Forostar
Ancient Mariner
Agreed. Live he was superb around that time, and I think Bruce sounds best (especially when singing high) on Brave New World.In my opinion, Bruce had his zenith in the late nineties and early 2000s. Just listen to the live albums and bootlegs from that era. What he did on the Accident in Brazil show in 1997 and on Scream for Me Brazil is simply phenomenal.
Yes, but I'm not sure how Bruce would do the SIT and SSOASS songs that they haven't done for ages.What happened in the late eighties and early nineties, on the other hand, is that Bruce was very worn-out from the gruelling world tours they took. If you listen to some of the latter gigs from the Powerslave, Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son tours, his performance really is pretty bad.
Perhaps that's the reason why Infinite Dreams, CSIT and Sea of Madness did not return since the 1980s.
I wouldn't say he did not care much anymore on Fear of the Dark. Even on tour in 1992, he really went for it.I guess he adopted his infamous "raspy" style that you can hear on the Tattooed Millionaire, No Prayer and Fear of the Dark albums to somehow combat this and do less of the physically straining performances. Then, on later recordings such as Fear of the Dark, A Real Live Dead/One, he simply doesn't care very much anymore.
I remember footage from Headbanger's Ball, a recording from Hallowed at Donington and he was so much into it (different camera angles from the official video release). And their concert footage from Mexico, 1992 doesn't need any explanation either. What an energy!
I guess he couldn't sing higher, and was already used to (or content with) his choice of the rougher vocals.
I'm not too sure about annoyance on the recording process of Balls to Picasso. I see that record as a phase where Bruce is recharging, searching for something new. He tries out new things and even though his voice still sounded raspy at times, he sang some beautiful stuff. Let's not forget the Skunkworks album. A very motivated, passionate Bruce. He did not sing or scream high that often but he sings beautifully. Back from the Edge contains some of the most beautiful vocals (and lyrics!) he ever did. Whatever the outcome (lack of success), this record was a big thing for him while making it, and that's certainly audible, I think.This is very apparent on the Real Live tour bootlegs and Raising Hell. When he had a couple of solo albums and tours behind him, he obviously found a lot of new joy in doing what he did, which explains the very big difference in the quality of his performance on Balls to Picasso (where he was obviously still shaken from his Maiden experience, and probably also annoyed with the recording process)
Err, you might say, he wanted to return to the "simple" formula again, hoping for more success. But I never noticed that he sounds like he did it just for the heck of it.and Accident of Birth (which he did just for the heck of it).
It wasn't soon, but who cares.This is of course, all pure speculation, and I'm expecting a point-by-point Forostar rebuttal soon.