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Bruce Dickinson: Accident of birth

07/09/11 || Smalley

Wait, didn’t we just have a review for “Accident of birth”? A pretty damn good one, written by a certain former staffer/demon (former in that he’s no longer on the staff, I mean, he’s still as demonic as ever)? Oh well, it got sucked into a black hole or something, so now it needs another one, so here it is. Anyway, if you read ex-staffer Baalzamon’s old review of this, or have been following Maiden/Dickinson’s careers, you’ll already be aware of what I’m about to say, but it still needs sayin’ anyway; after leaving Maiden in ’93, a band that would have a very disappointing 90’s, Bruce Bruce returned to a solo career he had laid the seeds for while still in Maiden, and released the middling “Balls to Picasso” (wouldn’t that mean 4-D testicles?) and “Skunkworks” (these fucken names…) in ’94 & ’96, respectively.

Fortunately, by about the time Dickinson started picking decent album names again, his music started to take an upward turn for the better, and while I don’t find “Accident” quite as consistent as that other GD’er did, and feel that it does fall short of the heights the great “The chemical wedding”, its follow-up, reached, it’s still a nice little comeback for Brucey. I guess getting his old fellow Maiden-er Adrian Smith back helped, and the fact that Smith and Roy Z put in some absolutely killer soloing here definitely helped.

But, as for the individual songs, the softer tracks here are pretty wonderful, and much more consistent than the heavier stuff; the haunting, bittersweet melodies of “Taking the queen”, the despair-ridden, faith-questioning ballad “Man of sorrows”, and the low-key, one-two punch at the end with “Omega”/“Arc of space” provide for a very unexpected, memorable way to cap off the record. Kudos to whoever did such a good job with the acoustic guitar, plus Bruce’s vocals sound as good as expected, which only gives the more intimate moments here that more impact.

On the other hand, the heavier cuts here are generally disappointing, with overly-blunt riffage that lacks finesse; what made “The chemical wedding” such a success was its unique, elegant blend of heaviness & melody, and while “Accident” doesn’t lack for the former, it definitely could’ve used some more of the latter, at least in the more aggressive cuts. “Road to hell” does have an awesome drive to it, I appreciate the effort put into “Darkside of Aquarius” to try to make it feel epic, and most of it is still all decent, but still, the majority of the heavier material here just isn’t as interesting as it coulda, shoulda been.

However, “Accident of birth” was still the first real hint that Bruce’s solo career wasn’t just going to remain a weak after-note to his work with Maiden in the 80’s, it laid some of the groundwork for an incredible follow-up, and has enough satisfying material on its own for me to say still I like it, even though I do prefer his next two releases in the end. I’ll probably move on to “The chemical wedding” now, solo-Bruce’s finest moment, and just ignore the other ones. Hey, that other guy never got around to reviewing the first three either (even though he hinted he would), so I guess that means Baalz thought “balls to ‘Balls to Picasso’”…? Okay, that was kind of a dumb joke. At any rate, go listen to “Accident of birth” and enjoy the good shit on it, and don’t worry too much about the rest.

7,5

Information
Released: 1997
Label: CMC
Website: www.screamforme.com
Band
Bruce Dickinson: vocals
Adrian Smith: guitars
Roy Z: guitars
Eddie Casillas: bass
David Ingraham: drums

Tracklist
01. Freak
02. Toltec 7 Arrival
03. Starchildren
04. Taking The Queen
05. Darkside Of Aquarius
06. Road To Hell
07. Man of Sorrows
08. Accident Of Birth
09. The Magician
10. Welcome To The Pit
11. Omega
12. Arc Of Space

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