Before we move on to Accident of Birth, let's catch up on what Adrian was doing throughout the 90s. It’s easy to think that Adrian left Maiden to pursue a solo career but that’s actually not the case at all. Adrian didn’t just leave Maiden, he left the music industry altogether. Instead, he got married and began to start a family. He even put the guitar away during this time.
The beginning of his return to music actually came in 1992 when he joined Maiden on stage at Donington, as previously discussed. Around the same time, he was inspired by hearing a new band: King’s X. Shortly after, Adrian Smith happened to meet Jamie Stewart of The Cult and formed The Untouchables (Another member of the band worth mentioning is Fabio Del Rio, who played on Tattooed Millionaire). The idea was to play in a band similar to King’s X, but neither musician intended to formally return to the music business. They would play clubs around England but no more than that.
Obviously things turned out differently. The lineup went through some changes (Jamie was no longer involved) and eventually The Untouchables became Psycho Motel and the new band made two albums:
State Of Mind (1995)
Hans-Olav Solli - Vocals
Adrian Smith - Guitar
Gary Leideman - Bass
Mike Sturgis - Drums
To complete the lineup, Adrian brought in Norwegian vocalist Solli who had earned a reputation working in a project with Scott Gorham. You can definitely hear the King’s X influence in this album. Lots of traditional Hard Rock with some prog rock twists such as odd time signatures. There are heavy moments but it’s mostly blues based Hendrix styled riffing. The production is very rough, almost demo quality.
The album didn’t really do much, but it did get Maiden’s attention and Psycho Motel were invited to open for Maiden at a gig in England during The X Factour.
Welcome To the World (1997)
Andy Makin - Vocals
Adrian Smith - Guitar
Gary Leideman - Bass
Mike Sturgis - Drums
After the tour for State of Mind, Solli departed the band. Adrian decided to go for someone younger who was influenced by the popular rock bands of the time such as Pearl Jam. The result was a heavier and more modern sounding album. The production also improved quite a bit. While neither albums seem to resonate much with Maiden fans, Welcome To the World seems to be the more popular of the two.
The album also featured a guest appearance from Adrian's old bandmate: Dave Murray! Dave performed a guitar solo on the song With You Again. It was the first time the two appeared on a studio recording together since Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.
Both albums were re-released years later but quickly went out of print and are pretty rare. Both albums seem to achieve what Bruce Dickinson was going for with Skunkworks. They don’t feel like Adrian Smith solo projects at all, just a band he’s involved with. As mentioned earlier, neither albums are considered essential by Maiden fans but they might be of interest to those who like Adrian’s playing/writing or are just curious about what he does outside Maiden.
Adrian did not intend to just make two albums in Psycho Motel. He seemed to have a good time with them and was excited to be making music again. However, his plans were put to a quick halt when he received a call from Bruce Dickinson shortly after finishing Welcome To the World...
Bruce Dickinson - Accident of Birth (1997)
(US Cover)
(2005 Expanded Edition Covers)
Bruce Dickinson - Vocals
Adrian Smith - Guitar
Roy Z - Guitar/Keyboards
Eddie Casillas - Bass
David Ingraham - Drums
Bruce intended to make a second album with Skunkworks, but it became evident early on that there were unresolvable musical differences. According to Bruce, Alex Dickson was going for a more Alternative direction in the vein of REM or recent David Bowie, Bruce, on the other hand, wanted something Heavier. The band agreed that to go in any one direction wouldn’t work if there were two conflicting ideas, and with that Skunkworks was disbanded. Since it was a mutual agreement, the split was on good terms. There was even a short reunion, but we’ll get to that later.
Bruce then went through a period of uncertainty with what to do next. His first solo attempts were commercial disappointments and Bruce was beginning to feel defeated. He decided to give Roy Z a call and, after hearing Roy Z play the riff for what would eventually become Accident Of Birth over the phone, all doubts were put to rest. Bruce decided that the next album would be an all out traditional Metal album. It wouldn’t be a different take on Metal the way Balls to Picasso was, it’d be a “balls out Metal record” in the style Bruce was known for.
Accident Of Birth was exactly the kind of album Bruce tried to avoid making when he left Maiden. As mentioned earlier, he felt that the traits he helped popularize in Maiden had become cliche by the 90s and wanted to avoid creating a parody. Needless to say, Bruce was reluctant to return to Metal, but he was so impressed with what Roy Z presented to him that he knew it was the best direction to go in. The time seemed right and, with Roy Z as a main writer and the producer, things were working in the album’s favor. History seemed to be repeating itself. When Bruce worked with Roy Z the first time, he had just spent almost two years in uncertainty over what to do with his solo career. When Roy got involved, things happened very quickly. The same events took place with Accident of Birth. Once Bruce and Roy Z began working together, the music started coming extremely quick. Before long, there was an entire album’s worth of songs written.
The backing band for the album was naturally going to be Tribe of Gypsies again, however this time they weren’t credited as such. The music was also not in the Tribe’s Latin Metal style. While some elements of Latin music sneak in at various moments, mostly in some of the acoustic work and Roy Z’s guitar solos, it doesn’t have the same feel or groove as Balls to Picasso. Metal “cliches” such as twin guitar harmonies and the Maiden gallop are abundant and unapologetic on Balls to Picasso. Bruce wanted the album to be relentlessly heavy but also very musical.
To complete the album lineup, Bruce felt it was appropriate to call up Adrian and invite him to make a guest appearance. Adrian had a very recognizable guitar sound that would further drive the Maiden-ness of it all, but Bruce thought this was right as he wanted the album to sound as good as Maiden’s best work. Adrian and Bruce also had an effective writing team in Maiden which was put to good use on Accident of Birth. The duo wrote three songs together for the album: Road To Hell, Welcome To the Pit, and Ghost of Cain (a song that was left off the original UK version but included on the US and Japanese releases). Road To Hell especially showed that the two could still deliver the goods. The song had a classic 80’s Maiden feel with a catchy anthemic chorus, twin guitar harmonies, and an instrumental break that was very similar to The Prisoner. The other two songs were still unmistakably Smith/Dickinson, but a bit more modernized. Adrian seemed to be bringing in some influence from what he was doing at the time with Psycho Motel.
Initially, Adrian was only brought on as a guest. He’d write some songs and add some parts where a second guitarist was necessary. However, Adrian ended up playing on most of the album and even joined the band for the following tour. His plans with Psycho Motel were going to be put on hold as he was now a full member of Bruce’s solo band. Adrian’s presence was also great PR for the album and he was heavily involved with the promotion for the album. He would appear in interviews alongside Bruce and was even included in some of the photoshoots while the rest of the band worked more behind the scenes.
While Adrian’s involvement was naturally what drew most fans to the project, Accident Of Birth is very much the vision of Bruce and Roy Z. Roy Z was the producer and wrote most of the songs with Bruce. Roy Z had a much more modern playing and producing style, he also incorporated alternate tunings into his music. Songs such as the title track and Freak were far heavier than anything Bruce had done before, even with Maiden.
While Accident Of Birth isn’t a concept album, several of the songs are thematically related. Since Bruce was making a traditional Metal album, it made sense to go back to familiar topics. One such was a favorite subject of Bruce’s during the 80’s: Aleister Crowley. Man Of Sorrows and The Magician were both based around his character and life. This was a twist on songs like Moonchild and Revelations which were less about the man himself and more inspired by his works. According to Bruce, Toltec 7 Arrival, Starchildren, Omega, and Arc Of Space are all connected and deal with an apocalyptic future. While not technically part of the aforementioned sequence, The Darkside of Aquarius also has an apocalyptic theme and includes the Four Horsemen of Death, as well as Nostradamus and Marvel Comics’ Silver Surfer. The allegory that Bruce spoke not so fondly of a few years later was back in full force on this album.
The title track supposedly has a double meaning. Bruce describes it as being about the family from Hell, with one member of the family accidentally being born. However, I’ve also heard that the title is autobiographical, referring to Bruce’s mother telling him around this time that he was the result of a botched abortion. I’ve never come across this story coming directly from Bruce, although I suppose we’ll probably get confirmation of that in his upcoming book.
Again similar to Balls to Picasso, the only song on the album to be credited solely to Bruce is also the song with the longest history: Man of Sorrows. The song actually dates back to the Tattooed Millionaire sessions. Bruce had been involved with a film called The Chemical Wedding and wrote the song for its soundtrack. As previously mentioned, the song is about Aleister Crowley, although it is also partly autobiographical. Like most film scripts, The Chemical Wedding wasn’t picked up and the project was quickly abandoned (although it was eventually made years later). Bruce held on to the song and finally recorded it for Accident of Birth. As expected, it’s very unlike the rest of the album, but works well as a break between all the heavy songs. The original version of the song with Janick Gers on guitar was eventually released in 2002 on The Best of Bruce Dickinson.
To further push the album’s Maiden connection, Derek Riggs was enlisted to create the artwork. Of course Derek couldn’t use Eddie, so he created a new mascot for Bruce to use. The hand puppet he created was named Edison and the album cover showcased Riggs’ classic comic book style that had been absent from Maiden’s last release. However, similar to Maiden’s latest album, the violent cover had to be altered for some markets. The original cover depicted Edison bursting out of a stomach, but the US version of the album was simply a portrait of the puppet. The 2005 2CD edition also features different artwork: a sleeve with a crucified Edison (originally the single artwork for Man of Sorrows) and the actual booklet cover with the full version of the original artwork.
While the album still wasn’t a commercial hit, it performed better than Bruce’s last couple efforts and brought a lot of Maiden fans back in the fold. The timing was perfect, Maiden had finally released their first album without Bruce and seemed to be taking a different direction. With Accident of Birth, Bruce was returning to the classic Metal style that Maiden fans were craving. The album was a hit with fans and was widely considered to be better than anything Maiden had done during the decade. Many fans, myself included, consider it just as essential as the classic run of Maiden albums.
Unlike Balls to Picasso, Bruce got to take the band on tour this time. Bruce was playing similar markets to Maiden, performing limited tours in small venues in the US but performing to larger audiences in South America. The typical setlist featured 6 songs from Accident of Birth (the old Maiden standard), a small selection of other songs spanning his solo career, and, in a bold move, some Maiden songs. Bruce was easing Maiden material back into the set on the Skunkworks tour, but with Accident of Birth he went all out including 4 Maiden songs. They were good picks too. Powerslave hadn’t been performed since 1985, Flight of Icarus hadn’t been performed since 1986, and Run To the Hills wasn’t being performed by the current incarnation of Maiden. The only song that both artists were performing was 2 Minutes to Midnight, which was a song Bruce and Adrian wrote. The sound of the new album, the presence of Adrian, and the inclusion of Maiden songs in the setlist was sending a clear message to the fanbase. Bruce was back and he was now in direct competition with his former band.
Unfortunately, Accident Of Birth is the first Dickinson album not to have an official live release associated with it. However there is some great footage out there. Similar to Maiden, Bruce was doing extremely well in South America and many of his gigs there were televised. There are two on YouTube. One recorded in Chile is just an excerpt, however it’s worth watching for the energetic performance. His performance in Brazil is just as good and the broadcast is complete.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLj6i7zq5RM&https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeCqSmEjVaU&
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