Today is the mighty Bruce Dickinson's birthday, and I'm glad he's come through the cancer scare well, and is getting back into fighting shape for the Iron Maiden tour next year. The band is also set to release the new Maiden album, 'The Book of Souls' on September 4th!

To celebrate Bruce's birthday, I'm picking some amazing Bruce songs for your enjoyment...not all of them will be Maiden songs, but a few will be.

  • 1

    Riding With The Angels

    from 'Shock Tactics'

    This one is from the band Bruce was in when Iron Maiden saw him and decided he should be their new singer. This was the second album he did with Samson, the first being 'Head On', which has a great song on it, 'Hammerhead', that I love, too!

  • 2

    Total Eclipse

    from 'The Number of the Beast'

    This is a song that wasn't on the original release of Iron Maiden's 1982 masterpiece, 'The Number of the Beast', but has been included on all the remasters, which is awesome. A great song that was released as a B-side, and not played live much. I love this song, and is from the first Iron Maiden album Bruce recorded with the band. A must-own album, IMHO.

  • 3

    Still Life

    from 'Piece of Mind'

    This album from Maiden has some amazing songs on it, including this song, that features some weird backwards Nicko talk at the beginning, and then a really moody song and lyric. I love the darkness of the song, and the crescendo when he jumps into the pool. One of Maiden's finest!

  • 4

    Strange Death in Paradise

    from 'Skunkworks'

    This is an often overlooked Bruce Dickinson solo album, but there are a lot of amazing songs on this one, including 'Headswitch', and this moody track, 'Strange Death in Paradise'. Bruce sounds amazing on this album, and the songs are quite a bit different from the other stuff he's done. Pick up this album, it's cool.

  • 5

    Taking the Queen

    from 'Accident of Birth'

    This is the first solo album Bruce recorded with Adrian Smith and the Tribe of Gypsies guys (they'd been on Balls to Picasso), and this song in particular shows Bruce's storytelling skills off. He wrote a story about the taking of the queen, and then turned that into the lyrics of this song. Amazing imagery, and cool lyrics. This is an amazing song. You should really own all of Bruce's solo work...they're some of the best things ever created.

  • 6

    The Chemical Wedding

    the entire freaking album

    Excuse my French here, but HOLY SHIT, THIS ALBUM, GUYS!

    Bruce and company decided to make this amazing album based on the art and poetry of WIlliam Blake, and it's one of the heaviest, deepest, most interesting albums ever released. I'm not even kidding with this.

    The guitar tones, the production, the music, the lyrics...everything is absolutely perfect on this album. This a masterwork of metal, and every band should see this one as required study material. 'King in Crimson', 'Book of Thel', 'Jerusalem', 'Return of the King'...every freaking song on this album is a masterpiece.

    Holy shit.

  • 7

    Acoustic Song

    from 'The Best of'

    This is a totally different song for Bruce, and you can find it on his 'Best of' collection. There are some interesting gems on there, including this one, and the next song on my list.

  • 8

    Darkness Be My Friend

    from 'The Best of'

    The first time you hear this song, you might think, 'WTF is this?'

    But the haunting quiet of this song, with the single voice singing over the acoustic guitar is really intense in its own way. The weird solo adds a bizarre touch to this song, but doesn't detract from the cool haunting feel.

  • 9

    Navigate the Seas of the Sun

    from 'Tyranny of Souls'

    This solo album has some great songs, but the one I keep getting stuck on is this one. It's got that mellow feel up front, but has a cool melody, and great different parts to it. Bruce sounds fantastic as always, and the songs don't have quite the heavy feel of 'The Chemical Wedding', but are sometimes brutal, sometimes beautiful.

  • 10

    Lord of Light

    from 'A Matter of Life and Death'

    'A Matter of Life and Death' seemed to divide some Maiden fans, with its lack of mastering, and the sound and style evolving more and more into the 70s prog style that Maiden loves so much. I personally LOVE this album, and was glad to get to see them when they performed the entire album from start to finish on tour. Great set, and an amazing album.

  • 11

    BONUS: The Final Frontier

    The whole album

    The last album Iron Maiden released scared a lot of people, because it's called 'The Final Frontier', and many people thought the band was calling it a day.

    Thankfully they didn't retire, because this album is so good, and so deep. There are a lot of moods on here, lots of different kinds of songs, and a lot of 70s proggy elements that I really like.

    This album and 'A Matter of Life and Death' make me so happy, and get me really excited for the next album.

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