1292. Bruce Dickinson / Tattooed Millionaire. 1990. 3.5/5

All bands have a peak, a time when they could not be possibly any higher in their career than they are at a certain point. It is not something that they necessarily know at that time, but that after the event they can look back and pinpoint just when it is, and hopefully smile and say ‘yeah, that was something wasn’t it?’. For Iron Maiden, that peak was the conclusion of 1988, following the tour to support the album “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”. The band had produced seven incredible albums, had solidified their line up over the last four of those albums, and those albums had charted all over the world. In terms of success, Iron Maiden was scaling Everest. Looking back from this point on the timeline, perhaps they had reached the peak of Everest. The band had chosen to take a year off after their demanding schedule over recent years, and several events began to pass that would change the shape of the band over the next few years. Perhaps this was already underway anyway.
In early 1989, Bruce Dickinson was asked if he would like to contribute a track for the movie “A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child”, the next instalment of the Freddie Krueger horror legacy. For this, Dickinson was provided a budget, a studio, and a producer in the experienced and well renowned Chris Tsangarides. Bruce took up the opportunity and roped in an old friend in guitarist Jannick Gers to come in with him, and between them they came up with the song “Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter”, which they duly recorded with the help of bass guitarist Andy Carr and drummer Fabio del Rio. So impressed with the results of the song, Zomba Music asked Dickinson if he was interested in recording a solo album. Fellow bandmate Adrian Smith had done the same thing the previous year with his Adrian Smith and Project, an album called “Silver and Gold”. Here was an opportunity for Bruce to fully put himself onto an album for the first time. He hadn’t done so in Samson, and in Iron Maiden he would always be restricted to a degree with what he wanted to do by the numbers of the band and of course the band leader himself. Here, he would be the band leader, and could express himself in any way he saw fit. The result was Bruce accepting the offer, and by keeping the same band and the same album producer, they spent a two week period in the studio creating what was to become the album “Tattooed Millionaire”, one that history tells us was the precursor to what was to unfold over the next two years and into the following decade.

One decision that was made did come from Bruce’s main band, one that showed that the influence of Steve Harris extended beyond that band’s reach. Steve had been so impressed with Bruce’s song “Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter” that he decided that he wanted to put it on Iron Maiden’s next album. That meant suppressing the version that had been released on the movie soundtrack, but it also meant that Bruce was unable to use it on his own solo album. Now, whether he would have ended up doing that or not is still something that has been left unresolved over the years, but if it had been added it may have made this album even more important than it became regarding shaping the future.
The album opens with the track that is going to set the style of the album, and “Son of a Gun” does that with a cool set of opening lyrics, with Bruce’s vocal set “Holy was the preacher, Riding on his rig of steel in the rising sun, This was no grim reaper but a man with a smile who took a pride in a job well done
Oh, in a bloodred sunrise, He's preaching conversion, as you lay down and die”. Sitting back in a slower than expected tempo, it does give Bruce the opportunity to utilise all of his vocal range and style, and also Jannick to almost croon along on lead guitar throughout as well. It actually works surprisingly well as the opening track to the album. The title track “Tattooed Millionaire” gives Bruce the opportunity to give a spray to as many people and subjects as he feels like doing. The harmony vocals through the bridge and chorus work really well, especially given that they are not overused in his other more famous band. Mixed with the harsher vocals through the verses, the song itself blends nicely into the subject matter of the lyrics, and the bass and drums act as the base of the song underneath throughout. Bruce is able to touch on subject matter that wouldn't fit in Iron Maiden at that time, though it is amusing that that was to change very soon. It’s another excellent entry to the start of the album.
“Born in ‘58” is a nicely performed almost-autobiographical song, focusing on growing up with his grandparents, and the way people were in those days and how the events of the time affected their lives and his upbringings. Once again, it isn’t a fast song but is tinged with a well performed melody, and it is the reflective thought brought about by Bruce’s words and singing that gives the song its emotional base. The other big player in this song is that by this point of the album it is noticeable with surety that this album is as far away from an Iron Maiden album as you could imagine. Unless you have heard Adrian Smith’s album that and been released the previous year. “Hell on Wheels” sticks to the slower mid-tempo, with Bruce incorporating a harsher vocal in a chanting style for most of the track, until we reach the chorus where his harmony dual vocals return to remind us of his primary vocal asset. Jannick gives us a nice guitar solo through the middle of the song that lifts it above the average as a result. “Gypsy Road” might stick to the same tempo as those songs before it, but it falls back to a ballad state, another reflective tome about leaving the high life and leading the simpler life that the gypsies were want to do. It may well have been something that was on Bruce’s mind when composing the song, that perhaps he wanted a simpler life than life always on the road. These three songs back to back provide a real point of difference in Bruce’s style, where even his vocals stylings are marked with change.
“Dive! Dive! Dive!” has lyrics that play up the urban myth about the characters names in the British comic “Captain Pugwash” and descends into a bucketful of double entendres that proliferate the song. At the time this was written it had been suggested not only some sections of the public but also the media that the characters in the cartoon had double meanings, but this was eventually retracted publicly when the author John Ryan took those media barons to court. Instead, this song stands as a monument to what was heard snickered behind hands in schoolyards around the country. Whether that is a good thing or not is open to public opinion. The song itself is more upbeat that most of the offerings before this and stands out as a result. It shouldn’t be a surprise that Bruce wrote a song of this nature, given the subject matter of the novel he was about to publish called “The Adventures of Lord Iffy Boatrace”. This is followed by “All the Young Dudes” a cover of the Mott the Hoople song which is given loving treatment here. Indeed, for me at least, I think it is the best version of this song.
The final three songs of the album, I feel, have a hard time living up to the rest of the album. “Lickin’ the Gun” is an energetic anti-authority song with Bruce spitting out his diatribe faster than you can sing along, although most of it isn’t singing but more standing on his soapbox and unloading on the protagonists of the song. “Zulu Lulu” lyrically at least is Bruce’s Kiss song, giving away more than he should but never the whole story in the same position. And the closing song “No Lies”, while preaching more of the evils of the world, just becomes far too repetitive musically and lyrically to fully enjoy. And with that, in the final analysis, is what you are left with here by the end of the album. It covers the gamut when it comes to musical style and also lyrical tales. There is something for almost everyone, but perhaps not enough of it to offset the pieces that you may well not adhere to.

I don’t think there is much doubt that when I bought this album on its release, I was expecting something truly amazing. I didn’t expect Iron Maiden, but I expected something that would showcase Bruce’s amazing vocals, the range and the drawn out melodies, and music that would also enhance all of those qualities. I guess I was expecting exactly what I got from the “Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter” single from the A Nightmare on Elm Street 5 soundtrack. THAT’S what I was expecting – nay, demanding! An album of that kind of attitude and excitement and joy. And as we all know, that kind of expectation can cruel an album before you even hear it. And for me at that time, when I bought it and first played it... it didn’t! In fact, I was taken with this album immediately. Sure, it could hardly have been much more different from what I was hoping for, but at that time it still intrigued me. The mood swings of the album I thought at the time were enjoyable, the songs n the opening half of th album were all great. I swung with the punches when it came to the second half of the album, really not even noticing any change in quality or style, just play the album through, and then go back and start it all again. This continued to be a regular event for about 3 months, right up until a plethora of amazing albums were released in the second half of 1990. And right up until that time, I enjoyed this album without any qualms. It was Bruce doing a solo project to showcase some of his love of other styles of hard rock music with a friend. It was enjoyable. And of course, it was a one-off thing, so there was no need to thinkabout it leading to anything else. Well, once again, shows what you know Bill!
I wouldn’t say that my opinion of the album changed over the proceeding years, but it explained a lot about the seeding of Bruce’s eventual split with Iron maiden and the fostering of a solo career. Everything that appears on this album could not have been done in the environment of Iron Maiden, and the fact that it had been reasonably well received even though it is not a heavy metal album must have said to Bruce that it was perhaps a better outlet for him where he could make all of the decisions without have to go through a consensus of opinion. Or the opinion of one other. The direction of Bruce’s two solo album’s following that split - “Balls to Picasso” and “Skunkworks” - brought home to me the differences and adaptations that Bruce had within his volume of work, and funnelled back to this album, and why it was an important thing that he did at that time. Because he would have known going into this solo album that he would have a large majority of Iron Maiden fans who would buy it no matter what, and that a reasonable percentage of those fans who did would be unhappy with the results.
I have spent the last week listening to this album again, and it has been some time since I last gave it a listen. Unlike many others, I have no negative thoughts or connotations about “Tattooed Millionaire”. I accepted its change of style and direction when I first heard it, and I am in no different position today. I rarely analyse an album so closely as to ascertain why I love or hate or am ambivalent about a riff, a rhythm section, a track or an album. That is as true as it can possibly be when it comes to “Tattooed Millionaire”. I still like “Son of a Gun”, the way it opens the album. I really enjoy he title track and “Born in ‘58” and “Hell on Wheels”. I love the version of “All the Young Dudes”, it is given a loving performance, and the closer “No Lies”. All of this I still sing along to and enjoy. Yes, a big part of that is nostalgia, because I played this a lot when I first got it, in the absence of a new Iron Maiden album, and it does remind me of that time. And the other songs here? Well, they are tolerable. They are a part of the album, and thus when I listen, I listen to it all. They aren’t bad but they have dated.
This album marked not only a skew in Bruce Dickinson’s career path, but also that of Iron Maiden. The change of musicians and how that affected both Maiden and Bruce himself, the change of music direction created by the times and the change in personnel. All of that can be traced to Adrian’s “Silver and Gold” album and Bruce’s “Tattooed Millionaire” album. Not everything that came from the next decade was good, but as a forerunner to the recombining of all concerned in order to push Maiden into the next century, it was all a very necessary element. “Tattooed Millionaire” may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I will always think of it as an enjoyable album.

1271. Bruce Dickinson / Scream for Me Brazil. 1999. 5/5

By the time this album came to be released, the world of Bruce Dickinson had come full circle, and the hard work that he and his various band mates had put in over the previous six years was about to come to a conclusion that perhaps in many ways always felt inevitable.
Since his split with Iron Maiden in 1993, Bruce had experienced the ups and downs of life after the biggest ride of his career. Playing smaller venues, with less promotion and hype, hoping to build something away from the spotlight that he had been a part of for that previous decade, and on the back of albums such as “Balls to Picasso” and “Skunkworks”, discovering the pitfalls of putting your heart and soul into a project, and not getting back the unadulterated adulation you may have felt it deserved. He has commented in interviews since that he was at his lowest moment at this time, and felt perhaps he needed to start looking at another profession. Then through the help of partner in crime Roy Z and former partner in crime Adrian Smith, the rise began in earnest, with albums such as “Accident of Birth” and “The Chemical Wedding” which were lauded by critics and fans alike, and the quality of both of those albums meant Dickinson and his band were making inroads and beginning to become a force in the world of music. This, and the falling album and concert sales of Iron Maiden in that time frame, and the real possibility that that band would shrink in popularity considerably should something not be done about it, led to the announcement on February 10, 1999, that both Bruce and Adrian were returning to Iron Maiden as full time members, something that the world greeting with ecstasy and excitement. Of course, this meant that Bruce’s solo career would have to be put on hold, perhaps permanently, although he publicly stated that was not something he wanted to occur.
What it did mean was that his tour following this date could be celebrated on all fronts. A tour to promote “The Chemical Wedding” album with its amazing material, as well as celebrating the fact that soon fans would be able to hear new material and the live the reformed Iron Maiden, and the excitement that would bring. With this in mind, and as a way to give this period of his career the proper ending and send off, it was decided to release a live album from this tour, to properly give the end of this moment in time with a true reflection of the band at its peak, and of songs that may never again have been played in the live environment. And so, the show played on 25th April 1999 in Sao Paulo, Brazil was recorded for this purpose and released in the sunset of the band but the sunrise of the new dawn of Iron Maiden, and appropriately titled “Scream for Me Brazil!”.

The release of this live album had to be well conceived in order to make the most of the moment in time, and it appears there was also some discussion about what to include on the final release. Given that there were two former members of Iron Maiden in the Bruce Dickinson band, it was obvious that they would cover some of those songs in their live set list. On this tour, there were three Maiden songs each night, those being “Powerslave”, “2 Minutes to Midnight” and “Flight of Icarus”. All three songs were excluded from the final album release. Whatever decision process may have been invloved in that decision, whether it was just the fact that Bruce only wanted the bands songs on the album (which would be a reasonable action) or whether they decided against having songs from the band he and Adrian were about to rejoin so close to the reunion (quite possible) or whether it was just the time constraints on only having a single CD release rather than a double CD of the entire gig (also a reasonable action), they missed the final cut. And while it would have been great to hear those versions of those songs, it was not to be. Two other songs were also cut, those being “Tattooed Millionaire” and “Taking the Queen”.
Instead, we have 12 of the 17 songs played on that night, the first 11 songs, and then the penultimate song of the night “Road to Hell” closing out the album. And the first half of the setlist is all off the album they were touring to promote “The Chemical Wedding”. Indeed seven songs in total come from that album, a rare event when bands play live. But that was the best example of just how popular Bruce’s solo work was becoming with both “The Chemical Wedding” and “Accident of Birth”, that he and his band could play more than half of that album live and be feted for it rather than criticised. And the live versions hold up spectacularly well, being at least as good as the studio versions, and in places providing even more in the live environment than those studio versions could offer. And while those seven songs they play, “Trumpets of Jericho”, “King in Crimson”, “Chemical Wedding”, “Gates of Urizen”, “Killing Floor”, “Book of Thel” and “The Tower”, are spectacular, I can’t believe they didn’t play “Machine Men”. That for me is a missed opportunity.
Beyond that, we also getting excellent live versions of “Laughing in the Hiding Bush” and “Tears of the Dragon” from “Balls to Picasso”, and “Accident of Birth”, “Darkside of Aquarius” and “Road to Hell” from the “Accident of Birth” album, rounding out a fabulous live album.
The performances here are amazing. Eddie Casillas on bass and David Ingraham on drums excel again as they have on previous albums, while the dual guitars of Roy Z and Adrian Smith are superb. And of course, the voice him, who on this album proves he could still sing every song the same way as he does on the studio versions – and more! - the incomparable Bruce Dickinson.

Here’s my usual spiel about live albums, to get it out of the way. Live albums should be automatic 5/5 albums, because they should contain the bands best songs performed in their best environment. That is certainly the case here with “Scream for me Brazil”. It is a top shelf, top rated live album that everyone should check out.
Even more than that, this album proves that Rod Smallwood had to be very canny to protect his number one priority when it came to this situation. Because there is no doubt Bruce was in the ascendancy at this time, and this lie album is the final proof of that. Neither “The Chemical Wedding” nor “Accident of Birth” could have been written of recorded in Iron Maiden. It isn’t their style and has a different set of writers and people in charge that would not have occurred in the other group. “The Chemical Wedding” is a superior album in every respect over Maiden’s “The X Factor”. And if the status quo had remained onto another album cycle... would Maiden have survived? Would Bruce and band have gained further success? This live album asserts that the band was firing on the stage, and that this scenario was more than possible. And while Rod was probably just looking to save his longest investment by insisting that Steve and Bruce meet up and see if their differences could be resolved, he probably also saw the future and knew that the true longevity lay in Bruce, and Adrian, returning to Maiden and getting that ship righted and sailing true once again.
I bought this pretty much on its release, and it has been a gem from the first day I had it. And all of those thoughts ran through my head at the time... as excited as I was to see those two return to Maiden, and hear what the reunited band would produce, I also wondered if another Bruce Dickinson album would be just as worthwhile. We did of course eventually get another album, the Bruce and Roy written-by-correspondence effort of “Tyranny of Souls” which showed that even in that environment they could produce another great album, and of course more recently the excellent “The Mandrake Project”. In essence, we have had the best of both worlds. But this album does capture a moment in time, where this band was on a high, riding on the coattails in particular of two amazing studio albums, with the surge of momentum driving them to greater heights, and also of the butterflies of expectation of what the following year would bring with the return of Iron Maiden. All of that comes through on this album, and it is all the better for it.

1240. Bruce Dickinson / The Mandrake Project. 2024. 4.5/5

It’s not as if Bruce Dickinson doesn’t have enough to do in his life. A pilot who flies planes, a brewer who brews beer, a writer who writes tomes, a DJ who does radio shows, and just as an aside a lead vocalist who has been at the forefront of the music industry for over 40 years. That touches the surface of what Dickinson has done in a life that seems to get busier every year. You can now add on to this creator of yet another solo album, something to tide him over until the next Iron Maiden tour or album or project manifests itself. There is little doubt that Dickinson is a marvel when it comes to what he sets his mind to.
The duo of Dickinson and his frequent collaborator Roy Z last put out an album together in 2005, that being the “Tyranny of Souls” album that came during a break between Iron Maiden releases and tours. Despite the success and general positive reviews of that release, time worked against both men when it came to producing another follow up. Despite this, it is well known that Dickinson had been writing songs with a new solo album in mind at least a decade ago. In fact, Roy Z said in a recent interview that the next Dickinson solo album was prepared to be recorded in 2012 during a break in Maiden proceedings, and that at that time 14 songs had been written, and that many of those songs are still unreleased and that he hoped they would eventually see the light of day. One of those songs of course found its way onto an Iron Maiden album, much like another had done so back in the late 1980’s.
With the onset of the pandemic in recent years, and the delayed release of Maiden’s last album “Senjutsu”, time has been more readily available in order to not only finalise the writing and production of the tracks that make up this album, but the eventual release of the album and even a tour in certain places in the world (not Australia of course) to promote it. Then there is the comic book and the overreaching story of the whole project... but you know, what we are interested in here on this podcast is the album, and if it is any good. It matters not about the story if the songs just don’t hit you in the right places.

The opening track of the album was also the first teaser single release, “Afterglow of Ragnarok”. It’s a different approach from opening tracks on his other solo releases, which have generally been really heavy riffs and hard and fast, whereas this opening track has a more atmospheric feel about it, as though it is setting the scene for what is to come, which of course it is. I must admit I only listened to this a couple of times before the album was released so as not to allow it to dominate my early listening of the album, and I think that worked well. Bruce’s vocals are terrific here, in an easy register to sing along with. It is to become a recurring theme. It’s a really good opening track, that is then immediately crushed by the brilliant follow up “Many Doors to Hell”. Bruce’s dulcet tones on those opening lines... almost sinister in the lower depths of his range... we haven’t heard this for a long time and it is just brilliant, before returning to his more regular register for the bridge and chorus. It has a terrific solo through the middle of the song, and just a great beat about it all the way through. Bruce has said this has nothing to do with the comic – the song tells the story of a female vampire bored with eternity and wanting to find a way back to her humanity – but it sounded good anyway so it made the cut. I agree with him, I think this is a terrific song.
The second single “Rain on the Graves” follows, a song that has its beginnings back in 2008, and continues the same grain that the album has tracked along so far, with another moody musical aspect pulled along by a midtempo range that feels more intense than that description. That is perhaps the best aspect of the opening to the album, the groove is the main drive, but it is more amplified that just a simple midtempo beat, it moves much freer than that.
“Resurrection Man” not only features Bruce on guitar (a real twanging surf-type almost DAD-like guitar too) but is a change in direction musically as well, with this track tying directly to the comic release with the mention of the anti-heroes Doctor Necropolis and Professor Lazarus, and teasing the promise of eternal life. Continuing this change in musical journey, “Fingers in the Wounds” is based around a piano keyboard base with Bruce driving the song with firstly the soaring vocal and then the powerful forceful vocal, through to the middle of the song where keys and synth dominate. It’s an interesting track, one that harks back to earlier solo material Dickinson has done and is one that does take a few listens to dissect given it is so different from his usual pursuits.
The original yet rejigged “Eternity Has Failed” to me is a triumph. Revisiting it after the song was purloined by Mr Harris for his band, this version loses nothing in comparison in my opinion. Some of the lyrics are changed to continue to story of “The Mandrake Project”, and Bruce’s change in the way he sings, along with the slower and more intense sound of the track makes this a joy. I love Maiden’s version, and I find I love this just as much. Then “Mistress of Mercy” cuts in with its heavy opening riff in true Roy Z style, and provides the best straight up heavy song of the album, with Roy given his best opportunity to solo unhindered through the middle of the song.
“Face in the Mirror” drops back out of that mindset and dials everything back as the acoustic guitar and keyboard dominated track brings back “Tears of the Dragon” like tones without replicating the majesty or power of that song. Bruce’s guitar returns, and this track is credited with the first recorded Dickinson guitar solo. “Shadow of the Gods” is almost like a prog metal song, drifting along for the first half like a power ballad, before finally breaking out into a heavy riff and almost a growl in Bruce’s vocals, something that comes as a shock the first time you hear it, and then a grandiose finish with the soaring vocal returning. It could almost be a progressive metal suite. Finally, the album closes out with “Sonata (Immortal Beloved)”, with similar tones to the way the previous two tracks have gone. Stretching to almost ten minutes, here again we are exposed to vocals from Bruce that he rarely uses but obviously has in his repertoire to utilise, the beautiful quiet soar through the mid-range that he used in a song like “Navigate the Seas of the Sun”, but in a more operatic stage musical way, rather than the high range of his pitch. It’s an epic, a slow burner, a song that builds slowly but determinedly over the course of the ten minutes to its eventual conclusion. This song apparently dates to before the release of “Tyranny of Souls”, something that makes you think that it was a project that both Bruce and Roy were passionate about, enabling them to use this as the final chapter of this long awaited new album.

Perhaps the best way to give you an idea of how much people were waiting for this album to be released was that it was impossible to find a copy of the standard CD for sale anywhere on the eastern seaboard the day after its release. Everywhere I looked, it was sold out. You have to say that that is a fair indication of the anticipation that was felt about the release of “The Mandrake Project”. Whether or not that knocks off every single Taylor Swift album from the Australian charts – yes, ALL of them take up the first ten or twelve positions on the Australian Albums charts as I record this - remains to be seen.
It was of course available on all streaming platforms, and that was where most people turned to for their initial listens to this album. Including me. And up to the recording of this episode, I have barely listened to anything else. Six days, and I’m up to 45 rotations of the album... or streams in this case. So I feel as though I have enough initial knowledge to render my verdict here.
What Bruce does best on all of his solo albums is put forward songs and music that he could never produce in Iron Maiden. That’s why he does it, and it opens another door from the material he writes and performs for that band. Which is why we all become drawn to it. And it is also the reason that sometimes some of the songs don’t always hit the right spot for everyone.
For me on “The Mandrake Project”, this is true of the closing three tracks, and that is only through my personal preference of music genre. All three of “Face in the Mirror”, “Shadow of the Gods” and “Sonata (Immortal Beloved)” are that style of song that I don’t personally care for a lot. I APPRECIATE the music, massively in fact, because they are composed and performed brilliantly and beautifully. But having gone through the first half of the album, where songs like “Afterglow of Ragnarök”, “Many Doors to Hell”, “Rain on the Graves” and “Eternity Has Failed” have been so powerful and energetic and riff worthy, the back third of the album slows down to a trickle, and softly moves into the distance. It’s a really interesting transition, from the first third of the album, through to several changes in the middle, and then the final third as written and performed. Like I said, I didn’t come here for Iron Maiden, and I expected a range of songs that showcased the differences in the writing collaboration of Dickinson and Z. And that’s exactly what we get. The band is great, and there is probably more keys and synth in places than I expected. That should not have been a surprise overall. This isn’t the “Accident of Birth/Chemical Wedding” era after all.
Is there more of Bruce’s solo music to come? Or is this like a crack in the window, allowing something to sneak through before that pathway is covered over. This is a truly enjoyable album, because it has the voice of Iron Maiden once again performing songs that Iron Maiden never would, and of course this is why Bruce has chosen to do this. Here, he drives the bus, and he is in control of what direction it goes, and it gives him the freedom to express himself in every way he would like to. It is the reason the album has moments that you might feel are a step too far, and others where you get even more than you bargained for.
Personally, I am enjoying this album a lot, probably more than I expected. It may not be all in a style that is my favourite to listen to, but the album as a whole is quite the triumph. There was always an expectation from myself that I would overhype this before its delivery and have it end up being a disappointment. It turns out that exactly the opposite has occurred. I didn’t listen to the early release of tracks, and went into the album more or less clueless as to what was to come. And through this I have discovered a lot of new songs to enjoy, and an album that, when taken as a story in itself, is another musical triumph for a collaborating pair that still know how to please their fans.

686. Bruce Dickinson / Skunkworks. 1996. 3/5

By the time Skunkworks came into being, there was a lull going on in the music being released around the world. Grunge was beginning to wind down, metalcore was starting to reel in some influence, power and speed metal was ramping up throughout Europe, and traditional heavy metal was diverging, not the least with Metallica's complete about-face with albums such as Load and Reload. Bruce Dickinson, having moved on from Iron Maiden, and now having lost his previous backing band that helped produce Balls to Picasso, pulled together three new musicians and wrote this album. His original process was to call the band Skunkworks, but the record label was having none of it and insisted it be released under his solo name.
Perhaps the label hadn't listened to the album, because the music here is nothing like anything Bruce had ever recorded and released before, and perhaps by doing it under a band name rather than his own it would have been received more favourably. As it turns out, the significant style change realised here was a difficult thing for many fans to accept.
Why? Because this is not heavy metal, which is what Bruce is best known for. Most fans were able to accept Tattooed Millionaire because the album was rooted in the hard rock of Dickinson's influences of the 1970's bands he grew up listening to, and because it was a fun album to listen to, as well as having terrific guitar and drumming. It 'rocked' so it fit okay. Balls to Picasso probably wasn't so much fun, but with Roy Z and the Tribe of Gypsies it still worked.

But here, Bruce and his band have slipped into very alternative territory. Songs like "Dreamstate" and "I Will Not Accept the Truth" from the middle of the album seem to be going for an emotional response, but come off as boring and perhaps a little self-indulging. These songs go for the slow drum beat, the bass almost non-existent, and the clean quiet guitar. In other songs, we have many of the lines in the choruses which are stretched out interminably (for example, "Back From the Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedge" and "Ineeeeerrrrtiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" and "Insiiiide the Machiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine"). And it isn't as if Bruce is really stretching his range either. I mean, here is a guy with one of the finest singing voices in ALL of music, not just the metal side of the business, and he hasn't really gotten out of second gear in these songs. Everything has been toned back from his most famous releases - the softer alternative approach, the narrower vocal range and stripped back simpler sound.
The tempo of the album rarely changes. Certainly the first half a dozen songs on the album appear to be closer to a hard rock feel, with some semblance of what most would expect of a Bruce Dickinson release. "Space Race" and "Back From the Edge" and "Inertia" start the album off on an even keel, even if while listening to them you feel as though there is something that is not quite there. The second half of the album though becomes even less inspiring, with the songs slipping further into this musical exploration which has been approached. The closing song "Strange Death in Paradise" just doesn't really gell. It has all of this thrown into the mix, and for me just doesn't work.

For me, it is not as though I hate this album, or that I even dislike it. It's just that at no time during this album, no matter when or where or how many times I listen to it, do I ever get excited about any of it. There isn't a song that makes me stop what I'm doing and sing along, or air guitar or air drum to - not a riff or a fill or a lyric. It just seems so bland, right across the board. There's no doubt that "alternative" material can be a bit that way, unless there is a hook that drags you in. In assessing it's impact, I imagined taking away the vocals. What are you left with? Some fairly formulaic, straight forward drums, bass and guitar. There are no hooks, no tantalising riffs to drag you into the song. It has a mellow Soundgarden or Pearl Jam kind of feeling to it, but without their characteristic moments that define their music and make it a familiar and comfortable experience, a burst of energy and innovation that creates defining moments in the music and the album. Skunkworks fails to deliver any of that. I hesitate greatly and for a long period before saying this, before I can no longer ignore the fact that, for the most part, this album is just plain boring.
Bruce is a brilliant artist, a fantastic singer, who has been at the forefront of music for a long time. This album is a real change from just about anything he has produced in his career, and while he should be applauded for trying something different, I can only say that in my opinion it was a flawed effort.
One can only wonder what may have happened if Roy Z had not reappeared on the scene and helped him back from the abyss. The fact that he also brought in another Maiden alumni who had had his own crushing attempts at trying to make it on his own with similar results (Adrian Smith) for this album's follow-up probably suggests he is most responsible reigniting both of their careers. But that's another review.

170. Bruce Dickinson / The Chemical Wedding. 1998. 5/5.

18 months before this album was released, there was every chance Bruce Dickinson could have been lost to the music industry. On the back of the poor reception for his “Skunkworks” project and album he had been in a mood to go and do something else with his life. And it wasn’t as if he didn’t have enough other irons in the fire to choose from. Then came the return of Roy Z into his life, and the album “Accident of Birth” was the result, and not only did the music world’s ears prick up again, so too did the fire in Bruce Dickinson’s chest. That story is brought to life in the episode dedicated to that album in Season 2 of this podcast and is worth reliving if you haven’t already done so.
“Accident of Birth”, and the tour that followed it, were both a growing success, with the recruitment of former Maiden bandmate Adrian Smith adding to the attraction. Looking to follow up on the revitalisation of his prospects, the band consisting of Roy Z and Adrian Smith as guitarists and collaborators, along with Eddie Casillas on bass guitar and David Ingraham on drums, spent the first half of 1998 in the process of writing and recording the next album, to strike while the iron was hot.
The composition of the songs and the lyrics have been compared by some critics to be in line with a concept album, though they songs don’t tell a story from start to finish, and indeed Bruce himself has said that while each song has a link of sorts to each other, the album itself is not in a true concept piece. Bruce was quoted at the time in regards to what he was writing as such: “And it's all part of the whole alchemy thing. What were the alchemists trying to do? They were trying to achieve something that was virtually impossible, they spent their whole lives trying to do it, and all of them failed, or pretty damn near all of them failed. So, what does that feel like, and how does that work, and why keep carrying on. So that's the way the songs kind of work”
Bruce’s best comment following this was that if you want to delve into the lyrics, the tale he was telling was all there, but that it wasn’t necessary to do that to enjoy the album, because “you could just sit back there and let it hit you over the head like a sledgehammer, cause the album works, it's just a really heavy album” - and that is perhaps the most important part of this album. There is a depth if you are interested, but if you just want to listen to a great heavy album, then here it is.

The difference in the songs written for the “Skunkworks” album and the “Accident of Birth” album had been a massive change in direction, and that is magnified here. That template was refined and improved here on “The Chemical Wedding”. The major difference comes from the writing pair of Bruce and Roy. Roy Z appeared to have an innate knowledge of what the fans wanted from Bruce’s music, and between them had found the right place for that. And here on this album they push that a little harder. Bruce hadn’t wanted to head down this path after leaving Maiden, but he recognised that the stuff that Roy Z had produced for him had that magical quality.
This album incorporates all of that, flying in the face of what was happening in heavy metal at the time.
That opening magnificence of that heavy guitar intro to “King in Crimson” before the entrance of the opening vocals tracks of Bruce for the album is an assault on the senses from the very beginning. It is a cracking opening to the album, full of fire and brimstone from the outset. It leads perfectly into “The Chemical Wedding” which is almost the perfect single release song, if such a thing truly still existed by the time 1998 came around. Apparently “Killing Floor” was released as the single from the album, and there is definitely also a music video for “The Tower” out there, but this was the track that should have been, and ticks every box in regard to being it. Just over four minutes in length, the perfect single writing with ‘verse, chorus, verse, chorus solo chorus’, brilliant easy singalong lyrics. Then you have “The Tower”, melodically and powerfully one of the best songs Bruce has done in any sphere or medium. That fantastic start with just drums and bass, before the guitars crash in, and then the vocals. It has an epic wonderment about it that still sits within the frame of a five minute song. Truly terrific. “Killing Floor” then crashes in, co-written with Adrian, and nothing like what you expect when you listen to a Smith/Dickinson song. Hard core riffs, hard core vocals, mixed with the lulling of the vocals within the track. It’s a great song that even today still surprises me by the aggression in the guitars especially.
“Book of Thel” is the true epic of the album, pulling in all of the great moments of the songs before it and bringing the first half of the album to its conclusion in a wonderful array of emotional over-the-top vocals from the best in the business. It is still a brilliant track, that packs in everything that this band brings to the table.
“Gates of Urizen” allows Bruce to have his vocals soar without breaking stride, and then into “Jerusalem” which is another beautifully crafted and performed song, firstly with Bruce’s amazing vocals, before the awesome solo break with Adrian and Roy which lifts the song from amazing to pure awesome, topped off by the final choir of Bruce’s closing lyrics. It still sends shivers down the spine when you listen to it. “Trumpet of Jericho” builds on that and gives us another soaring vocal performance from Bruce. Then there is that opening riff of “Machine Men”, where even Adrian, who co-writes the song, shows that he doesn’t just have to offer the melodic guitar that he traditionally has written, these powerful riffs throughout the song have as much power as those composed by Roy elsewhere on the album. This is one of the best tracks on the album, and one I would have loved to have seen performed live. The album the concludes with the second big epic track of the album, “The Alchemist” when the five members of the band complete their tour de force in another uncompromising display of overt power and melody that reflects everything that has come before it.
The performances on this album are startling. The drumming of David Ingraham is tremendous. Some of his rolls and fills within the songs can get overlooked, but deeper inspection shows what a terrific performance he puts in, that really adds to the album and each song rather than acting as a Lars Ulrich timekeeper. Eddie Casillas is wonderful on bass, with his work on songs such as “The Tower” actually making the song much more than it would be without his playing. And the guitaring of both Roy Z and Adrian Smith is sensational, both fitting together perfectly and making their own styles gel together like they had been doing it together for years.
To top everything off on this album, Bruce’s vocals are divine, just superb in fact. He has been through a fait bit over the preceding five years, and all of it builds to the performance on this album. Everyone comes to this album for his voice, and he doesn’t disappoint here at all. Indeed, through everything he has done in his career, this is at the very top of that list.

About 24 and a half years ago, I hopped into the passenger seat of the car of one of my best mates, and he puta CD into the stereo and said “see if you can work out who this is”. That opening guitar intro to this album came thumping out of the speakers and I thought ‘wow... this sounds great... who the bloody hell is it?’. Move along, and then the vocals start. It sounds familiar but I’m still trying to work out... ‘hang on... is that Bruce Dickinson?!?’ And all he could do is laugh at me and say, “How good is it?” Well, the answer was that I wouldn’t know just how good it was for a few days, but my word I soon knew exactly how good it was!
What remains true today as it did 25 years ago when this album was released, is that “The Chemical Wedding” is a better album than every Iron Maiden album released post “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”. There are no doubt several reasons why this is the case, and they probably bear consideration. This is a truer heavy metal album than any of those Maiden albums are. There aren’t melodic twin guitar sections, there aren’t songs where the bass guitarist writes and plays like a rhythm guitar, and for the most part, the songs don’t extend beyond five minutes. It isn’t a more progressive type of metal that Maiden had crept up to in the 1990’s and beyond and that was prevalent throughout Europe at this time, and it isn’t an industrial or alternative metal that other bands had transitioned to by this stage of the decade. This is a heavier guitar sound, one perhaps influenced by the time but retaining the traditional metal feel that Roy Z seems to have always been able to produce, whether writing, performing or producing. To be honest, it is a unique sound for that period because of all of this. It isn’t old 80’s type heavy metal, but neither is the newer form of the genre. Stylistically it retains the twin guitar, bass, drums format. But more than anything else, it has Bruce Dickinson back in the saddle, the real Bruce, where the vocals are everything, that are soaring without being the Air Raid Siren of the past, still magnificently sung over everything that the music produces. You could mount a reasonable argument that this album is Bruce’s finest moment in music, vocally, lyrically and musically. Pulling all of this together – the concept album that isn’t a concept album, an amazingly heavy album that defies the era with its melody anyway, and the intricacies of the music itself combining Adrian Smith’s magnificence and Roy Z’s majesty and the contributions of both David and Eddie – is an amazing feat, and something that has not been praised enough over the last 25 years.
You can only imagine that Steve Harris would have been watching and listening. Because a year later he and Bruce and Adrian had all been convinced that they should be reunited in Iron Maiden and get that old band back on the same path. It meant that this version of the Bruce Dickinson band dissolved as a result, and while it was great to have those two back in the big time band, it was a shame to see this project come to a halt. There was another album to come down the track, but that one was more just Roy and Bruce writing it by correspondence. Given the amazing quality of the previous two albums, what may another album by this band have brought forth? Idle speculation would suggest something amazing again. But perhaps they may have wanted to go in a different direction given Bruce doesn’t like to stick to the same path, and maybe it would not have been the same. Iron Maiden’s “Brave New World” album soon sorted all of that out, and they carried on into the sunset, hand in hand. Bruce still threatens to do another solo album. I don’t think anyone would be disappointed if he did.
This remains on my stereo more often than not, and would probably rank in my favourite 20 albums of all time were I to actually sit down and create that list. As an ‘old fashioned’ metal album in the late 1990’s it surpassed every other effort by every other band out there. That is praise enough.

99. Bruce Dickinson / Balls To Picasso. 1994. 3.5/5.

The turbulence that had swirled around the Iron Maiden camp, and in particular between the band’s leader Steve Harris, and the band’s front man Bruce Dickinson, finally came to its end on August 28, 1993, when they played their final gig on the tour supporting the album “Fear of the Dark”. At that very point, Maiden and Dickinson finally separated, even though the announcement of this occurrence had come many months beforehand, with Bruce only agreeing to stay on as tour dates had been booked. It had been a sour time for all, as it felt as though Bruce didn’t want to be there, and Harry felt that given his decision to leave he now wasn’t pulling his weight. Following this final gig, they parted ways, and went off in their own directions to discover what their next step would be.
In Bruce’s case, he had already been writing for a second solo album to follow his first, “Tattooed Millionaire” which had been released back in 1990. That album had been written and recorded on a rushed schedule, and had met with a mixed response. In beginning to compose material for a second album, Bruce had come to terms with his feelings that he needed to go out on his own and become the master of his own destiny. The material written for the “Tattooed Millionaire” album was nothing like an Iron Maiden album, and was the first sign that perhaps Bruce, much like Adrian Smith had done at that same time, decided he wanted to move in a different direction from what his band was doing. The question as to exactly how divergent Bruce’s solo career was going to move compared to his former band was something well discussed in those months after his final departure. The somewhat severe path that Adrian had taken, along with the change up that Bruce’s first solo album had offered, gave fans food for thought in this regard.
Bruce had begun those initial writing sessions while still in Iron Maiden alongside producer Keith Olsen, whose credits stretched throughout the hard rock and soft rock bands across a decade or more. While expanding on these at Olsen’s LA studio, Bruce heard another band recording, and was so impressed he actually took the band to Rod Smallwood (who was still acting as Bruce’s manager), who signed them up. Eventually Bruce decided to scrap the project with Keith Olsen, and instead found a collaborating partner by the name of Roy Z, a partnership that was to end up being the most productive of Bruce’s solo career. Roy had his own band called the Tribe of Gypsies – the same band Bruce had heard in those same studios – who became the recording and touring band for Bruce as well. From these fortuitous circumstances, Bruce had started down the path that would eventually lead him back to the top of metal music... though it was to be a circling and more winding path than Bruce perhaps initially imagined.

The opening of the album at least gave fans the chance to sigh with relief, in that the opening track was not in the style of Bruce’s first solo outing. Instead, “Cyclops” mixes that metal sound that was popular at this time with Bruce’s iconic vocal lines. It was more or less what one would have hoped for, a sound that was definitely not Iron Maiden, but still retained Bruce’s outstanding vocals. Roy Z announces himself as well with a great sounding solo lick through the middle of the song, and while it may go on a bit long, the album’s opening track promises much. “Hell No” follows on, on a similar path though with a less intense tempo and vocal stream. It’s another solid song, one that is fine to listen to without creating a massive impression. “Gods of War” is a warblefest, with lots of ‘wooooOOOHoooh” from Bruce and a much busier sound from the band. Once again Roy impresses with his guitar solo, but that tends to be the highlight of the song. This is followed by “1000 Points of LIght”, a stop start affair at best. What is obvious from the album to this point is that everything is in the slower mid tempo range, channelling the mood of the music of the time, searching for the slower, grungier, alternative sound that was being pushed in the mid-1990's as the direction that heavy metal was going, with some Latin influences that Roy and the Gypsies brought with them.
“Laughing in the Hiding Bush” again has the same tempo shift – duh-duh duh duh duh – that these middle tracks are basing themselves on, mixing the harder parts of the track along with the pieces that ease back a little. I like this song, and the way it is constructed, but I also feel it is endemic of the album itself, that the flow is halting throughout, energetic and then placid, stop and start. Bruce has stated in interviews since that he wishes that he had made this the title of the album. That sounds a bit mainstream of him, and not at all the rebellious nature that he obviously carried at that time.
“Change of Heart”. OK Bruce. NOW we have a problem. Now, some of you may have listened to my episode on Iron Maiden’s “Fear of the Dark”. And if you have, then you would know of my grave disappointment with the travesty of abhorrence that is the song “Wasting Love” that appears on that album. OK. Notch that up a bit for “Change of Heart”. Bruce and the lads here offer us an acoustically driven ballad that, maybe, some of the fans out there enjoy. I do not. Yes, I get that Bruce is trying new things here on this album, because now he is not restrained by the edict of his previous overlord. But is this really the kind of stuff Bruce was interested in producing? When I first heard this track, it was what gave me the idea of ripping out the cassette and throwing it into the back of the dark recesses of a drawer, never to be found again. The fact that this song was originally composed by Roy for his previous band Driver with bandmate Rob Rock, and that Bruce basically wrote new lyrics for it, does not make me feel any better about it. And I don’t think I have felt any different about it since. Yes, nicely composed song, beautifully played and sung. But still awful.
“Shoot All the Clowns” mixes snatches of the kind of vocal that we would like from Bruce, but then has the lower range smoothed out vocal line of the chorus, while the music has that funk sound to it, especially with Roy’s guitar in the middle of the track, before he breaks into a much more satisfying solo section. This is followed by “Fire” which is another track that has never gelled well with me. I just don’t like the way the song is sung, and I don’t like the way the music is constructed or played. On the other hand, “Sacred Cowboys” is one of the better tracks on the album. It immediately lifts the tempo and the energy, Bruce sounds like he is engaged again, and his vocal melody through the chorus makes it sound like the real Bruce once again.
Then there is the song that Bruce could never have done with Maiden, the song that you get the feeling that he left that band so that he could explore without limitations. I mean, that is what he has done with the entire album up to this point, because none of this would have worked in a Maiden environment. He has explored different directions that he could never have done within the restraints of that previous band. Now, in my opinion, some have worked, and others have not. But “Tears of the Dragon” is different. It is the blindingly obvious superior song on the album, the one that rises above all else and announces itself to you when you listen to the album. Everything about it is so much better than every other track here. Roy’s solo break in the middle. The little Latin piece that links the solo back into Bruce’s vocal. The click between the drums and bass. The energy, the passion, the drive. And of course, Bruce’s vocal, where he finally finds within himself the true power and majesty of his voice, perhaps for the first time since “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”. This song is so far above everything else Bruce and his band does here, that it makes you wonder whether it was written in different sessions. Do you want a whole album of songs like this? No. But the passion and energy that is prevalent on this track, I believe, would have made the album better if it was distributed to all of the album in the same way.

So here we are, back in 1994, the year of no money and living in a strange new city, and as a result, it’s another album that I didn’t discover until about 12 months after it was released. And that has a few reasons behind it. Firstly, the money aspect. Secondly, the dispersion of my familial friend group with whom I had shared all of my musical discovery through my high school years, which meant that none of us were able to discover or share our music loves as easily. Thirdly, there was a bit of ambivalence on my part in regards to Bruce as his solo career at this time. By now, the mystique of “Fear of the Dark” had worn off, and I was hearing the holes in that album that a blinding love for the band Iron Maiden had perhaps shadowed for some time. And the same could be said for Bruce’s first solo release, because the blinkers were finally off on that album as well. All of this, along with other issues that were prevalent at the time, meant that this album more or less never registered with me.
Flash forward 12 months. My life feels as though it is collapsing around me as I while away my time behind the counter at the Shell Select service station in Ryde, in the west of Sydney. One of my regulars has heard the music I play when I am on my own during evening shifts, and he would often acknowledge with a nod an album I was listening to. One afternoon, he comes in, and without any preamble simply states “have you heard Bruce Dickinson’s last solo album?”. I professed that not only had I not heard it, that I didn’t know he had one out! “Oh, it’s BRILLIANT! You’ve GOT to hear it!” I assured him that I would check it out as soon as possible, and we parted ways. For the next month, every time he came in, the same conversation took place. Eventually one day, he walked in, and handed me a cassette. “There. Now. No more excuses!”
So I listened to it, without any forethought or bias, given that, to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t expecting anything outstanding given that there had been zero press about it in Australia. And over the first few listens I discovered that... I hated it. I just didn’t like it. This wasn’t the Maiden-like music that I wanted to hear! It was completely different, on another plane than I would ever have expected. And if my erstwhile regular had come in to work in those next few days, that's exactly what I would have said to him. I felt like throwing it in the drawer and forgetting about it, but knowing that he would be back, I kept going. And in doing so, I did warm to it eventually. I accepted that it was different because it HAD to be different, or else why would Bruce have moved on? And by the time the inevitable conversation occurred, I was in a much better place with this album, and was able to convey that to him.
30 years on, and the world is a far more different and enjoyable place than the dark days of 1994 and 1995. “Balls to Picasso” has been frequenting my CD player for the past couple of weeks, and I discover, again, that my feelings of this album haven’t changed that much. There are some quite reasonable songs on this album, and one spectacular one. The era that the album was released, along with the desire for a change in direction from the protagonist, does date it in that way. I continue to desire an album where the songs are faster, and get out of second gear, but that certainly isn’t the case here. As an album, it is shadowed by the releases that followed it. In recent times, one of my favourite podcasts, Uncle Steve’s Iron Maiden Zone, had an episode in which they compared “Tattooed Millionaire” and “Balls to Picasso”, an interesting discussion and one which raised many great points on both sides. In the long run, while both albums were a necessary step to get to where we are today – Bruce back with Maiden, and yet still releasing amazing solo albums – neither would be considered as an all time classic.

58. Bruce Dickinson / Alive In Studio A. 1998. 4/5.

Bruce Dickinson’s career post his split with Iron Maiden in 1993 was one that started off with ambition but with varied difficulties in getting it fully off the ground. His debut solo album, the one that had initially began getting him thinking about leaving the band with whom he had conquered the world, was three years in the past, and now that he had cut ties with the band with which he had risen to fame he was under as much pressure as they were to show he could make it on his own. After some false starts he teamed up with all rounder Roy Z and his band, and wrote and recorded his second solo album with their backing.
“Balls to Picasso” was released in 1994, and Z and the Tribe of Gypsies left to work on their own material for the next step of their career. This left Dickinson with the task of recruiting new members to fill out a touring band with which to promote the album. In this pursuit, he found guitarist Alex Dickson, bass guitarist Chris Dale and drummer Alessandro Elena to fill out the empty places in his band. The new band then went out and toured throughout Europe and the UK as well as North America. The setlist comprised only of songs from his two solo albums, “Balls to Picasso” and the pre-Maiden split debut of “Tattooed Millionaire”. This tour was concluded with the visit to Sarajevo in war-torn Bosnia on December 14, 1994, where the band played a gig to ecstatic locals, the documentary of which was eventually released under the name of “Scream for Me, Sarajevo”, a documentary that everyone should watch.
During this tour, there were two performances that were recorded. One was at Metropolis Studios in London, where the band ran through their live set list in the studio but played entirely live. This was recorded with the intention of being used on American radio to help promote the upcoming tour to North America, but apparently this never occurred, and the recording was held in limbo. Then there was the final date of the first leg of the tour which was at the Marquee Club in London, the site of many early gigs for a band called Iron Maiden before a certain lead singer had joined the band. This show was recorded as well on October 18, 1994. Now the band had two live recordings, but what to do with them?

The good thing about these two discs and two gigs is that they are quite different. “Alive in Studio A” of course is still a live recording of the band, but it is in the studio and is restricted to how it sounds by the way the setup was for that day. It sounds great of course, and the versions of the songs played here pop off the CD more than the studio versions, which is always a great indication of good material, because they sound better in the environment that they are ultimately designed for. And Bruce’s vocals singing these songs live in the studio showcases just how superb he really is. The band takes ‘live’ liberties with the songs here, which is terrific, and is the real reason to listen to this particular CD of the double album.. The version of “Shoot All the Clowns” and “Son of a Gun” especially on the Metropolis recording is far superior to the album versions. And of course, the full majesty of “Tears of the Dragon” comes to light here, perfectly played by all four members in this environment.
Bruce in later years was critical of the record company promoting this album as containing new material when of course it was just live studio re-recordings of songs that had already been published. But in a way, it really is a new album full of updated versions of all of these tracks. Alex Dickson in particular adds his own touch and flavour to each song, which could not have been an easy thing to achieve given the excellence of the two guitarists who actually recorded the original versions, Jannick Gers and Roy Z. And, as well as both Chris Dale and Alessandro Elena play on this recording, Dickson is the out and out star of the first disc. His solo spots are especially enjoyable. And of course Bruce’s vocals are supreme, and without the overdubs and doubled vocals that come on the studio albums these songs actually are improved because we get the REAL Bruce, just him and his voice. And every song is improved by Bruce and Alex on this release. Only three songs are taken from “Tattooed Millionaire” here, and all three are improved here. The extra pace of “Born in ‘58” makes this a better listen than the original.
Onto the second disc, and we have the Live at the Marquee recording, taken from the final gig of the first leg of the tour. And you can hear by the atmosphere in the venue and the vibe of the band itself that it was a good gig to record. As a snapshot of where Bruce and his band was at this point it showcases exactly how much of a groove they were in, and how they were able to take the studio versions of these songs and make them come alive on stage. Whereas the first disc has that studio sound, warm and comfortable because of the surroundings, the second disc has that more open set sound, the slightly less perfect sound of the drums and the bass, both mixed in a different way for the actual live setting that the studio setting. This is more exhilarating, because the band are reacting to the crowd in attendance, and given the live setting they are played slightly differently with added pieces as bands will always do when playing live, and that is the main point of difference between the two discs. Both are excellent in their own way.
The Marquee performance sounds great. Bruce is in perfect form, and gives songs such as “Cyclops”, “Laughing in the Hiding Bush”, “1000 Points of Light”, “Sacred Cowboys” and “Tears of the Dragon” a real kick which brings out the best in all of them in this environment.

Look back in retrospect, it’s a shame that I didn’t pick this up at the time of its release. It would certainly have changed the way that I listened to the Bruce Dickinson discography. After having had a customer where I worked give me a copy of “Balls to Picasso” about a year after it had been released, then listened to it, I didn’t feel the need to investigate more Dickinson releases down the track. 1995, as regular listeners to the Music from a Lifetime podcast would be aware, was a black hole for me in my life, which resulted in a lot of things being missed by me over that 12-month period. So, I missed this release, and indeed everything Bruce did up until January 1999. That in itself is a story for another episode. After that time though, I became reacquainted with his work, and one of those albums was this one, which I first came across in 2001 or 2002. At that time, I hadn’t listened to either of the first two albums for some years, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. As a matter of fact, I remember looking forward to hearing more of the first album live, as had been the case in the live video “Dive! Dive Live!” from back in 1990. But once I got the album and saw that the song list was mostly taken from “Balls to Picasso” I was slightly disappointed. But I still put it on and gave it a listen. And it was great! Both sets sound fantastic, all of the songs sound better, and all four members of the band put in sterling performances. I actually went back to “Balls to Picasso” with a much more positive mindset having heard this album and heard the versions of these songs in those live environs. Hearing the way that Dickson in particular played the songs on the first CD was really ear opening. It gave me a far better appreciation for that album than I had had previous to that.
Nothing much has changed having had this back in the CD player for the past week or so. I still enjoy both discs and the differences between the two live recordings. And I still love Alex Dickson’s performance on guitar, I think it is a standout, and his interpretations of the songs is excellent. And it goes without saying how terrific Bruce is, and the continued amazement that he can sing all of his songs the same way he laid them down in the studio. Sure, none of these songs stretch his vocals like Maiden songs do, but it is still so comforting to listen to a live album and hear him so naturally keep everything just as it should be.
I would be remiss if I didn’t state my usual line about live albums, that they should almost always be 5/5 albums because they contain the best tracks in their best environment. Perhaps this feels like it shouldn’t be a 5/5 live album because the majority of tracks come from one album so early on in the band’s career, and that many just don’t like a lot of those first two Bruce Dickinson albums. But the performances are terrific and make this an easy and enjoyable couple of hours. If you haven’t experienced this album or have not been back to it for a while, then I think it is worth going back and listening to what Bruce and his band have compiled here. 30 years on, it may make you change your mind.

34. Bruce Dickinson / Accident Of Birth. 1997. 5/5

Post his break up with Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson was looking for a road less travelled, one that did not follow the same path as the music of Iron Maiden had travelled. His diverging thoughts on the music he wanted to try had been obvious as far back as the writing for the “Somewhere in Time” album, and then into his first solo album “Tattooed Millionaire”. So it was always obvious that Bruce would be doing something different as he went forward. Just how different was not so obvious. “Balls to Picasso” had had its moments, most notably the brilliant “Tears of the Dragon”, but his next project “Skunkworks” was somewhat well titled, a very alternative metal come grunge album that in no way felt right for any of the participants. At the end of that tour Bruce was angry and no doubt bewildered. He felt as though he had put so much into that album, but in the main no one liked it, and the scaling down of the arenas he had played in, to much smaller clubs instead, was a fair amount to come to terms with.
Fortunately for music lovers everywhere, as well as the main players in this story, Roy Z, who had been his collaborator for the “Balls to Picasso” album, now appeared back on the scene, and told Bruce that he had been writing some material that was more metal and that he should take a listen. According to Bruce, at the time he had no desire to head back in that direction, but Roy insisted and played some of the stuff he had written down the phone to him. This piqued his interest, and so the collaboration began. Not long after this former band mate Adrian Smith was asked to come on to provide a guest role on the album, something that immediately developed into something more permanent. While Bruce and Roy wrote most of the album together, Bruce and Adrian also resumed a writing partnership that had proved so profitable in their previous band together, contributing three songs to the album. It may not have been a maiden reunion, but it was something that had more pressing rewards, which was more press coverage of the release of the album, and something that drew more fans to check out what this new album would be like, even those that had felt they had been burned by the previous release. Along with album artwork drawn by former Maiden cover artist Derek Riggs, the mini-Maiden reunion in retrospect almost seems deliberate... a ploy by Bruce’s manager Rod Smallwood?... surely not....

While “Accident of Birth” is a closer step back to the kind of music that the majority of us admired Bruce Dickinson for, it certainly couldn’t be called an out-and-out metal album. There are several songs here that would not fit on a maiden release, for instance. And, that was the kind of freedom Bruce was looking for when he made the break to being a solo artist. He wanted the freedom to be able to pursue the kind of music he was in the mood for at that time, and not be tied to what a band might want in that respect. “Taking the Queen” and “Man of Sorrows” are the prime examples here. Neither song is of that bastard category the power ballad, but both songs are the slower, softer, more reflective category of track that the band has to offer here. The momentum and mood swings from soft and quiet to more powerful in both vocal and musicianship throughout. They are the kind of songs Bruce is able to take a risk with in this environment, where fans come to hear Bruce sing rather than hear a metal classic. And both of these songs are so important not just in the balance of this album, and their ability to showcase the great allround song craft of the band, but in giving Bruce an outlet to expand his writing horizons alongside Roy and Adrian, in my opinion it enabled all three to become better songwriters down the track. Now while “Taking the Queen” still has those more powerful parts, “Man of Sorrows” is very much a Bruce Dickinson piece, the only song on the album where he is the sole writer, and it sounds as though he is making a point, that he can produce these kind of songs and not lose face with the fans. Apart from the guitar solo’s which are the hardest part of the track, Bruce’s vocal in this song is quite remarkable, something he could not have achieved in Maiden. These songs act as counterpoints of the album, the tracks that sit strategically between the faster and harder songs in order to showcase the amazing chameleonic abilities of all of the band in this manner. The same happens with “Omega” which in the same way as “Taking the Queen” rises from the quiet beginnings to the amazing highs of Bruce's awesome vocals, and riding the wave to the change to heavier track through the back end of the song. These kind of songs show terrific song writing and performing. “Arc of Space” is almost solely acoustic, and with this I still question if this was the best way to conclude the album. The use of cello and violin here as well adds to the tracks without being detrimental or cynical in their use, but unlike the earlier softer songs there is no faster heavier song to come after it. I still feel there could have been a better ending to the album, but then again, what would I know.
There are of course the heavier and faster songs, where the band really does come to life and showcasing those skills in their element. The opening of “Freak” is a great way to kickstart the album, fresh with Roy’s powerful guitar riff and Bruce’s vocals hitting the peaks. “Starchildren” is of the same ilk, with the duelling guitar solos of both Roy and Adrian being a star turn. “Darkside of Aquarius” is a fantastic track, combining the move between the slow build burn into the heart of the song and the amazing slight change in tones between Bruce’s vocals through the bridge and chorus of the song absolutely brilliant. Roy’s melodic riff through the heart of the song is a triumph, one of my favourite parts of any Bruce Dickinson song. Then you have the straight up rockers like “Road to Hell” and “The Magician” and “Welcome to the Pit” which are terrific songs too boot, and the title track “Accident of Birth” hammers home everything that is great about this album.

This album was the moment that a number of careers found their momentum again. Bruce himself was at one of his lowest ebbs before Roy Z reached out to him again. The resulting album, the sheer variety in songs that all still had the power of Bruce Dickinson’s vocals and talent behind them brought him back to the focus of world music, and was the beginning of his path back to Iron Maiden. The first ironic part of that was that this was also the same for Adrian Smith, whose contributions to writing here as well as his guitar also brought him back into focus, and also lead to his path back to Iron Maiden. And the second ironic thing about that is that the return of both Bruce and Adrian to Iron Maiden brought about that band’s resurgence in popularity because of it. So all of those three things began with “Accident of Birth” For Roy Z, it again showed his ability as both a song writer, composer, guitarist and producer, which not only allowed him to be involved in furthering Bruce’s solo career but also being important in resuscitating another vocalist on a solo hiatus, Rob Halford, and eventually helping him to also reunite with his band Judas Priest. All from this album.
I didn’t hear this album until about two years after its release. I had purchased “Balls to Picasso” on its release, and felt it was a bit ho-hum, and it disappeared onto my shelves pretty quickly. Then I hear about three songs from “Skunkworks” one day while browsing at Utopia Records, though “Ugh, that’s not good”, and didn’t buy that album nor bother looking any further as to when Bruce was going to release any more albums. It wasn’t until I ran into a mate on a trip home a couple of years later that he put on a CD in his car and said ‘try and guess who this is!’ The opening riff dissolved into the vocals, and I couldn’t believe that the owner of this heavy riffing track with the brilliant voice was Bruce Dickinson. The album was “The Chemical Wedding”, and having listened to that, and then purchasing it and listening to it a lot, I knew I needed to see if his previous album (of which I had had no idea existed) was just as good. That album of course was “Accident of Birth”, and in the same way that “The Chemical Wedding” blew me away, so did this album. The remarkable diversity grabbed me, but the heavier track in “Freak” and “Road to Hell” and “Accident of Birth” were immediate favourites. And probably still are all these years later. So I mightn’t have had the full 25 years listening to this album, but it is still as brilliant today is it was the first time I heard it. And as I have outlined just how influential it has been in furthering all those connected with it in the time since, it really does hold a special place in the annals of heavy metal history.