Description
Once again reemerging with new material after little more than 12 months than his fourth album, Bruces solo career clicked into yet another higher gear in 1998 upon the release of the frankly monumental The Chemical Wedding. Boasting the same line up as Accident Of Birth Bruce, Roy Z, Adrian Smith, bassist Eddie Casillas and drummer David Ingraham it offered a vicious riposte to those cynics who thought that musicians of Bruces generation had lost touch with the way heavy music sounded. Both the heaviest record that Bruce has ever made and the finest set of songs in his illustrious canon, the album received ecstatic reviews, and was widely embraced by fans of both Bruces solo career and, of course, Maiden themselves. This was modern heavy metal with a traditional heart, but somehow heavier, smarter and more invigorating than anyone had expected. On top of that, Bruces lyrics and the albums concept offered a depth of substance and intent that cheerfully made a mockery of the idea that metal is a genre with a questionable intellect. Variously inspired by the life and works of William Blake whose own words formed part of the epic Jerusalem, the nefarious aspirations of 19thcentury alchemists, and an assortment of wild, emotional personal observations, The Chemical Wedding was widely hailed as a masterpiece, and deservedly so.
