''Accident of Birth'' is the fourth studio album by
Bruce Dickinson
Paul Bruce Dickinson (born 7 August 1958) is an English singer who has been the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden from 1981 to 1993 and 1999–present. He is known for his wide-ranging operatic vocal style and energetic stag ...
, released on 3 June 1997
through
Castle Communications
Castle Communications, also known as Castle Music, was a British independent record label and home video distributor founded in 1983 by Terry Shand, Cliff Dane, and Jon Beecher. Its video imprint was called Castle Vision. The label's producti ...
sub-label Raw Power in the UK and through
CMC International
CMC International was an American independent record label founded by Bill Cain and Tom Lipsky in 1991, focused mainly on classic rock, and classic heavy metal. The label was the haven of many hard rock, arena rock, thrash metal, glam metal, and ...
in the US.
Dickinson's second collaboration with guitarist/producer
Roy Z
Roy Z (born February 1968) is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer, best known for his work with Bruce Dickinson (from Iron Maiden), Halford, and Judas Priest. He also is the founder of Tribe of Gypsies, a Latin-influenced har ...
, the album is markedly different in style from his previous effort ''
Skunkworks''. As well as Roy Z, Dickinson was also joined for the album by fellow former
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. While fluid in the early years of the band, the lineup for most of the band's history has consisted of Harr ...
member
Adrian Smith
Adrian Frederick "H" Smith (born 27 February 1957) is an English guitarist best known as a member of heavy metal band Iron Maiden, for whom he also writes songs and performs backing vocals both live and in the studio.
Smith grew up in London ...
; both Dickinson and Smith would later return to their former band in early 1999. Thanks to the slightly bigger success of this album compared to his previous solo releases, Dickinson would continue to work with Roy Z on his subsequent albums ''
The Chemical Wedding'' (1998) and ''
Tyranny of Souls
''Tyranny of Souls'' is the sixth studio album released by Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson on 23 May 2005. The cover art is one of the panels of Earthly Vanity and Divine Salvation, a work by renaissance artist Hans Memling. It is his fi ...
'' (2005).
Album artwork
The cover art was produced by
Derek Riggs
Derek Riggs (born 13 February 1958) is a contemporary British artist best known for creating the band Iron Maiden's mascot, " Eddie".
Career
Born in Portsmouth, England, Riggs is a self-taught artist, both in his traditional painting and in hi ...
, best known for being the creator of
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. While fluid in the early years of the band, the lineup for most of the band's history has consisted of Harr ...
's mascot
Eddie
Eddie or Eddy may refer to:
Science and technology
*Eddy (fluid dynamics), the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current created when the fluid flows past an obstacle
* Eddie (text editor), a text editor originally for BeOS and now ported to Lin ...
and the artwork on all of Iron Maiden's albums/singles/posters/tour brochures throughout 1980–1990 (and sporadically afterwards up until 2000's ''
Brave New World
''Brave New World'' is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hiera ...
'', other than one additional Eddie drawing for the cover of his book ''Run for Cover''). In reference to this, the jester puppet featured on the cover was jokingly christened Edison ("Eddie's Son"). A
grim reaper
Death is frequently imagined as a personified force. In some mythologies, a character known as the Grim Reaper (usually depicted as a berobed skeleton wielding a scythe) causes the victim's death by coming to collect that person's soul. Other b ...
is also faintly visible in the background, such a figure having previously been included by Riggs in his artwork for Iron Maiden's ''
Live After Death
''Live After Death'' is a live album by English heavy metal band Iron Maiden, originally released in October 1985 on EMI in Europe and its sister label Capitol Records in the US (it was re-released by Sanctuary/Columbia Records in the US in 200 ...
'' and ''
Somewhere in Time'' albums, as well as on the band's earlier single "
The Trooper
"The Trooper" is a song by the English heavy metal band Iron Maiden. It was released as the second single on 20 June 1983 from the band's fourth studio album, ''Piece of Mind'' (1983). It was one of only a few songs to get much radio airplay i ...
".
Four versions of the album cover exist. Originally, the artwork showed Edison graphically bursting from a man's stomach, but for the original European release this image was cropped so as to remove the man's head (although the poster that came with the
limited edition of the album included the original, unedited image). The cover was deemed too explicit for the US market, where the album was instead released with completely different artwork showing a frontal view of Edison. The 2005 re-release again used a different image for the cover, showing the puppet nailed to a cross; this image had previously been used for the Japan-only "
Man of Sorrows
Man of Sorrows, a biblical term, is paramount among the prefigurations of the Messiah identified by the Bible in the passages of Isaiah 53 ('' Servant songs'') in the Hebrew Bible. It is also an iconic devotional image that shows Christ, usuall ...
" single. Finally, the extended edition of the album features the original, unedited artwork, with the head of the man from whom Edison is bursting clearly visible.
Critical reception
The German magazine ''
Rock Hard
"Rock Hard" is a single by the Beastie Boys, released by Def Jam Records on 12" in 1984. The track contains samples from the AC/DC song "Back in Black", which was used without obtaining legal permission, causing the record to be withdrawn. ...
'' previewed ''Accident of Birth'' as the Album of the Month in May 1997. The reviewer praised Dickinson's voice and the songwriting: "Bruce sings like a young god – actually better and more expressive than ever – and has based his songwriting on the milestones of his Maiden years, with the new/old sidekick Adrian Smith coming at the right time" to deliver "their best material since ''
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
''Seventh Son of a Seventh Son'' is the seventh studio album by English heavy metal band Iron Maiden. It was released on 11 April 1988 in the United Kingdom by EMI Records and in the United States by Capitol Records. Like '' The Number of the ...
''".
In 2005, ''Accident of Birth'' was ranked number 338 in ''Rock Hard'' magazine's book of ''The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time''.
Contemporary reviews are equally positive.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, oc ...
of
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...
defined the album "intriguing" and "better than many latter-day Maiden efforts".
Canadian journalist
Martin Popoff
Martin Popoff (born April 28, 1963) is a Canadian music journalist, critic and author. He is mainly known for writing about the genre of heavy metal music. The senior editor and co-founder of ''Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles'', he has additionall ...
described ''Accident of Birth'' as "an unabashed metal record, produced smoothly and firmly" and added that it "would have made an intelligent, and ironically daring Maiden reunion record."
Track listing
2005 Expanded Edition Disc 2
An extended edition of the album was released with the following tracks on CD 2. Tracks 1–4 appear on the CD single of "Man of Sorrows". Tracks 5–9 also feature on the Japanese CD release of "Man of Sorrows".
Personnel
;Band members
*
Bruce Dickinson
Paul Bruce Dickinson (born 7 August 1958) is an English singer who has been the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden from 1981 to 1993 and 1999–present. He is known for his wide-ranging operatic vocal style and energetic stag ...
– vocals
*
Adrian Smith
Adrian Frederick "H" Smith (born 27 February 1957) is an English guitarist best known as a member of heavy metal band Iron Maiden, for whom he also writes songs and performs backing vocals both live and in the studio.
Smith grew up in London ...
– guitar
*
Roy Z
Roy Z (born February 1968) is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer, best known for his work with Bruce Dickinson (from Iron Maiden), Halford, and Judas Priest. He also is the founder of Tribe of Gypsies, a Latin-influenced har ...
– guitar, Mellotron, piano, producer, engineer, mixing
* Eddie Casillas – bass
* David Ingraham – drums
;Additional musicians
* Silvia Tsai – violin on "Taking the Queen", "Man of Sorrows" and "Arc of Space"
* Rebecca Yeh – cello on "Taking the Queen", "Man of Sorrows" and "Arc of Space"
* Richard Baker – piano on "Man of Sorrows"
;Production
*Stan Katayama – engineer, mixing at Brooklyn Recordings, Los Angeles except tracks 2, 6, 9
*Joe Floyd – engineer, mixing on tracks 2, 6, 9 at Silver Cloud Recordings
*
Greg Fidelman
Greg Fidelman (born September 4, 1965) is an American record mixer, engineer and record producer. He is a frequent collaborator of producer Rick Rubin, and has worked with many bands in various genres, including Metallica, Slayer, High on Fire, B ...
, Tom Banghart – assistant engineers
*Norbert Newfied – string arrangements
Charts
Album
Singles
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Accident Of Birth
1997 albums
Bruce Dickinson albums
CMC International albums
Albums produced by Roy Z
Albums recorded at Sound City Studios
Castle Communications albums