BRUCE DICKINSON: Accident Of Birth (HEAVY METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

It's been a while since Bruce Dickinson left Iron Maiden to concentrate on his solo career. After three albums and constant line-up changes, the man is back with Roy Z's team, Tribes of Gypsy, who had already worked on "Balls to Picasso", for this fourth opus. During the preparation of the album, it is nothing less than Adrian Smith who will come to expand the group. So it's a well-trained line-up that tackles this "Accident of Birth".

For the record, Bruce Dickinson would have learned from his mother shortly before the album that he was the result of a failed abortion. If the whole metal community can only rejoice at such a medical error, the shock was hard for Bruce who named his album accordingly and gave it a very dark tone that strikes most of the tracks, paradoxically very colorful and varied despite an obvious hardening of tone.

The contribution of Adrian Smith is not for nothing. Indeed, the three previous opuses saw only one guitarist in charge and the tone was lighter. Here, Bruce Dickinson is back in a more Metal environment for the first time in many years. 'Freak' immediately announces the color with a haunting and raspy riff, and the tendency will be confirmed throughout the album ('Starchildren', 'Darkside of Aquarius', 'Accident of Birth', 'The Magician'...). The soli are fast and the riffs are less typical rock/hard rock than on 'Tattoed Millionnaire' or 'Balls to Picasso', which does not prevent them from being effective. Note that 'Road to Hell' recycles very effectively a riff underused by Helloween on their 'I Want Out'.

But Bruce Dickinson also knows how to air his album with softer and more subtle tracks, thus bringing the duality that the cover represents so well between a colorful and melodic inclination and a dark and depressive one. The light 'Taking The Queen' charms us with its acoustic introduction before exploding into the sublime 'Darkside of Aquarius' which speaks to us of the apocalypse in a varied and gripping metallic fresco from beginning to end. The melancholic 'Man of Sorrow' and its sober piano brings some melancholy in the middle of the fury of the album. Finally, the tone slows down on 'Omega' and especially on the very beautiful 'Arc of Space' which ends the album on a warmer note.

Vocally, Bruce Dickinson is in very good shape and this album proves that he tries to renew himself and to progress. Indeed, the more mastered vocals with a warmer range that we know from the last Iron Maiden albums are here at his peak, proving the diligence of a hard worker and far from the clichés of the stupid rock star.

In the end, there is not much to reproach to this "Accident Of Birth" which perfectly manages to transmit a wide range of emotions. Only a few lengths darken the picture with some rather dispensable tracks ('Starchildren', 'Welcome to The Pit'...). On the contrary, the other titles will become for the majority of the hits making this album quite simply impossible to circumvent. - Official website

BRUCE DICKINSON

ACCIDENT OF BIRTH

SANCTUARY

HEAVY METAL