Singer, songwriter, pilot, author, fencing champ, air raid siren, force of nature: Bruce Dickinson is simply a man for whom many of the normal rules and restrictions of life do not seem to apply. Heavy metal’s premier Renaissance man is, of course, best known as vocalist and frontman with Iron Maiden, the greatest British metal band of all time and, some four decades after they originally formed, still one of the most widely adored bands on the planet. But as anyone that has followed Bruce’s story will tell you, singing with Maiden is just one part of his grand, substantial and fascinating musical life. Remarkably, given that he is just as likely to be found flying an airliner, Bruce has amassed a formidable catalogue as a solo artist, releasing six extraordinary studio albums that, at this point, represent his freewheeling efforts to date.

Once again re-emerging with new material after little more than 12 months than his fourth album, Bruce’s 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 Bruce’s 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 Bruce’s 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, Bruce’s lyrics and the album’s 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.