It's official! We're back or the start of Season 2 of Maiden Voyage, where Ed and Stu cover the first side of Iron Maiden's 10th studio album, The X-Factor!

Released in October 1995, this marks the first album with the band's third singer, Blaze Bayley. Ed and Stu jump right into the thick of it, discussing the wonderfully absurd lyrics of the album's opening track, "Man on the Edge" about the Joel Schumacher movie, Falling Down. 

How will Blaze fit in with the band? Will singing bland, overly-long songs prove detrimental to Blaze's chances to succeed as Maiden's new singer? Will Ed ever stop pronouncing a hard "J" when saying Janick Gers' name? All this and more on this episode of Maiden Voyage. 

If you are enjoying the show, join us on the Maiden Voyage Patreon to support what we're doing! Patrons are our best friends!

Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Maiden Voyage Podcast. We're desperate for your approval!

Send questions, comments and praise to [email protected]   Follow Stu and Ed on Bluesky.   Visit the Vintage RPG website to check out Stu's other podcast, Vintage RPG, and sign up for the newsletter for an in-depth dive into the art & history of tabletop roleplaying games, and check out unwinnable.com for the best cultural commentary around.   Check out Stu's book, Monsters, Aliens and Holes in the Ground, from MIT Press. Pick up a copy directly from MIT Press, from your local bookstore, or from an online book seller that doesn't suck, like Bookshop.org.    The Maiden Voyage illustration is by Shafer Brown. Follow him on Bluesky and Instagram.   Maiden Voyage is recorded, edited, mixed and mastered by Ed Coleman. The show is produced by Ed Coleman and Stu Horvath.   Theme music composed by Sam Retzer, under license from SmartSound.   This podcast is a labor of love based on decades of devoted fandom. We strongly encourage listeners to buy Iron Maiden's albums or listen to them using your favorite streaming music service to support these heavy metal legends. To check out the cover art for the band's albums and singles, visit the band's excellent website.

That's right, friends! After a lengthy hiatus, Maiden Voyage is returning to continue the chronological journey through Iron Maiden's studio albums. Stu and Ed will pick up where they left off, beginning with the band's 10th studio album, The X-Factor. 

In this brief Season 2 intro, Ed offers "reasons" for the lengthy delay in releasing new episodes, looks back at the album rankings from Season 1, sets the stage for where things stood for the band after Fear of the Dark, and explains that all episodes will be released for free! 

New episodes will start releasing Friday, January 10! What a time to be alive!

If you enjoy the show, join us on the Maiden Voyage Patreon to support what we're doing! Patrons are our best friends!   Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Maiden Voyage Podcast. We're desperate for your approval!   Send questions, comments and praise to [email protected]   Follow Stu and Ed on Bluesky.   Visit the Vintage RPG website to check out Stu's other podcast, Vintage RPG, and sign up for the newsletter for an in-depth dive into the art & history of tabletop roleplaying games, and check out unwinnable.com for the best cultural commentary around.   Check out Stu's book, Monsters, Aliens and Holes in the Ground, from MIT Press. Pick up a copy directly from MIT Press, from your local bookstore, or from an online book seller that doesn't suck, like Bookshop.org.   The Maiden Voyage illustration is by Shafer Brown. Follow him on Bluesky and Instagram.   Maiden Voyage is recorded, edited, mixed and mastered by Ed Coleman. The show is produced by Ed Coleman and Stu Horvath.   Theme music composed by Sam Retzer, under license from SmartSound.   This podcast is a labor of love based on decades of devoted fandom. We strongly encourage listeners to buy Iron Maiden's albums or listen to them using your favorite streaming music service to support these heavy metal legends. To check out the cover art for the band's albums and singles, visit the band's excellent website.

Well, dearest listeners, we've come to the end of our first season and Stu and Ed go out with a bang in this too long epic episode covering Side B of Fear of the Dark. It's the end of an era for Iron Maiden as Bruce Dickinson departs the band for the next 8 years and 2 studio albums, but while this album side is, at best, not great, it closes on a high note with the iconic titular song. 

The episode ends with a shocking reconfiguration of the absolutely definitive album rankings to date, as Stu and Ed realize they've made a grievous mistake. Where will things wind up? What are you waiting for? Start the episode already!

* * *

If you are enjoying the show, join us on the Maiden Voyage Patreon to support what we're doing! Patrons are our best friends!

Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Maiden Voyage Podcast. We're desperate for your approval!

Send questions, comments and praise to [email protected]

Follow Maiden Voyage on Instagram and Twitter.

Follow Stu and Ed on Twitter.

Check out Stu's other podcast, Vintage RPG, and follow Vintage RPG on Instagram for an in-depth dive into the art & history of tabletop roleplaying games, and check out unwinnable.com for the best cultural commentary around.

The Maiden Voyage illustration is by Shafer Brown. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

Maiden Voyage is a Hamfisted Production and is researched and edited by Ed Coleman.

Theme music composed by Sam Retzer, under license from SmartSound.

This podcast is a labor of love based on decades of devoted fandom. We strongly encourage listeners to buy Iron Maiden's albums or listen to them using your favorite streaming music service to support these heavy metal legends. To check out the cover art for the band's albums and singles, visit the band's excellent website.

Ho, ho, ho! What could be better than a new episode of Maiden Voyage for Christmas?!? What's that? You had a whole list of things you asked for and a new Maiden Voyage episode wasn't one of them? Well, consider this a fun, unexpected stocking stuffer!

Ed and Stu are talking Side A of Fear of the Dark, which starts off with the ripping single "Be Quick or Be Dead" and . . . . continues from there. The guys discuss everything from the many, um, "controversies" of the Maxwell family, to the numerous underwhelming B-Sides off the album's singles, to the surprising discovery of Bruce at the bottom of one of Ed's many adventures down a research rabbit hole.

There is only one more episode to go in Maiden Voyage's first season. To hear the episodes covering the two Blaze Bayley albums as they are released, sign up for our patreon! But don't fret, the show will be back soon with season 2, covering the rest of Iron Maiden's studio albums from Brave New World through Book of Souls. 

Side A

1. Be Quick or Be Dead
2. From Here to Eternity
3. Afraid to Shoot Strangers
4. Fear is the Key
5. Childhood's End
6. Wasting Love

Album Personnel

Bruce Dickinson - vox

Dave Murray - guitars

Janick Gers - guitars

Steve Harris - bass guitar

Nicko McBrain - drums

* * *

If you are enjoying the show, join us on the Maiden Voyage Patreon to support what we're doing! Patrons are our best friends!

Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Maiden Voyage Podcast. We're desperate for your approval!

Send questions, comments and praise to [email protected]

Follow Maiden Voyage on Instagram and Twitter.

Follow Stu and Ed on Twitter.

Check out Stu's other podcast, Vintage RPG, and follow Vintage RPG on Instagram for an in-depth dive into the art & history of tabletop roleplaying games, and check out unwinnable.com for the best cultural commentary around.

The Maiden Voyage illustration is by Shafer Brown. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

Maiden Voyage is a Hamfisted Production and is researched and edited by Ed Coleman.

Theme music composed by Sam Retzer, under license from SmartSound.

This podcast is a labor of love based on decades of devoted fandom. We strongly encourage listeners to buy Iron Maiden's albums or listen to them using your favorite streaming music service to support these heavy metal legends. To check out the cover art for the band's albums and singles, visit the band's excellent website.

Moving on to Side B of NPftD, Stu and Ed discuss killers-for-hire, the existential dread of submarines and the ocean, being suspended from the ceiling by hooks in your flesh, Nightmare on Elm Street and Russia, Russia, Russia! You know, normal stuff!

Side B includes what is, remarkably, Iron Maiden's only single to reach #1 on the UK charts with "Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter." Stu and Ed also talk about the album art and how it resets the depiction of the band's mascot, Eddie. Gone are the cyborg enhancements and lobotomy scar. We're back to OG zombie Eddie with whisps of white hair and sporting a ripped t-shirt as he bursts from a grave. Everything old is new again! 

Side B

1. The Assassin
2. Run Silent Run Deep
3. Hooks in You
4. Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter
5. Mother Russia

Album Personnel

Bruce Dickinson - vox

Dave Murray - guitars

Janick Gers - guitars

Steve Harris - bass guitar

Nick McBrain - drums

Additional Musicians: Michael Kenney - keyboards

* * *

If you are enjoying the show, join us on the Maiden Voyage Patreon to support what we're doing! Patrons are our best friends!

Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Maiden Voyage Podcast. We're desperate for your approval!

Send questions, comments and praise to [email protected]

Follow Maiden Voyage on Instagram and Twitter.

Follow Stu and Ed on Twitter.

Check out Stu's other podcast, Vintage RPG, and follow Vintage RPG on Instagram for an in-depth dive into the art & history of tabletop roleplaying games, and check out unwinnable.com for the best cultural commentary around.

The Maiden Voyage illustration is by Shafer Brown. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

Maiden Voyage is a Hamfisted Production and is researched and edited by Ed Coleman.

Theme music composed by Sam Retzer, under license from SmartSound.

This podcast is a labor of love based on decades of devoted fandom. We strongly encourage listeners to buy Iron Maiden's albums or listen to them using your favorite streaming music service to support these heavy metal legends. To check out the cover art for the band's albums and singles, visit the band's excellent website.

Coming off the highs of Seventh Son of a Seventh Son ("7Soa7S"), the band has its first lineup change in 8 years, since the album Piece of Mind. Guitarist extraordinaire Adrian Smith left the band and was replaced by Jancik Gers. Ed and Stu struggle to pronounce his name properly because they are stupid Americans, and they have way too much information about the Rolling Stones Mobile Recording Studio which was used to record the album in a barn on Steve Harris' property.

The album received mixed reviews, but the momentum of 7Soa7S still propelled the album to hit #2 in the UK, spending 14 weeks on the charts. It also managed to hit #17 in the US. 

Side A

1. Tailgunner
2. Holy Smoke
3. No Prayer for the Dying
4. Public Enema Number One
5. Fates Warning

Album Personnel

Bruce Dickinson - vox

Dave Murray - guitars

Janick Gers - guitars

Steve Harris - bass guitar

Nick McBrain - drums

Michael Kenney - keyboards

* * *

If you are enjoying the show, join us on the Maiden Voyage Patreon to support what we're doing! Patrons are our best friends!

Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Maiden Voyage Podcast. We're desperate for your approval!

Send questions, comments and praise to [email protected]

Follow Maiden Voyage on Instagram and Twitter.

Follow Stu and Ed on Twitter.

Check out Stu's other podcast, Vintage RPG, and follow Vintage RPG on Instagram for an in-depth dive into the art & history of tabletop roleplaying games, and check out unwinnable.com for the best cultural commentary around.

The Maiden Voyage illustration is by Shafer Brown. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

Maiden Voyage is a Hamfisted Production and is researched and edited by Ed Coleman.

Theme music composed by Sam Retzer, under license from SmartSound.

This podcast is a labor of love based on decades of devoted fandom. We strongly encourage listeners to buy Iron Maiden's albums or listen to them using your favorite streaming music service to support these heavy metal legends. To check out the cover art for the band's albums and singles, visit the band's excellent website.

It's time for Side B of Iron Maiden's epic album, 7th Son, etc. Stu and Ed continue having a grand ol' time with the album. They discuss celebrities that are rumored to be 7th sons of 7th sons, and Ed gets real, explaining that his wife is not a fan of Maiden which will inevitably lead to the dissolution of his marriage. Sad.

Side B is chock full of more great tunes. Enjoy it while you can, dear listeners! Where will this album rank? Will it take the top spot from Powerslave? The suspense is surely killing you, so listen now!

Side B

1. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
2. The Prophecy
3. The Clairvoyant
4. Only the Good Die Young

Album Personnel

Bruce Dickinson - vox

Dave Murray - guitars

Adrian Smith - guitars

Steve Harris - bass guitar

Nicko McBrain - drums

* * *

If you are enjoying the show, join us on the Maiden Voyage Patreon to support what we're doing! Patrons are our best friends!

Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Maiden Voyage Podcast. We're desperate for your approval!

Send questions, comments and praise to [email protected]

Follow Maiden Voyage on Instagram and Twitter.

Follow Stu and Ed on Twitter.

Check out Stu's other podcast, Vintage RPG, and follow Vintage RPG on Instagram for an in-depth dive into the art & history of tabletop roleplaying games, and check out unwinnable.com for the best cultural commentary around.

The Maiden Voyage illustration is by Shafer Brown. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

Maiden Voyage is a Hamfisted Production and is researched and edited by Ed Coleman.

Theme music composed by Sam Retzer, under license from SmartSound.

This podcast is a labor of love based on decades of devoted fandom. We strongly encourage listeners to buy Iron Maiden's albums or listen to them using your favorite streaming music service to support these heavy metal legends. To check out the cover art for the band's albums and singles, visit the band's excellent website.

Our voyage continues as we discuss Side A of Iron Maiden's epic concept album, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (hereinafter "7th Son" for brevity's sake). Ed and Stu wind up having a lot to say about this album and its tale of a boy born with special powers because he had a bunch of brothers and uncles! 

Maiden's back on top with this album, both creatively and in terms of record sales. 7th Son debuted at #1 in the UK, spending 18 weeks on the charts. The fellas can see why as they enjoy listening along, trying to decipher the album's narrative as they go. 

* * *

If you are enjoying the show, join us on the Maiden Voyage Patreon to support what we're doing! Patrons are our best friends!

Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Maiden Voyage Podcast. We're desperate for your approval!

Send questions, comments and praise to [email protected]

Follow Maiden Voyage on Instagram and Twitter.

Follow Stu and Ed on Twitter.

Check out Stu's other podcast, Vintage RPG, and follow Vintage RPG on Instagram for an in-depth dive into the art & history of tabletop roleplaying games, and check out unwinnable.com for the best cultural commentary around.

The Maiden Voyage illustration is by Shafer Brown. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

Maiden Voyage is a Hamfisted Production and is researched and edited by Ed Coleman.

Theme music composed by Sam Retzer, under license from SmartSound.

This podcast is a labor of love based on decades of devoted fandom. We strongly encourage listeners to buy Iron Maiden's albums or listen to them using your favorite streaming music service to support these heavy metal legends. To check out the cover art for the band's albums and singles, visit the band's excellent website.

We're back to endure Side B of Somewhere in Time and Stu and Ed wind up experiencing serious "Deja Vu" as they dislike this side of the album as much, if not more, than the first! We start with a long song about cross-country and end with an even longer song that can be used as Cliffs Notes to learn everything Alexander the Great ever did (though we like that song). 

Where will this one fall in our on-going list ranking Iron Maiden's albums? I think you can guess....

Side B

1. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
2. Stranger in a Strange Land
3. Deja Vu
4. Alexander the Great

Album Personnel

Bruce Dickinson - vox

Dave Murray - guitars

 Adrian Smith - guitars

Steve Harris - bass

Nicko McBrain - drums

 

* * *

If you are enjoying the show, join us on the Maiden Voyage Patreon to support what we're doing! Patrons are our best friends!

Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Maiden Voyage Podcast. We're desperate for your approval!

Send questions, comments and praise to [email protected]

Follow Maiden Voyage on Instagram and Twitter.

Follow Stu and Ed on Twitter.

Check out Stu's other podcast, Vintage RPG, and follow Vintage RPG on Instagram for an in-depth dive into the art & history of tabletop roleplaying games, and check out unwinnable.com for the best cultural commentary around.

The Maiden Voyage illustration is by Shafer Brown. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

Maiden Voyage is a Hamfisted Production and is researched and edited by Ed Coleman.

Theme music composed by Sam Retzer, under license from SmartSound.

This podcast is a labor of love based on decades of devoted fandom. We strongly encourage listeners to buy Iron Maiden's albums or listen to them using your favorite streaming music service to support these heavy metal legends. To check out the cover art for the band's albums and singles, visit the band's excellent website.

The show moves on to cover Somewhere In Time, because that is the next album chronologically! Ed is less than enthused. Stu is despondent. But it doesn't mean they can't have a good time while discussing Side A of Iron Maiden's 1986 album. Stu gets a lot of mileage reviewing the album art!

Side A

1. Caught Somewhere in Time

2. Wasted Years

3. Sea of Madness

4. Heaven Can Wait

Album Personnel

Bruce Dickinson - vox

Dave Murray - guitars

Adrian Smith - guitars

Steve Harris - bass guitar

Nicko McBrain - drums

 

* * *

If you are enjoying the show, join us on the Maiden Voyage Patreon to support what we're doing! Patrons are our best friends!

Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Maiden Voyage Podcast. We're desperate for your approval!

Send questions, comments and praise to [email protected]

Follow Maiden Voyage on Instagram and Twitter.

Follow Stu and Ed on Twitter.

Check out Stu's other podcast, Vintage RPG, and follow Vintage RPG on Instagram for an in-depth dive into the art & history of tabletop roleplaying games, and check out unwinnable.com for the best cultural commentary around.

The Maiden Voyage illustration is by Shafer Brown. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

Maiden Voyage is a Hamfisted Production and is researched and edited by Ed Coleman.

Theme music composed by Sam Retzer, under license from SmartSound.

This podcast is a labor of love based on decades of devoted fandom. We strongly encourage listeners to buy Iron Maiden's albums or listen to them using your favorite streaming music service to support these heavy metal legends. To check out the cover art for the band's albums and singles, visit the band's excellent website.