The Chemical Wedding is, without question, my favorite metal album from the 1990’s. It hit at just the right time for me – I was preparing to enter hell high school and I was getting into weirder and weirder shit with every passing day, so an album about William Blake, alchemy, tarot cards, ancient temples, rivers of blood, the walls of Jericho, and the Lord of Light himself – well, that was more than enough to win me over. And is that ARTHUR BROWN doing the spoken word parts?! I haven’t even mentioned how divine the musicianship is (Roy Z and Adrian Smith are fucking devastating together, and Bruce’s vocals… well, there’s no one better). I’m certain I listened to the record every single day that summer.
Check out Bruce Dickinson’s official website, and while you’re at it, listen to an episode of the Friday Rock Show on BBC6. Every week Bruce plays all kinds of awesome from the various headbanging hemispheres whilst entertaining guest interviewees and being the most hilarious DJ of all-time.
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May 4, 2009 at 19:42
Brian Murphy
Hey Arcona, I agree, The Chemical Wedding is easily one of the best metal albums of the 1990s. In a way it’s too bad this came out when metal was at or near its nadir; this album (and Bruce’s other solo efforts) have largely been lost in the shuffle, and they deserve a lot more praise.
I really need to check out Bruce’s radio show. It doesn’t surprise me to hear that he’s a good DJ–the man is brilliant.
May 5, 2009 at 01:00
Matthew Conway
I always thought the low point of metal during the 90’s was somewhere between 92/93 until 96 or so. Basically during the mainstreaming of the grunge movement. I think Pantera were probably the most consistent group metal fans had during this time.
While it’s never going to be thought of as a golden period for the genre, the late 90’s had some pretty damn good releases from the likes of Bruce here, Nevermore, Blind Guardian, Emperor, etc. It was certainly a better period than the early 2000’s when nu-metal came in and ruined things for many years.