The Chemical Wedding (Bruce Dickinson album)

The Chemical Wedding
Studio album by Bruce Dickinson
Released	14 July 1998
Recorded	January–June 1998, Studios: Sound City, Silver Cloud in Los Angeles, California, USA
Genre	Heavy metal
Length	57:32
Label	Sanctuary (SMRCD214)
Producer	Roy Z
Bruce Dickinson chronology
Accident of Birth (1997) The Chemical Wedding (1998) Scream for Me Brazil (1999)
Singles from The Chemical Wedding
"Killing Floor" Released: 1998

The Chemical Wedding is the fifth solo album by English heavy metal singer Bruce Dickinson, released on 14 July 1998 through Sanctuary Records. The record draws some inspiration from the works of William Blake - of whom some paintings are featured in the artwork, as well as both sung and spoken excerpts from Blake's prophetic works - although the name of the album and its title track derive from the Rosicrucian manifest the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz. As with the previous album, it featured Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith, then a member of Dickinson's solo outfit.

The film, Chemical Wedding, with a screenplay by Dickinson, was released in May 2008. It features the title track from the album on its soundtrack, but concerns a story about the reincarnation of Aleister Crowley and is otherwise unrelated.

History

Lyrical themes

Dickinson: "Each song has a sort of frame in which it operates. The first song is about fear, the second song is about tragedy, the third song is about union. You could pick a theme or a topic for each song so that's what the song is about and then you put it in a frame. For example, one of the songs is about failure and the song is called "The Trumpets of Jericho." In the story of the trumpets of Jericho in the Bible, the walls fall down when the tribes of Israel walk around the city and blow their trumpets. Except in this song they don't, it doesn't work. You've done everything right, everything's cool but the wall's still standing. And what do you do? How do you face up to that fact? And it's all part of the whole alchemy thing. What were the alchemists trying to do? They were trying to achieve something that was virtually impossible, they spent their whole lives trying to do it, and all of them failed, or pretty damn near all of them failed. So, what does that feel like, and how does that work, and why keep carrying on. So that's the way the songs kind of work. And you don't have to go into them in all this detail, you could just sit back there and let it hit you over the head like a sledgehammer cause the album works it's just a really heavy album. But it's all there if you want to dig through the words." ^[1]

Metal Storm: "The lyrics sound as if they were copied right away out of the unholy scriptures, capture the most of the time very empty feeling, warm and comforting sounds you can only expect from the 'Chemical Wedding' and 'The Alchemist' songs."^[2]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[3]
Chronicles of Chaos	[4]
Metal Storm	[2]
Sputnikmusic	[5]

Critical response to The Chemical Wedding was generally favourable, with Allmusic praising its "modern metal aesthetic."^[6] Sputnikmusic said, "Professionally written and recorded, Bruce Dickinson once again pours his soul into his music, and the result is spectacular," and went on to deem it "one of the best metal albums of the late 90's."^[7]

Track listing

Original track listing
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"King in Crimson"	Bruce Dickinson, Roy Z	4:43
2.	"Chemical Wedding"	Dickinson, Z	4:06
3.	"The Tower"	Dickinson, Z	4:45
4.	"Killing Floor"	Dickinson, Adrian Smith	4:29
5.	"Book of Thel"	Dickinson, Z, Eddie Casillas	8:13
6.	"Gates of Urizen"	Dickinson, Z	4:25
7.	"Jerusalem"	Dickinson, Z	6:42
8.	"Trumpets of Jericho"	Dickinson, Z	5:59
9.	"Machine Men"	Dickinson, Smith	5:41
10.	"The Alchemist"	Dickinson, Z	8:27

2005 extended edition bonus tracks
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
11.	"Return of the King"	Dickinson, Smith	5:06
12.	"Real World"	Dickinson, Z	3:59
13.	"Confeos"	Dickinson, Z	7:35

Personnel

• Bruce Dickinson — lead vocals
• Adrian Smith — guitars, backing vocals
• Roy Z — guitars, backing vocals
• Eddie Casillas — bass guitar
• David Ingraham — drums, percussion

Guest musicians

• Arthur Brown — voice (tracks 5, 7, 13)
• Greg Schultz — keyboards (track 4)

Chart positions

Country	Chart (1998)	Position
Finland	Finnish Albums Chart	22[8]
Germany	Media Control Charts	41[9]
Japan	Oricon	64[10]
Sweden	Sverigetopplistan	31[11]
United Kingdom	UK Albums Chart	55[12]

References

1. ^ http://mariseb0.tripod.com/interviews/bd_seriahazkath_98.htm Interview with Bruce Dickinson conducted on August 19, 1998 by Seriah Azkath
2. ^ ^{a b} Metal Storm review
3. ^ The Chemical Wedding (Bruce Dickinson album) at Allmusic
4. ^ Chronicles of Chaos review
5. ^ Sputnikmusic review
6. ^ Rivadavia, Eduardo. "The Chemical Wedding > Review". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r373992. Retrieved March 30, 2009. 
7. ^ Stagno, Mike. "Bruce Dickinson The Chemical Wedding". Sputnikmusic. http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=3214. Retrieved April 6, 2009. 
8. ^ "Diskografia Bruce Dickinson" (in Finnish). Finnish charts. http://finnishcharts.com/search.asp?cat=a&search=bruce+dickinson. Retrieved July 6, 2008. 
9. ^ "Chartverfolgung - Bruce Dickinson" (in German). Musicline.de. http://www.musicline.de/de/chartverfolgung_summary/artist/Dickinson%2C+Bruce/longplay. Retrieved July 6, 2008. 
10. ^ "ブルース・ディッキンソン-Oricon Style ミュージック" (in Japanese). oricon.co.jp. http://www.oricon.co.jp/artists/a/145745/. Retrieved July 9, 2008. 
11. ^ "Diskografi Bruce Dickinson" (in Swedish). Swedish charts. http://swedishcharts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Bruce+Dickinson. Retrieved July 8, 2008. 
12. ^ "Chart Stats - Bruce Dickinson". Chart Stats. http://www.chartstats.com/artistinfo.php?id=5822. Retrieved November 19, 2008. 

External links

• The Chemical Wedding at Discogs
• The Chemical Wedding at Last.fm
• The Chemical Wedding at MusicBrainz