Review on "The Chemical Wedding" by BRUCE DICKINSON

People always tend to complain about how 90’s heavy music died an ugly death in the hands of grunge (well in the hands of Nirvana actually…). But the truth is that metal was active during that period of time, despite the fact that Judas Priest had lost their frontman Rob Halford after a great record such as “Painkiller” and Iron Maiden thought they had a singer, while the truth was that they were having a pair of unsafe hands holding the microphone, a much more unsafe and bad singer.

But hope was not lost… and when I say hope, I mean Bruce Dickinson. Bruce left Maiden after “Fear Of The Dark”, a good record followed by the well known mega world tours that Maiden tend to set up for their audience. He continued his solo career that had started with “Tattooed Millionaire” by doing “Balls To Picasso”, Bruce’s attempt along with Tribe Of Gypsies to combine metal and reggae. A double live album followed, with the band that later on would be Skunkworks, doing with them an alternative rock record. Bruce came back with “Accident Of Birth”, a great metal album with the Tribe Of Gypsies now being his band with the addition of Bruce’s former band mate Adrian Smith. Adrian along with Roy Z formed a remarkable guitar twin and Eddie Casillas with Dave Ingram took care of the rhythm section, leaving Bruce free to put on the record some of the best vocal performances ever.

So, having a great record behind, Bruce and his band went on and created Metal History. “The Chemical Wedding” stands as one of the best metal records and having sold about 300000 copies makes this record a wonder yet to be discovered.

The epic opener “King In Crimson” gives its place to “Chemical Wedding”, converting us into the world of Alchemy. “The Tower” with its exceptional guitar work even today is spine-chilling, while “Killing Floor” animadverts modern way of life. “Book Of Thel” can only be described as metal-at-its-best, breath-taking track. “Gates Of Urizen” carries us away into lands of crimson, while “Jerusalem”, with the epic melodies and incredibly, unbelievably beautiful, and yet searing and intelligent lyrics, keeps bringing tears to the eyes of those who feel, think, breathe… “Trumpets Of Jericho”, the opener of the “Chemical Wedding” tour, makes us not wanting this record to end… “Machine Men” works as a platform for Bruce to tell us his worries about the not so distant future of mankind (“…cannibals of rust…” Think about it!) and “The Alchemist”, where Bruce shows us what he’s made of, ends magnificently probably one of the best records ever…

An unbelievable record, nothing like this will ever shock you, soothe you, trouble you, release you, calm you, trap you and yet, set you free…

Do a favor to your ears, you mind… Let your eyes feast on the exceptional artwork…

If you see this record, grab it like you’ve never grabbed anything before…

It is like this incredible, gorgeous, smart, perfect woman that you love, you hate, you want to touch… Yes, it is also as dangerous as a woman described above is…

Bruce is a god…

No…

Let me rephrase that…

Bruce is

THE FUCKING GOD!!!!

Nothing is the same after that record…

I’m still reconstructing myself after the first time I pushed play…

The crimson plague still grows inside, under a Tarot Moon, fed by Satan… The mark is on me now, pushing me to the Gates, in search of a grail laying somewhere in the land of Fear… Now my machine heart is looking for healing into the hands of The Alchemist… All the elements are spread around his head while the stars in Taurus fade away…

Now I lay in my grave, my Chemical Wedding day…

Let’s lay in the same…