All great stories start out with

All great stories start out with...
Once Upon A Time Ago, there was a metal band called Iron Maiden. This band had the staying power that few others could dream of, with a solid fan base, and many others that were willing to admit to liking them. They released album after album of very heavy yet polished songs, and kept metal popular for years. But into the late 80s and early 90s, things change, and lead singer Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith left the band, and Iron Maiden's popularity went down a notch.

Then just at the brink of the death of metal, here comes the driving force behind this British band, Bruce Dickinson, and in 1997 created a huge buzz with the superb Accident of Birth solo cd, which was the first time Brucie and Adrian Smith had reunited since the Maiden days. The metal hordes promised this gem would be the savior of metal, that the return of Bruce to the power metal world would surely put metal back in the spotlight. It would be something new and innovative and everyone would love it. And in some ways it was. It didn't save metal but was and still is, the greatest thing that pair of ex-Maideners have done.

So now its 1998 and the buzz was on about the NEW Brucie disc. Another one so soon? Yes, and after the groundbreaking Accident of Birth, the NEW Bruce disc would have to be as good or better. YES better is the word, it will break all previous hopes wide open. So yes, I fell for the underground buzz both times. AOB did not disappoint, but the NEW one called the Chemical Wedding....well.....

At first listen, The Chemical Wedding, is the kind of song that just passes over and its done and you think "OH" There is nothing heartstoppingly wonderful and unique that makes you gasp for breath just trying to take in all its glory. Nothing like that remotely exists on here. So what is it that I don't like? It took a couple of listens to TCW and AOB to figure it out. Accident had Starchildren and Darkside of Aquarius, songs so powerful they just demand notice. And then you had some beautiful ballad type songs, and a few more mainstream songs, but they all had plenty of melody, and intriguing lyrics about fantasy themes. The Chemical Wedding really doesn't rely much on melody, but rather skull crushing songs instead, with very low bass and some nice guitar chops but nothing too memorable. Lack of melody is bad. The lyrics are disgusting, I have to say that, they are horrible in some parts, bordering on the edge of being just gross. However, there is some good here, in the midst of it all, mainly in the form of four songs, which we'll get to later, and of course Brucie's vocal delivery, and most of the guitarwork.
The good: a handful of songs, vocals, guitar
The bad: the rest of the songs, lack of melody
The ugly: the lyrics, yuk

Bruce decided to get all the good stuff over with all at once.

King In Crimson---a good opening track, this will get all the powermad AOB purists hailing this as greatness. Yep this is certainly a good song, the more I listen to it the more it grows on me. Maybe just a bit heavier than the blow the rafters to pieces AOB tunes, but it all fits, its all good, and not only that, it reminds me of a Brucie AOB song which I can't remember at this time.

Chemical Wedding---a little more plodding than the opening tune, but still a good followup and it seems to fit right here, both in storyline and musically. It brings it down just a notch. Parts of this song will show up later on.

The Tower---my favorite Chemical Wedding song, and possibily one of my favorite Iron Maiden/Bruce songs of all time, I love the quirky guitar melodies and the off rhythm drum beats, and there is a great groundwork of melody presented here in a nice power metal package. The song is quite addicting, with just enough of everything to keep the pace, and it flows very smoothly riding on the wings of having lots of melody. The guitar solo is one of the best on here.

Killing Floor---not a song for everyone, its very heavy with some almost industrial sounding guitar riffs scattered in at times. Killing Floor just pounds with organized chaos, which lets up now and then for Bruce to coo a bit with some acoustic tucked in the background, then the chaos returns as they scream "satan...has left his killing floor....satan...." you get the picture. The Adrian/Roy Z tradeoff guitar riff is quite nice, and I also like the violin at the end that kind of gives it that fuller feel, in a more classical sounding moment.

Book of Thel---an ominous lapping acoustic opening, followed by some surprisingly bluesy sounding guitar opens this track up, however the peaceful bluesiness doesn't last very long, and it opens right up in classic AOB manner, this reminds me alot of The Magician and a few others from AOB, so yes, I really liked this one. It has its brilliant moments, in the form of a catchy bridge and chorus, with AOB stamped all over.

Gates of Urizen---this also opens very softly with Brucie's haunting vocals , the guitar is quite beautiful to start out with, soft and supportive, gentle yet with overtones that whisper of the fury contained. It opens up a little, but mostly stays on this slow plodding level for most of the song.

Jerusalem---another acoustic guitar opening, this one is more urgent and clanging sounding, and with Bruce's vocals layered on top, it almost reminds me of some kind of bard's song at first, with just the voice and the guitar. The the bass kicks in and some guitar feedback enters into the pictures, and it slows down a bit, and just seems to pause for a minute, and then some drums enter into the picture, then the whole thing blasts open with electric guitar and some powerhouse vocals, and then you get that suspended feeling again. Then back to the urgent clanging acoustic, almost reminds me of the acoustic music in the computer/video game Diablo, where you are in the town. If you have heard that, then you will get an idea of what this sounds like.

Trumpets of Jericho---this starts out with that industrial heavy end bass and just releases an onslaught of heaviness and Bruce growling doing his best Dave Mustaine impression, well its supposed to sound sinister and it does. It looses up some of the heavy hold now and then for an outburst of chorus, nothing remarkable.

Machine Men---I have to say I dislike this song, its too long for my tastes, too plodding, too much of this and too much of that. Its Bruce sounding but there's just nothing here I particularly like. There are other tracks much better, the inclusion of sound scratchy track of some guy talking doesn't exactly make me like it either.

The Alchemist---slow and ominous with some very muddled Brucie singing which trades out with Bruce singing "don't turn awaaaaay". This one borrows alot from all the previous songs on the cd. There is an interesting use of synthesizer, plenty of great guitar solos, lots of good Brucie vocals, its not that bad, so we begin we end.

Production	Songs	Lyrics	Performance	Overall
9.3	6.0	8.4	8.5	7.5