The Chemical Wedding

With the building popularity of Accident Of Birth, Bruce knew that it would take a great deal of effort to try and top that album, but he was willing to take a crack at doing just that. He stumbled upon the world of alchemy while strolling through a bookshop, and began work on solo album #5. However, it wasn't until he began reading the poetry of William Blake that he finally knew where he wanted to go with the album. By combining both Blake and alchemy into one magnificent force, he managed to create arguably the pinnacle of his entire career: 1998's The Chemical Wedding.

This album is absolutely huge. Bruce managed to combine the sounds of both classic and modern (for the time) metal into one entity, and the result was his heaviest record ever. Right from the opening skull-crushing riff in "King In Crimson", you can tell that this is a monstrous work of art. One of the album's great secrets is the way these guitars are played - with bass strings. Axemen Roy Z and Adrian Smith hit upon this idea in an effort to bring out the very pit of heaviness and display it right here on the album.

There are some lighter moments, though. "Gates Of Urizen" and "Jerusalem" are modern interpretations of medieval ballads, and "The Alchemist" goes off on a quiet note. But songs like "Trumpets Of Jericho" and "Book Of Thel" are excellent examples of the pounding freight train that drives this beast, and "The Tower" also utilizes the bass in the grooviest ways possible. This is also a record in which the lyrics deserve in-depth analyses, because they are some of the most inspired and mature ones that the genre has ever seen.

The Chemical Wedding was a deserved success for Bruce, and stands tall over the rest of his discography. He would end up returning to Iron Maiden in the following year, but this monumental piece of musical art will always remain for those that miss the days in which he was a free man, able to do what he liked when he liked, backed by a group of musicians that took no prisoners whatsoever and demolished all of the competition.