#roy z

[dickinson-devotee]

Jfc, Roy needs to take a bottle's worth of chill pills. Bruce hasn't said a single nasty thing about him since they had their falling out, why is Roy so insistent on trying to pick a public fight. It was sooooooo easy to walk away with quiet dignity, my dude.

[metalsongoftheday]

Friday, May 30: Bruce Dickinson, "Starchildren"

“Starchildren” was the third track on Accident of Birth, but it was actually the first one to properly articulate Bruce Dickinson’s objective with the record.  The tune wasn’t as overly indebted to Bruce’s past with Iron Maiden as later tracks like “Road to Hell”, but its structure, pacing and especially chorus were straightforward and traditionally heavy metal in a way he had never been as a solo artist up to that point.  Roy Z.’s riffing worked a similar slightly downtuned chug as his work on Balls to Picasso, but his smooth production more than nodded to Martin Birch, and most of all Bruce’s fantastical lyrics and soaring bellow deliberately asserted that he was returning to familiar territory.  In all these respects, “Starchildren” checked the boxes and effectively established the narrative of Bruce giving everyone what they wanted, though with a little less meaningful conviction than on “Accident of Birth” or “Darkside of Aquarius”, so it was ultimately more of a table setter for the good stuff to come.

[ghostreapersoul]

For too long now

There were secrets in my mind

For too long now

There were things I should have said

In the darkness

I was stumbling for the door

To find a reason

To find the time, the place, the hour

Waiting for the winter sun

And the cold light of day

The misty ghosts of childhood fears

The pressure is building and I can't stay away

I throw myself into the sea

Release the wave, let it wash over me

To face the fear I once believed

The tears of the dragon for you and for me

Where I was

I had wings that couldn't fly

Where I was

I had tears I couldn't cry

My emotions

Frozen in an icy lake

I couldn't feel them

Until the ice began to break

I have no power over this

You know I'm afraid

The walls I built are crumbling

The water is moving, I'm slipping away

I throw myself into the sea

Release the wave, let it wash over me

To face the fear I once believed

The tears of the dragon for you and for me

Slowly I awake, slowly I rise

The walls I built are crumbling

The water is moving, I'm slipping away

I throw myself into the sea

Release the wave, let it wash over me

To face the fear I once believed

The tears of the dragon for you and for me

[metalkilltheking]

1997. Accident of Birth

is the fourth album by Bruce Dickinson.

Dickinson's second collaboration with guitarist/producer Roy Z, the album is markedly different in style from his previous effort Skunkworks. As well as Roy Z, Dickinson was also joined for the album by fellow former Iron Maiden member Adrian Smith; both Dickinson and Smith would later return to their former band in early 1999. Thanks to the slightly bigger success of this album compared to his previous solo releases.

This is a good starter album for those unfamiliar with Bruce's solo career, or a must-have for those who enjoy his other solo material, This is one of those great albums that you’ll struggle to find fault with. Sometimes when a solo artist releases an album the music takes a backseat, but not here. On this album.

Highlights: "Darkside of Aquarius", "Starchildren", "Road To Hell"

Bruce Dickinson Adrian Smith Roy Z Eddie Casillas

David Ingraham

[bravenew-what]

It’s just so beautiful… they’re so beautiful. This album is so beautiful. Not just my favorite of Bruce Dickinson’s solo albums, but one of my favorite albums of all time.

[vinylspinning]

Bruce Dickinson: The Chemical Wedding (1998)

Having failed to satisfy fans with his experimental solo adventures on 1996’s Skunkworks, a newly pragmatic Bruce Dickinson re-commissioned his signature air-raid siren, recruited fellow Iron Maiden man-in-exile Adrian Smith, and set out to beat his old pals at their own game. 

With special assistance from producer/guitarist Roy Z, ‘97’s warmly received Accident of Birth not only showed that Dickinson and Smith still had it (*), but encouraged them (plus bassist Eddie Casillas and drummer David Ingraham) to double down on the following year’s The Chemical Wedding.

Heck, it would be fair to say that Dickinson and crew were openly trying to out-Maiden Steve Harris and co. here, leaning heavily on the works of William Blake (even the cover art replicates Blake’s unnerving painting, The Ghost of a Flea) for added inspiration. 

So, are you looking for historical head-banging (“Jerusalem”), old testament action (“Trumpets of Jericho,” “The Tower”), and heretical poetry (“Book of Thel”)? 

You got it! 

Natural philosophy (“The Alchemist”), gothic mystery (“King in Crimson”), and even a few epic numbers, full of quasi-progressive passages and time-changes? 

Done and done!

Of course, not everything here hits the mark (“Gates of Urizen” is one Blake mythos too many), but I haven’t even mentioned my three favorite songs yet: twin heavyweight champs, “Killing Floor” and “Machine Men” (both, not coincidentally, Dickinson/Smith co-writes), and the spectacularly morbid title track.

“And so we lay, we lay in the same grave ... Our chemical wedding day”

This doom-laden power ballad incorporates psychedelic and neoclassical nuances behind lyrics based on a 17th Century Rosicrucian manifesto known as the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz for one of Dickinson’s signature performances, with or without Iron Maiden, and that’s obviously saying something!

For all these reasons, I’ll always cast my vote for The Chemical Wedding as Bruce’s greatest solo work, and I’ve no doubt it’s excellence helped accelerate the inevitable ego submission required for remarrying (if you’ll forgive the pun) Iron Maiden’s classic quintet (plus one) on 2000’s Brave New World.

Oh, and here’s a big “thank you!” to Roy Z, for his invaluable assistance to the cause.

p.s. -- Exactly a decade after this album’s release, Dickinson authored the screenplay for a science-fantasy horror film called Chemical Wedding, but the story is apparently unrelated to the song.

* I saw it with my own eyes at Chicago’s House of Blues, in September of ‘97.

More Bruce Dickinson: Accident of Birth; Samson’s Head On & Shock Tactics; Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, Powerslave, Live After Death, Somewhere in Time, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Brave New World, Dance of Death.

[rp-kat]

Halford - Crucible

2002

[bruceedickinson]

Bruce Dickinson | Accident of Birth

Happy 20th birthday to this kickass album!