2025 has been a banner year for Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson. In addition to handling vocal duties for Maiden on the band’s 50th anniversary world tour, he is also currently embarking on his first U.S solo tour in over 30 years in support of his latest record, The Mandrake Project.
Dickinson became a household name in the 1980s after replacing Paul Di’Anno as the vocalist of Iron Maiden in 1981. Since then, he has appeared on 13 of the band’s 17 studio albums, 13 live records, and has played to millions of fans around the world over the course of 40-plus years.
In addition to his success in Iron Maiden, Dickinson has also released seven solo records, starting with Tattooed Millionaire in 1990. He was still in Iron Maiden at the time of this release, but ultimately left the band in 1993 and pursued his solo career full-time. His latest record, The Mandrake Project, was released in 2024 and was his first solo album since 2005.
Five essential Bruce Dickinson songs
With Dickinson focusing more on his solo career in recent years, let’s take a look at five of his essential songs that fans of Iron Maiden will enjoy.
No. 5- "Navigate the Seas of the Sun"
In 2005, Bruce Dickinson released his first solo album, Tyranny of Souls, since he returned to Iron Maiden in 1999. The album featured a solid mix of heavy metal tracks, including "Abduction," "Kill Devil Hill," and "Soul Intruders," along with the epic emotional ballad “Navigate the Seas of the Sun."
This song relies heavily on acoustic and clean guitar melodies that paired with Bruce’s iconic vocals creates for an emotional heavy metal ballad that is much different than what we came to expect with Bruce during his time with Iron Maiden.
No. 4- "Chemical Wedding"
Fresh off the success of the Accident of Birth record released in 1997, Dickinson unleashed the critically acclaimed Chemical Wedding album one year later, featuring the strong title track “Chemical Wedding”. The song blends heavy, dark riffs from guitarist Roy Z with deep lyrics inspired by the works of poet William Blake.
The track (and album) gets its name from the manifesto “The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz." This continues a common Dickinson theme that started in his days with Iron Maiden on relying on historical references and works within his music.
No. 3- "Man of Sorrows"
On an album that featured a lot of up-tempo songs in Accident of Birth, Dickinson slowed things down a bit with a slow, theatrical, and moving ballad, “Man of Sorrows”. Interestingly enough, the subject of this song, according to Dickinson, is a young Aleister Crowley, a Victorian writer who declared himself as the Antichrist. Crowley was the same subject of the Ozzy Osbourne hit “Mr Crowley” that was released 18 years prior in 1980.
Not to be confused with the Iron Maiden song "The Man of Sorrows" that was released nearly 20 years later in 2015, this track serves as a great change of pace as the song trades a heavy sound for piano and string elements to go along with a clean guitar tone encapsulated by the haunting vocals of Dickinson.
No. 2- "Accident of Birth"
After turning to an alternative metal style of music with Skunkworks in 1996, Bruce Dickinson went back to his roots with Accident of Birth. The title track “Accident of Birth” is full speed ahead and an excellent sing along song as it features one of the catchiest choruses in Dickinson’s repertoire.
The song opens with a brutal mid-tempo riff and pounding drums, setting the scene for what was ahead. The song is relentless, full of energy, and one of the defining works of his late 1990s renaissance.
No. 1- "Tears of the Dragon"
As far as ballads go, “Tears of the Dragon” is Bruce Dickinson at his best. The track showcases his three octave vocal range as it moves from soft to operatic high notes throughout. In addition to the vocals, the song features a moving guitar solo from Roy Z, who became Dickinson’s right hand man for a majority of his solo career to follow.
While “Man of Sorrows” and “Navigate the Seas of the Sun” are great ballads in their own right, “Tears of the Dragon” is one of Bruce’s most powerful and emotional solo songs in his entire catalogue.
While Bruce Dickinson is best known for his work in Iron Maiden, his solo discography has a lot of under-appreciated tracks that are worth your time and attention.