ALBUM OF THE WEEK # 367 BRUCE DICKINSON - THE CHEMICAL WEDDING (1998)

[RJhog (Admin)]

Disclaimer: All info that does not reside in my brain is gathered from wikipedia.com (mostly because Jon can't stand it) unless otherwise noted.

Time for something a little different from RJ.  As we move through the late 90's into the early 00's, my choices for albums to post are rapidly dwindling.  I could have picked Walking Into Clarksdale by Page and Plant, or Abandon by Deep Purple.  I could've even gone with DLR Band by David Lee Roth.  But nope, I decided to go with the 1998 solo release from Iron Maiden's front man.  

Here's a quote from Wikipedia:

The record draws some inspiration from the works of William Blake, featuring sung and spoken excerpts of his prophetic works and poetry (notably And did those feet in ancient time on the track Jerusalem), and with cover art from his painting The Ghost of a Flea, although the name of the album and its title track derive from the Rosicrucian manifest the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz.

Guess what?  I have no idea what that quote means.  As you have probably already guessed, the album did not chart in the United States.  

From my standpoint, when my musical direction was being forged, late 70's through the mid to late 80's, I did not listen to Iron Maiden.  I honestly just never gave them a chance.  In recent years I have picked up several of their albums and I certainly wish I would have listened to them back then.  I feel like I really missed something. I picked this album up a few years back and as with the Iron Maiden releases, I like it.  It's a little long, as I prefer a running time of 35 to 45 minutes, but that's really the only thing I can complain about here.  It's ten bucks on Amazon if you are interested.

1. King In Crimson

2. Chemical Wedding

3. The Tower

4. Killing Floor

5. Book of Thel

6. Gates of Urizen

7. Jerusalem

8. Trumpets of Jericho

9. Machine Men

10. The Alchemist

[Yngve J. Chapleen]

I have this and probably all of his solo efforts, unlike the Iron Maiden catalog, which is hit and miss for me.

The Tower is my favorite track here.

[TageRyche]

I love this album, though I don't think that will come as much of a surprise to anyone here.

Tracks 1,2 and 4 are probably my favorites. I'm going to take this to work tomorrow and listen to it so I can get a fresh read on the album again and I'll update my thoughts a bit more.

[TageRyche]

As I said, I took the album to work yesterday. It had been a while since I'd listened to it. 

Turns out I love tracks 1-5. I think the only song I didn't outright love was "Gates of Urizen".

Tracks 7 and 8 are superb while 9 and 10 are good.

It was a really nice experience listening to this album again.

[Jon]

Could swear I have this, but can't find the CD. Wonder if I have it on cassette. Hmmm.....

Anyhoo, this is a pretty dang good album. Not his bestest best, but still a good one. The song "Jerusalem" is so dang epic, and that's the song I remember listening to a lot, but on what format?

But then again, don't know if I want an album with a CHUD on the cover.

Finally, you kinda redeemed yourself. After the last two weeks or so, it's good to finally have something good to listen to. 

Of course you'll probably ruin all that goodwill next week.

[Scandal 2000]

The Chemical Wedding is a really good album. I am going to say something controversial here, but I prefer his last few solo albums to the stuff he has done in Maiden since the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son album. I actually like Accident of Birth even more than The Chemical Wedding.

[TageRyche]

I went to listen to Accident of Birth last Friday because I wanted to refresh my memory of that album because it has one of my favorite Bruce solo songs on it. I was going to double up and use it as my next Cassette Chronicles article as well. But as it turns out, the cassette had worn out. I'm planning on ordering a CD edition of the album soon.

While Balls To Picasso was a good album, it was Accident, Chemical and Tyranny of Souls (my #1 album the year it came out) that really led to me loving his solo work. I know all three of the albums were excellent but it is hard to say that they FAR outstrip Maiden's work with Bruce after Seventh Son. They might be better than No Prayer For The Dying (which still has some great songs) and Final Frontier (only 6 songs on an album that was the first Maiden album I felt a little disappointed in), but I can't agree with them being better than all of the Maiden Bruce discs since Seventh.

[Scandal 2000]

I don't know. Maiden have become a little bit too much of a Prog band for my liking these days. Their songs seem to drag on and on forever. I love everything up to Seventh Son but much after that (Except for a song here and there) Piece of Mind is one of my favorite albums ever.