the USA and Europe, promoting both the return of the original Iron Maiden members and a new release - the computer game Ed Hunter, with a soundtrack consisting the greatest hits of the band, selected in an online vote by fans from all over the world.

Although the game did not impress with its level of graphical advancement and quickly turned out to be outdated, the music artist's very publication of the first fully integrated electronic game on the PC, turned out to be a pioneering and inspiring undertaking in the context of the entire music industry, especially if we talk about heavy music back in the days. As a part of short "The Ed Hunter Tour 1999", the band presented a conceptual show based on elements of the promoted PC game and visualizations related to crossing subsequent levels of Ed Hunter. The concerts were very popular, most of the shows were sold out in advance. Iron Maiden also established cooperation with producer Kevin Shirley, known for his work with Aerosmith, Dream Theater and Silverchair.

Even before going on tour, the band's management renegotiated the publishing contract for the American market with Sony Music, and Iron Maiden shares were listed on the British stock exchange. The musicians were awarded another title: The Most Successful British Hard Rock & Heavy Metal Band awarded by Channel 4 TV.
The top 10 rankings were created based on the bestseller lists of individual audio-visual publications and the number of sold-out concerts by British artists representing heavy rock/metal.
Iron Maiden overtook Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne, Deep Purple, Def Leppard, Rainbow, Whitesnake, Motorhead, Saxon, Judas Priest and UFO. They just have started to rebuild their position for good.