Bruce Dickinson rocks!

[elfs]

As some of you know, I have a soft spot in my heart for technically excellent heavy metal from the era about which such critical lights as Beavis & Butthead knew so much: Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Dio, Ozzy, and above them all, Iron Maiden. A number of years ago I recall reading an article in which Bruce Dickinson, former lead singer for Iron Maiden who gave us such brilliant hits as "Run to the Hills," "Flight of Icarus," and "The Number of the Beast," had left heavy metal to sell insurance for a living, but he eventually returned, founding the band Skunkworks.

Their first album, Skunkworks was definitively unlike Maiden, and Dickinson had said in an interview that he didn't want to sound like he had during the Maiden years, saying that the band was writing stuff that made him too much of a parody of himself. Skunkworks succeeded in avoiding all of that, but for those of us who loved the human air-raid siren that was Bruce Dickinson it missed that certain quality.

So I was pleasantly surprised when I found The Chemical Wedding. It's already eight years old (good grief!) and it sounds absolutely amazing. Dickinson's voice is solid, and whoever his backup band is, they play metal guitar they way it will be played in Metal Valhalla: fun, heavy, excellent, powerful. Given how disappointed I've been with most modern metal ("Death Grunt Metal?" Oh please!) it's nice to have something that I can enjoy.

Now I gotta find a store that's selling his new album, Tyranny of Souls, which came out a few months ago.

Comments

[kingfox.livejournal.com]

Some of Dickinson's solo stuff is absolutely amazing. Some of it left me a little less than excited. If you enjoy Chemical Wedding, I strongly recommend Accident of Birth, the album right before it. Same line-up (including Adrian Smith, who left Maiden before Bruce did, and returned when Bruce did), a little less Balls to Picasso-ish, and a lot closer to Maiden. There was an interview at the time where he admitted to trying to out-Maiden Maiden, as this was the period of time where Iron Maiden was releasing a series of albums with Blaze as the lead singer. One of those albums came with 150 hours of AOL. I say no more.

Steve Harris, upset at Dickinson's comment, made a snide comment about Dickinson resorting to doing country if it would sell. Years later, when they reunited, Bruce teased him back about this jibe and insisted that they not do any country.

Beyond his solo career, have you picked up either of the albums from Dickinson's return to Maiden? Both Brave New World and Dance of Death were two of the greatest albums I've heard in far too long, and made for fun tours to boot.

[creepingcrud.livejournal.com]

On the metal front, have you heard any Amorphis? They're a Finnish group who play what I might call melodic black metal - mostly non-grunt vocals, strong leads, use of some nonstandard (for the genre) instruments such as sitar, and a lot of talent. I quite like Elegy and Tuonela. In a similar vein, Sweden's Green Carnation put out a stellar concept album a few years back called Light of Day, Day of Darkness. I'd also recommend one of my favorite metal albums, Cynic's Focus, which is about half Death and half Mahavishnu Orchestra. Vocals are a mix of clean female, distorted male, and grunt. If you were going to peer-to-peer a track, "Veil of Maya" is awfully good. Another, more recent group that has a fusion/metal hybrid going on is At War With Self, whose instrumental album Torn Between Dimensions was one of my top picks of 2005.

Since you have mentioned Ayreon positively recently, have you heard Lucassen's project Star One? They put out a studio album called Space Metal whose songs are tributes to movies and TV series such as Dune, Star Wars, Blake's 7 and 2001, and if you are into the idea of "out-Maidening Maiden", you might dig it. Early Fates Warning might go over well, too, particular Awaken the Guardian.

Cock of the Walk, Baby!

[kenshardik]

"Bruce Dickinson" was the name of Christopher Walken's character in the "Behind the Music: The Moody Blues" skit on Saturday Night Live. You know that one: "I gotta have more COWbell!"

Tyranny of Souls

[happy-hacker.livejournal.com]

Itunes Music Store has it for $9.90, if that does you any good.

-HH