On disc: Bruce Dickinson

 
- Accident Of Birth
 
- Daniel de Niz -
 
 


 
- The Chemical Wedding
 
- Daniel de Niz -
 
 


 
- Scream For Me Brazil
 
- Amir Djawadi -
 
 


 
- Scream For Me Brazil
 
- Claudia Ehrhardt -
 
 


 
- Best Of...
 
- Claudia Ehrhardt -
 
 


 
- Tranny Of Souls
 
- Claudia Ehrhardt -
 
 

Tranny Of Souls

(Sanctuary Records - 2005)



 
 

 

It's amazing that Bruce Dickinson still finds time to record solo albums! He's the singer of Iron Maiden, is writing books, is DJ-ing, a TV presenter, flys airliners and a lot more. A workoholic!

It's been 7 years since he released his last solo album - The Chemical Wedding. Now he's back with A Tyranny Of Souls. And he kicks off the album with Mars Wintin, a heavy guitar riff-based song with a catchy refrain. Again he worked with Roy Z which is no surprise, coz it worked out well in the past. With Dave Moreno on drums and Maestro Mysteria on keyboard he has two new men hired for this album. On the opening track Mr. Dickinson sounds partly more aggressive. That adds some edge to the sound. The following track is Abduction - starts with some fast double-bass drum and riffing - but then from up-tempo he slows down to mid-tempo. Even if his voice make you think of Iron Maiden, the singer is presenting something different - not the case with every solo album of singers... Here Dickinson can show more variety then he can with his main band. This is his band. And he took the listener on a journey... from fast drumming and fiercy guitars to something which is almost a chill-out tune. Lyrically he is going for some depth, not the typical cliché lyrics. He never did that. The cover shows a painting of Flemish painter Hans Hemling - a dark, almost threatening picture. And so are the lyrics. On Kill Devil Hill the tells the story of the Wright brothers who created the first airplane and speculates if they got some supernatural help to make the impossible possible. Outstanding is the slow Navigate The Seas Of The Sun. A beautiful balladesque song. Very different and very cool! One of my personal favorites, perhaps because it's so different. Or listen to the slow River Of No Return... There are faster parts with heavy guitar riffing, but also solemn vocal parts. Many of the songs deal with some sci-fi themes or are related to aviation. While the title track is about 'the supernatural manipulating people from behind their backs'. Power Of The Sun is something most fans would probably expect from him and it starts with some staccato guitar riffing, but has anthem-like parts, too. Live this one would be a killer, but will we get the chance to see this busy man concerts for his solo album? I hope so, coz years ago he toured and it was great so see him on stage doing his solo stuff. I can just recommend to listen to this album! It's almost impossible to name songs which present the album best... If you want to get an idea of the variety this one offers, then listen to Mars Within, Navigate The Seas Of The Sun and the title track A Tyranny Of Souls.
 
 










Claudia Ehrhardt


  
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Best Of....

(Sanctuary Records - 2001)



 
 

 

Bruce Dickinson has joint Iron Maiden again and thought that the time was right to do a 'best of' album as a retrospect of his solo career. A decade of solo work passed and so the master himself thought about it and sat down to choose the tracks. The album is released as a limited edition with an additional CD, more about CD2 later.... The CD opens with a new, previously unreleased track called Broken before the title track of his solo debut Tattooed Millionaire starts the travel through time. With songs like Tears Of A Dragon, Born In '58, Accident Of Birth and Dark Side Of Aquarius he present the strongest tracks of his career. Another new track is Silver Wings, a kind of bonus. Also there are live versions of Laughing In The Hidden Bush and Book Of Thel which close this chapter and this CD.

On the bonus CD of the limited edition are original versions of Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter which was done for a Nightmare On Elm Street movie, but also the original version of Wicker Man. Man Of Sorrows as demo version and Jerusalem live. Beside that rare and previously unreleased material plus an interview.

If you can get your hands on the limited edition, buy it! If not, the 'regular' CD is a great piece of music as well!
 
 










Claudia Ehrhardt


  
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Scream For Me Brazil

(Air Raid Records - 1999)



 
 

 

Brazil nanana Brazil ...

That Bruce Dickinson is a fantastic frontman, everybody knows from the countless shows he did with Iron Maiden. And even after his years as a solo artist he hasn't loose his quality. And the guys of Iron Maiden know that he's vocals are a highlight of the live show and so they are lucky to have him back. All right, guess where this album been recorded? Okay, that was an easy one.

You might as, why he recorded there... Pretty easy, Mr. Dickinson himself explains, coz the audience there is incredible. The best audience at all, sometimes 6,000 people came to see his show!!! Even if the shows here in Europe are pretty cool, but it ain't the same! And the audience is important for the atmosphere on a live CD.

If you listen to tracks like Chemical Wedding or Tears Of The Dragon which are just some highlights on this 12 track compilation, you might feel like you were in South America while they played there.

The first solo live album was a compromise, but this time he could really fullfil his expectations. During the recordings they had technical problems (partly the equipment dropped out), but you can't hear that and I think that this CD is a good way to present his solo career, the time before he returned to Iron Maiden.

Master Dickinson will do solo projects in future, but Iron Maiden has priority and he'll give 100% for them, coz whatever he's doing, he's heart and soul.

So, the future looks bright and we'll hear more from the sympathetic British... With Iron Maiden and as a solo artist!
 
 










Amir Djawadi
(translation: Claudia Ehrhardt)

  
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Scream For Me Brazil

(Air Raid Rec. - 1999)



 
 

 

Bruce Dickinson is back with Iron Maiden and now a live album from Bruce is in the stores. Scream For Me Brazil is a good review of the solo career. Luckily this great shouter will work with Iron Maiden and continuing his solo career. Live Bruce always been a amazing entertainer and the atmosphere at the shows in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro was great! Why does he recorded his live album in Brazil? Pretty easy..... Bruce explaint it: "We could have recorded the album everywhere, but the atmosphere in Brazil is amazing. Beside that the fans are very loyal and supported me since Balls Of Picasso. We play in front of 6,000 screaming fans and Tears Of A Dragon was a hit over there. Brazil is the only country where Heavy Metal got bigger and bigger during the last decade!" A good reason to choose Brazil for the recordings, but why another live album? "The Alive In Studio A album was compromise, I signed with a new company and they wanted a release as soon as possible. I hadn't new songs written at that time, so.... But things turned out different.  You can't compare the albums. This is a 1,000 times better and it just includes songs which were recorded with this line-up. It shows the best tunes and a great band!" The album incl. Chemical Wedding, Tears Of The Dragon, Accident Of Birth and Dark Side Of Aquarius..... Live the band played old tunes and also Iron Maiden tracks, these are not included! Good to know that in future we'll see and hear Bruce with Iron Maiden and solo! Please don't let us wait too long for a new solo album!
 
 










Claudia Ehrhardt


  
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The Chemical Wedding

(Sanctuary Records - 1998)



 
 

 

A strong follow up to a powerful to previous year's release Accident Of Birth.

But this one is denser, heavier from the opening chords for King In Crimson. Such low sounds achieved by using bass strings in the guitars. Bruce Dickinson and Roy Z - wrote all of the album together - and Adrian Smith who made clear his contribution with his recognizable style, released a masterpiece! No doubt about it!

More esoteric than ever, most of the songs are under William Blake concepts. Gates Of Urizen, Jerusalem - a gorgeous adaption of the poem into the song - he just added an additional chorus which fits perfectly. Bruce sings with a lot of emotion here, very poetic. More tarot symbolism in the third song - the cover artwork is the Ghost Of Flea painting by Blake - as well The Tower which features a wonderful bass line and a completely Maiden-ish solo and guitar melodies.

The album title song dense, but catchy in it's verse and chorus. Its name taken from the Rosicrucian story titled The Chemical Wedding Of Christian Rosenkreutz.

Killing Floor is a very heavy song with dreadful screams and singing by Mr. Dickinson. The strongest song of the album probably is Trumpets Of Jericho, a strong song from start to finish, sarcastic laughs and screams by Bruce and powerful guitars.

Fans of Black Sabbath and doom metal may enjoy this album a lot, because of the guitar riffs and dense sound throughout the whole album. Powerful, classy and poetic.
 
 










Daniel de Niz


  
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Accident Of Birth

(Sanctuary Records - 1997)



 
 

 

I won't hold any words back, this is better than any Iron Maiden album since Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son. And I'm being objective, because I'm not writing this as a fan of the band, but metal as a whole.

This album has the strength and straight forwardness many fans have been missing since the 80's. It doesn't have the Iron Maiden name nor Steve Harris on bass, but aside from that it sounds more Maiden-ish than anything from the last 18 years. At the same time, the freshness of the sound in the then new name Roy Z who produced it. They accomplished a raw, powerful, yet classy sound.

The power in all of the heavy songs in it lies in the way the flow, they keep in motion. Accident Of Birth, Road To Hell, The Magician and Freak are driven by vivid riffs and guitar melodies and solos - courtesy of both, Roy Z and Adrian Smith who reunited with Bruce for the recording of this album.

Most of the songs show a rich diversity in their arrangement: Take Of The Queen and Omega for example, feature acoustic intros and sections. The Dark Side Of Aquarius is a song with a galloping riff, a chorus which reminds to Heaven Can Wait and keyboards in the middle section with memorable vocal lines. The Arc Of Space is completely acoustic while Man Of Sorrows is a piano ballad about Aleister Crowley.

Lyrics are mostly about esoteric. e.g. The Magician (the Tarot card), The Dark Side Of Aquarius (the age of Aquarius).The theme of the album Accident of Birth can have more than one interpretation, Bruce Dickinson defining himself as having been born as a stroke of luck. His reunion with Adrian - hey, got 'born together' for Number Of The Beast 15 years ago.

In simple words, this is what Iron Maiden could have made of a natural progression towards modern-yet-classic heavy metal which almost no band achieved in the 90's. Right after Seventh Son, skipping the latter albums - excepting maybe The X Factor which was at least some effort to do something different from Iron Maiden - up to the late 2000's (Now that I write this it's 2008).

The amazing cover artwork of a joker / fool coming out of a man's body, painted by Derek Riggs was perfect for this album.
 
 










Daniel de Niz


  
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