I need some help getting Into Solo Bruce...

Where Eagles Dare

Keep Your Distance! Walk Away!
Hi guys, been listening to Solo Bruce (thats what i call it) and I really like Road to hell, accident of birth, chemical wedding and thats about it. Any suggestions on songs or albums or just your opinion. I think my problem is im expecting Maiden and Im just not getting it...


PS... Is it just me or the lyrics are lacking?
 
IMO Bruce's best solo albums are Accident Of Birth and The Chemical Wedding. So I suggest you start with those :cheers:
 
It depends on what type of music you like..

Personally, I have a soft spot for the acoustic/ballad type things as well as straight up metal, so - Man of Sorrows, Arc of Space, Tears of the Dragon, Navigate the seas of the Sun - all work very well for me.

On the more metal side, I would say - Accident of Birth, Road to Hell, Darkside of Aquarius, Return of the King, King in Crimson, Abduction, Power of the Sun, Jerusalem, Trumpets of Jericho, Book of Thel - are all good solid tracks.... and I also have a rather liking for Freak  :innocent:
 
Personally I prefer Bruce's solo albums from 1994 through 1998 to his Iron Maiden reunion output. And I'm talking way more. I find it to be challenging but extremely fulfilling. Skunkworks in particular. Lyric wise I feel the same. A song like Meltdown I personally consider his finest lyric. Period.
How to get into it I can't answer, but I think it requires a certain kind of open, if not different, mind set to when it is Maiden you're listening to.
 
Omega is a track you hardly hear people raving about but for me it's a top 15 or even top 10 track for sure.

In Maiden's Coming Home I hear some echoes of it in the pre-chorus.

Accident of Birth is probably my favourite Bruce album.
A very melodic and well produced album. Many people (Bruce himself included) prefer The Chemical Wedding and that album has some of my favourite tracks (e.g. “King In Crimson”) but as a whole album I find AOB more enthralling to listen to. It has quite some nice moody moments as well.
 
I disagree, Foro. I specifically remember the day I bought Accident of Birth. It was when the forum went nuts shortly before the release of The Final Frontier. I remember a discussion about Bruce's solo material, and Omega was mentioned quite a bit, probably more than any other song off AoB and Chemical Wedding. Even now, I see it raved about a lot. And of course the Coming Home/Omega connection was discussed here before. And of course it made top ten in the Bruce survivor.
 
For me AoB/ToS > TCW.

I do like softer songs at times so AoB/ToS fit my mood more often than TCW which only really works with a full blown metal mood. I find AoB has higher highs but lower lows than TCW, whreas ToS is consistent throughout, but has no tracks that rival Aquarius/AoB ;)
 
His last three solo albums have been excellent and really should be in your collection. Before that he was very hit and miss. Just my opinion of course.
 
Tears of the dragon, navigate the seas of the sun and darkside of aquarius are my personal top three.
In addition Tyranny of souls, most of chemical wedding and accident of birth are brilliant
the earlier three albums im not into as much, the first being an interesting take on classic rock and from there it descends to skunkworks via balls to picasso and i cant touch skunkworks  :lol:
 
I felt the same way when skunkworks was released. I just couldnt get into it and thought Bruce had completely lost the plot. Eventually I listened to it more and more, until somehow it clicked. Now that is many years ago and it´s still the thing I listen to the most with him.

Been frequenting various Maiden boards over the years and coming across Maiden fans who rate SW highly is nearly as rare as coming across same said fans, who think Lars Ulrich is a swell guy.
 
I actually like more of the songs on Tattooed Millionaire, Balls to Picasso and Skunkworks than I do on the other three. So I'd consider those as more consistently good.
I'd even go as far as saying I much prefer Adrian's Psycho Motel albums over Bruce's last three solo albums, thats comparing them as albums though. I don't like Tyranny of Souls at all, I don't really enjoy many of the songs.

For specific songs though, I think my top 10 would be a mix of songs from all of them.
 
Sorry guys, actually forgot I made this post. Finally "got into" Bruce's solo stuff. I like it more now but sometimes I think Bruce is so much in his own mind that he forgets that people listening don't always see or feel things the same way as him. I like skunkworks, Space Race is an amazing song and Inertia is all right but songs like Inside the Machine show what im talking about. I can almost imagine Bruce saying to himself wow this song is so deep but to the average listener it "tells me things I never wished I knew like the mirror when you ask" is kind of cheesy. Accident of Birth was a nice heavy album with cool slow songs like Arc of Space and I haven't really gotten into Chemical Wedding but Jerusalem and the title track are both good.
 
It's funny because Skunkworks isn't just my favorite Bruce album -- it's my favorite album period. By anyone. That's because I spent a ton of time listening to it, and it slowly opened up to me. I was attracted to it because it's such a personal album. It's like Bruce said, "Fuck my fans. I'm making this album for me." I find the songs honest and vulnerable. Bruce bares it all the way nobody else I've ever heard has. At first, I didn't get it, though. The album's almost entirely in metaphors, and I had to figure out what he was trying to emote lyrically, but as time wore on, it just all came together. Not only could I figure out what Bruce was trying to tell me about himself, but I was able to relate it back to myself. It's a very introspective and artistic album. But I understand why it would be difficult to get into. Like I said, I spent tons of time listening to the album, and only after that many listens did I start to fall in love with it. I'd say keep the door open with that album. You might enjoy it more down the road.

Jerusalem is excellent, isn't it? My favorite Bruce song. I'm surprised the rest of the album (barring the title track) didn't do much for you. Have you heard Tyranny of Souls? There really isn't a bad (or even mediocre) tune off that one.
 
Chemical Wedding really rules. Is Bruce's own SSOSS. But much heavier.
 
He repeats the chemical wedding chorus in the last song. Maybe is not the same thing (telling one story) but don't you think with Blake's lyrics and the spoken words reminds of a conceptual world?
 
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