Bruce Dickinson

Anthology (Sanctuary)
by Martin Popoff

Didn’t really need to go three DVDs to fit this all, I imagine, but no one’s complaining about getting the motherlode of Bruce Dickinson solo all in one place. The first DVD features two concerts, six years, and a world of metal evolution apart. Dive Dive Live is a Bruce with something to prove, that he can go it alone brandishing Tattooed Millionaire, and he does in fine trench warfare fashion, in black leather fringe jacket, no shirt, Janick doing his “everything but play guitar and still play guitar” thing. Skunkworks comes next, Bruce with his bob hairdo, an updated attire, vampirically rocking with no-name young grunge pups, really cool and artsy backdrop, but dark, jittery, grainy filming. Quite annoying, but man, this is an under-rated album, ridiculed at the time. Go ahead, have a listen. Back in Spain (!), and it’s a large crowd, and they love it when the guys close with “The Prisoner.” Flash forward to Sao Paulo in 1999, and disappointment is at hand, for this is semi-boot quality in both sound and vision. Still, tough and grinding Accident of Birth songs fill the set, and Adrian Smith looks cool. O’er to DVD three, and the wow factor hits, Anthology offering every video Bruce has ever done, with bonus regaling by an animated, always self-assured Bruce about the songs and the videos attached to them. I never got to see any of these, and it’s the reason to make this a keeper and repeater. Tacked onto the end is the Tyranny of Souls EPK which really fleshes out the story of that quickly overlooked album, plus the hilarious Biceps of Steel lil weird movie Samson thought they would make for some bizarre reason back in 1980.
(www.sanctuaryrecords.com)