Bruce's solo album opinons

Dosen't appear to be much in the way of what people think of his solo albums.  Found a lot of opinions on ipods and megabytes.....wasted time and brain space on that reads!
Thanks (for nothing?),
T'boo
 
Hahaha. Well fair enough. I like them. Skunkworks took me some time to get into. His 3 most recent albums are more "Maidenesque", the others have a unique sound. I definitely recommend you check them out.
 
CW is one of the best metal albums ever with 4 or 5 songs that are among Metal's best (King in Crimson, Chemical Wedding, Book of Thel, Jerusalem and maybe The Alchemist). The only weak song is Machine Men imo as the other 4 are at least good. It's almost constantly heavy and the quality of the performance is great. Jerusalem is based off of the hymn of the same name but is far more awesome and brutal than that version. Chemical Wedding is the best Bruce song with Book of Thel just behind it.

I'm feeling too lazy to review Accident of Birth and Tyranny of Souls. The Best of Bruce Dickinson is a decent starting album. It also has 2 bonus tracks Broken and Silver Wings. Both are great songs but Silver Wings is top notch. I've noticed Loose Cannon has lyrics from it in his sig, so there's more verification of it's awesomeness.
 
Chemical Wedding is a heavy metal classic in my opinion. I have listened to it alot lately, and I didn't know what I was missing before I just took the time to check it out.
 
I actually prefer Accident of Birth to TCW. I think TCW has a theme, it's more compact...but the individual songs on AOB are stronger.
 
LooseCannon said:
I actually prefer Accident of Birth to TCW.
Click to expand...

*Nods in agreement*

The difference is small though. There's a lot of strong songs on both albums but I find that TCW has more weaker songs (relatively but also in absolute numbers) than AOB. Another reason is that I find that AOB has more melodic awesomeness. TCW is darker, heavy as fuck and very riff oriented. AOB has some great chopping as well but also nice chord progression where the (vocal) melodies are a bit more in the frontline.

These following tracks I enjoy a bit less than the average ones:

TCW:
"The Tower" (awesome midpart with the solo and harmonies, but in total not that awesome)
"Killing Floor"
"Machine Men"    
"The Alchemist"  (I like the first couple of minutes immensely but the return of the title track theme makes it less special)

AOB:
"Road to Hell"
"The Magician"
"Welcome to the Pit"
(All these songs I find a bit simple, and I clearly enjoy them less than the others)

I also like Balls to Picasso & Skunkworks a lot. Especially the latter might need some more time to get into, but it contains one of my favourite Bruce songs "Back From the Edge". Great, deep lyrics, soaring vocals and nice stimulating uptempo music. If you get the chance go for the editions with the 2nd disc, especially Balls has two awesome bonus tracks, which should have been on the album:

"The Breeding House"
"No Way Out ... ... To be Continued"
Plus of course you'll get the mighty "Cyclops" and the famous "Tears of the Dragon". All songs are imo better than the average track of AOB or TCW.

Bruce's latest solo album, Tyranny of Souls isn't much of a disappointed either. On the contrary, a great varied album. Lighter and heavy moments, culminating into one of his best songs, namely the closing title track, which kicks major ass.
 
I was a little disappointed with AoB when I got it. I'd heard how great it was but I find Freak, Toltec, Man of Sorrows and Welcome to the Pit below par. The only outstanding ones are Darkside of Aquarius and Road to Hell. Not to say songs like AoB, Omega, Taking the Queen and Starchildren aren't good but they're below most on CW.
 
More what I was looking for....thanks to all who submitted.
I bought Tat. Millionaire when it first came out and listened to it a ton.  
Have the rest on order was just wondering what to expect.
T'boo
 
In my opinion, The Chemical Wedding, in contrary to Accident of Birth has no weak points. But the highlights of Accident of Birth outshine almost everything on the former (except the title track and Jerusalem). And when I say highlights, I mean such divine stuff as Omega, Road to Hell and Dark Side of Aquarius. So, I don't feel like deciding which of the two I like better.
 
Despite having them for many years, I can't really decide which of the two is better.  At one point I even liked Tyranny of Souls best.  I like the general atmosphere of TCW more, but AOB does seem to have some truly fantastic songs, especially Darkside of Aquarius. 
 
I like AoB more. Even the "weaker" songs are pretty awesome.
The same goes to TCW. I'm not even sure why I like it less, I just do.

Anyway, both of these albums are some of the best in metal history.
 
Forostar said:
*Nods in agreement*

The difference is small though. There's a lot of strong songs on both albums but I find that TCW has more weaker songs (relatively but also in absolute numbers) than AOB. Another reason is that I find that AOB has more melodic awesomeness. TCW is darker, heavy as fuck and very riff oriented. AOB has some great chopping as well but also nice chord progression where the (vocal) melodies are a bit more in the frontline.

These following tracks I enjoy a bit less than the average ones:

TCW:
"The Tower" (awesome midpart with the solo and harmonies, but in total not that awesome)
"Killing Floor"
"Machine Men"    
"The Alchemist"  (I like the first couple of minutes immensely but the return of the title track theme makes it less special)

AOB:
"Road to Hell"
"The Magician"
"Welcome to the Pit"
(All these songs I find a bit simple, and I clearly enjoy them less than the others)

I also like Balls to Picasso & Skunkworks a lot. Especially the latter might need some more time to get into, but it contains one of my favourite Bruce songs "Back From the Edge". Great, deep lyrics, soaring vocals and nice stimulating uptempo music. If you get the chance go for the editions with the 2nd disc, especially Balls has two awesome bonus tracks, which should have been on the album:

"The Breeding House"
"No Way Out ... ... To be Continued"
Plus of course you'll get the mighty "Cyclops" and the famous "Tears of the Dragon". All songs are imo better than the average track of AOB or TCW.

Bruce's latest solo album, Tyranny of Souls isn't much of a disappointed either. On the contrary, a great varied album. Lighter and heavy moments, culminating into one of his best songs, namely the closing title track, which kicks major ass.
Click to expand...

Agreed

Why Breeding House isn't on his Best Of complication?  :mad:
 
Again, I appreciate the info and look forward to getting the albums in the mail.
I'll repost on this thread and toss in my 2 cents.
T'boo
 
Glad to tell you my ideas, but for you it's way more important how you get into the material. Keep in mind, the pre-AOB albums are quite different, every one of them. Take the time to merge into those different worlds.  :)

It's been a while to see someone here who ordered all the albums, and doesn't ask people what order to follow (which album to get first, which next etc.). I find it cool to read opinions of others but an own exploration always gives the best satisfaction.
 
Bruce's albums with Roy Z is some of the most overated albums ever in metal, at least by a small hardcore group of fans. "Accident of Birth" is a decent album , with lots of Maiden references and that's about it. TCW is awful and i always find it funny reading how it is "one of the best metal albums ever" (that nobody even bothered with, i might add)!!!

You'd thik that Roy Z would have made a band that would conquer the metal world since everything he makes is "amazing" (Dickinosn and Halford albums, Hellowen's the dark ride) so...where is this guy again ?? :lol:
 
Well, I pretty much disagree with everything you just said. I'm sorry that you don't like TCW. Accident of Birth is in my top 5 albums of all time. And Roy Z does what he wants to do, not what people think he should do, so, I am not too broken up by him not making metal all the time. He doesn't always like metal, it seems.

But I am also partial to the sound of Bruce, so, I may be missing something on the "music" end of things. Regardless, I rather like his solo stuff.
 
In an interview I read when Tyranny of Souls was released, Roy remarked that he never thought of himself as a "metal" producer, it's just that his name is out in the metal world and many artists approach him. He would like to produce something else too... so let him.
 
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