Current idolatrous Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson has spawned a mini-solo career between gigs with Maiden. It began with his first solo offering Tattooed Millionaire, and continued with Balls to Picasso, Accident of Birth, Chemical Wedding and Tyranny of Souls. A Dickinson led band called Skunkworks also came to be. Anthology is a three-DVD set chronicling Dickinson's solo endeavors.



Disc One contains two live concerts: "Dive Dive Live," recorded in Los Angeles in 1990, and "Skunkworks Live" recorded in Spain in 1996. Disc Two is the highlight of the anthology and sports a 1999 concert in San Paulo, "Scream for me Brazil," which was filmed during the Chemical Wedding World Tour.



Disc Three includes every promo video Dickinson shot throughout his solo career, and also a track-by-track breakdown/interview with the artist regarding his latest album, Tyranny of Souls. Hardcore fans will be pleased to see "Samson: Biceps of Steel", Bruce's video debut fronting pre-Maiden band Samson in 1980.



Dickinson's performances are always nothing short of brilliant. His voice is amazing and seems to get better with time (is that possible?). The songs of his solo career can definitely stand side-by-side with even the most classic Maiden tunes. In fact, many of these are stronger than the Maiden samplings of the last decade.



The mid '90s Skunkworks material takes getting used to as it attempts a more alternative approach to hard rock and is quite different from the usual metal you'd expect to hear from Dickinson. But the rest of it is head-on metal madness, metal of the utmost quality.

Grade: A+