Customer Reviews

Balls to Picasso

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is maybe the best release by Bruce after he left Maiden. THIS IS NOT HEAVY METAL. It's hard rock but still, it kicks ass. Bruce is a different singer from the Maiden years. Lucky for us he carried the change over Maiden a second time with Brave New World and Dance of Death. So we have a new Bruce Dickinson with the same classic line up awesome. The album is completly flawless. Great guitar riffs and vocals make this a must for any hard rock/heavy metal fans. Before I start rambling I'm going to go through the songs.

Cyclops- Nice way to start of the album. The intro is killer with the wierd effects on the guitar. THen goes to a pick slide and a great guitar riff. The chorus is great, it almost sounds like classic Maiden(almost). Overall it's a great song 10/10

Hell No- This song is my second favorite song on the album. A cool guitar intro goes into some killer vocals. I also love the pre chorus with the pinch harmonics. The chorus is insane. Great guitar but the vocals are what make this song kick ass even more. 10/10

Gods of War- Yet again another Dickinson Masterpeice. Starts out with a cool drums intro. Then an awesome guitar riff with Bruce singing "OHHHHHHHH". Then the tempo slows down and Bruce sings quietly. The chorus has the same riff and tune as the intro but Bruce actually says words. 10/10

1000 Points of Light- Another killer song. THe guitar riffs are insane. The verse contains an awesome guitar riff. Bruce's vocals are not the same as any other song on this album. But they changed for the better. The chorus is great because in the background you can hear a faint acoustic guitar playing. Amazing. 10/10

Laughing in the Hiding Bush- One of the heavier songs on the album. The verse is really cool and then burst into an awesome guitar riff leading into the chorus where Bruce sings in his sometimes raspy voice(like on No Prayer for the Dying and Fear of the Dark). Great song. 10/10

Change of Heart- A semi ballad. It has some beutiful guitar riffs in the intro. Then goes to a nice slow verse. The chorus is also pretty slow but it is still great. The guitar solo is really pretty. A great song. 10/10

Shoot All the Clowns- Killer song. Really heavy and fast. Maybe the most unique songs on the album. Bruce sounds exactly like he did in the song Tailgunner. Really raspy vocals but it is still the most up beat on the album. I really like this song but the intro sucks 10/10 anyway.

Fire- Pretty cool guitar riff to start of the song and a killer bassline thats to damn quiet. I like Bruce's vocals during the chorus. The guitar is amazing in this song. Great track. 10/10

Sacred Cowboys- Great riff sounds like a thrash metal song then Bruce screams sounding like Brian Johnson from AC/DC. The verse is so cool. Bruce talks in monotone. God knows what the hell he was saying. Then it goes into a killer prechorus. The chorus sounds like one from Dance of Death. It's extremely catchy. Great song. 10/10

Tears of the Dragon- My favorite song on the album and a killer way to finish up the album. Great acoustic riff that stays the same for about two minutes. This song is just great. The chorus has incredible vocals. At about three minutes it goes to a killer guitar solo. THis song is as epicc as Hallowed be Thy Name or Rime of the Acient Mariner. Great six minute gem. 10/10

This album is Bruce's best of his career. Not a single bad song on the album. It's a very relaxing album. There ar not too many fast heavy songs but change is good. This album is completely different from Iron Maiden. Do not buy unless you have heard any of his solo stuff before. I would recommend Powerslave by Iron Maiden, Hall of the Mountain King by Savatage, Steelheart by Steelheart(that guy has some pipes), or The Divine Wings Of Tragedy by Symphony X. Rock on and UP THE IRONS

As a long time Maiden fan and a big fan of Bruce Dickinson's "Accident of Birth" and "Chemical Wedding" albums (both of which are superior to a lot of Maiden's post 1990 output), I was slow to purchase "Balls to Picasso" because I hadn't heard much about it that was all that positive and because the cover looks rather low-rent and the title is kind of off-putting. Shallow reasons, I'll admit but there you go.

When I did finally pick this up I was VERY pleasantly surprised from the first track all the way through. This isn't really metal, per se. It's hard rock in spots, alternative rock in spots, and even a little bit experimental. It's hard to categorize well, but I think even a lot of non-metal fans would appreciate it due to the great songwriting and genre stretching feel of it. Maiden die-hards who expect only true metal from Dickinson might be disappointed. But anybody with an open mind should get a big kick from these great tunes.

Roy Z does a great job on the the guitars. The Adrian Smith type lead lines aren't here, but Roy Z is no slouch at all, displaying a bit of blazing speed in short bursts and playing very tastefully. Also the album employs varied rhythms to it with even some latin type feels here and there in addition to hard rocking drumming.

Bottom line is I still don't like the title but the music speaks for itself. Even if Bruce had not returned to Maiden, I could be happy if he continued to produce great albums like this one, "A.o.B." and "C.W."

A very good effort by Dickinson in his second solo album. The last track is one of the best songs I've heard, featuring a blend of a nice ballad and some good guitar riffs. The album is very powerful as Bruce attempts to depart from the Iron Maiden sound, and guitarist Roy Z gave him that sound in this album and the ones that followed. Overall, an album that should please Maiden and non-Maiden fans.

A lot of mainstream reviews slag this album as a one track album and I even initially asked if one track saves an entire album (and when that track is Tears of the Dragon, it can save ANY album). However, after some time, I've let it sink in and man has my opinion changed. This is truly a great album. First, a myth. Contrary to Dickinson lore, this album was not recorded twice, or even three times. Bruce had an album he recorded beforehand with Keith Olson, which was Bruce's attempt to go Dream Theater, but after meeting Roy Z he opted to write more tracks. Those tracks did not fit the Olson produced album (they can be found in the various Balls to Picasso singles released in 1994), so Bruce junked nearly the entire album and recorded a new one with Roy Z and the Tribe of Gypsies with Shay Baby as the producer. The only song that was saved from the Olson sessions was in fact, Tears of the Dragon.

What many fans have issues with is this was Bruce's first real album away from Maiden, and following what he did on Tattooed Millionaire, he chose not to utilize the gallop-march beat, gothic, historical, or religious themes and overtones that characterize Iron Maiden. Bruce has an amalgamation of various hard rock and metal styles.

Cyclops: The openor is about being a celebrity, cyclops being a metaphor for a camera's eye. A good, critical, biting criticism toward the media. Alternatively, it could be about the idea of Big Brother is watching you...

Hell No: Okay, to steal a line from allmusic.com, this song is a freaking mess. This could be Bruce being defiant or something, frankly the lyrics are too cryptic and if it is about standing up to authority, he did it better on Broken (on his Best of album). But every great albums has the song the personal reviewer doesn't like.

Gods of War: Bruce's way of saying what Steve Harris did in Afraid to Shoot Strangers, war is started by politicians and finished by those who really don't want to be apart of it. Great song.

1000 Points of LIght: A song that stands the test of time. Critical of every major revolutionary group because in the end, they all stray from their ideals, hence the lies. "And the Freedoms you profess to hold, would bring the dead back from the cold."

Laughing in the Hiding Bush: Bruce's son Alex gets writing credit as he came up with the title. It's about the weird, unusual, and sometimes messed up things kids think of and how in the end those weird, unusual, and messed up things are ideas derived from things we as parents teach them.

Change of Heart: A ballad that could be about two lovers or even as low as two friends (Steve Harris?) who cannot see eye-to-eye anymore, nor reach any agreement or compromise because the other won't budge. This is about as far from Iron Maiden as Bruce could go and he did an excellent job.

Shoot All the Clowns: I hear this song and I think Guns 'N Roses, Welcome to the Jungle, and Axl Rose. That's the vibe and feel Bruce has got going and honestly the little rap section people think he does sounds more like Bruce doing an Axl Rose impersonation. Not that it's a bad thing, it's humorous. Pretty vague song but the clowns could be politicians, hypocrites, religious freaks, and ... mothers-in-law?

Fire: No clue, no comment. Have heard it, just one of those tracks that that you go "what?"

Sacred Cowboy: Bruce at his satirical, biting, and irreverent best against popular culture. He should know, he's been on the outside looking in since day one. He criticizes society's need to worship created cultural icons who are really no heroes. "Where is out John Wayne, our sacred cowboy now?"

Tears of the Dragon: The first song of his solo career where Bruce stood up and said "I DON'T NEED IRON MAIDEN OR STEVE HARRIS TO WRITE GREAT LYRICS, I CAN DO IT MYSELF!" Grant it, he wrote Revelations and Powerslave while in Iron Maiden by himself, here it takes on a new meaning. He did it on his own without the Iron Maiden boys, and showed he could write a song that rivals Steve Harris's best. A song about change and as Bruce said "It's about being scare of change... the unknown." A song where you realize you have to dive right in to the change, even when it'll be painful, rough, and scary and ride it out. "I throw myself into the sea, release the wave, let it was over me, to face the fear I onced believed, the Tears of the Dragon for you and for me." My number two favorite song of all-time (my top five being Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water, Bruce Dickinson's Tears of the Dragon, Iron Maiden's Paschendale, Black Sabbath's Heaven and Hell, Metallica's The Unforgiven). If you don't like this song, I don't know how you can like music.

A great album, listen for yourself. You may love it or hate it, but don't listen to mainstream reviews who expect one and only one thing from artists, too sound the same. Even when Bruce went back to straight metal, he didn't sound like Iron Maiden. This album has your timeless tracks with Tears of the Dragon and Change of Heart; your tracks that become more significant over time with 1000 Points of Light, Sacred Cowboy, Cyclops, and Gods of War; your fun tracks with Shoot All the Clowns and Laughing in the Hiding Bush; and your I'm not sure what he was going for and doing tracks with Hell No and Fire. It's worth repeating, it has Tears of the Dragon, a reason enough to buy this album.

I am commenting on both songs and the dvd audio release. As an album is not bad, is not maiden but still ok, would give it 4 stars. However as a dvd audio release its terrible, i was expecting more from this, a short interview, live footage, music video, something!!! It doesnt even have the lyrics, so what the hell is the point of a dvd audio release if it doesnt have any of this. Poor dvd audio release! Now i know why it was selling so cheap!

See: Megadeth: Peace sells, thats what a dvd audio release should be

This is not metal, as another reviewer had also said, however, it also isn't hard rock, as the reviewer did indeed said. It is rock, yet it is so much more. It's funny, I swear that Smith sounds like he's a big part of this album, but he's not. Roy Z was the main guitar player, and being an amazing producer to boot, he brings you back to those days when people like Ray Manzarak of The Doors were writing 'Light My Fire'. While it doesn't deliver you into as deep of an ethereal experience as 'The Doors' could, it does scratch the surface. Roy Z is great at layering things together to create an illusion.

Ingraham on the drums couldn't have been anymore necessary, perfect, or tasteful in his masterful placement of every single nuance that he crafted into the web, and he's got pure attitude when he deems it necessary. Drummers this perfectly tight don't grow on trees, nay, they are birthed with a set of genes whose Karyotype spells out 'TIMING' when looked at right. How does Bruce get these amazing drummers? Because he's Bruce! The only question is why the **** does Dave Grohl have fans when drummers like this aren't gagillionaires? Beat's me.

Bruce is great as usual, and his lyrics are just the same. For some reason, he sounds better in his solo stuff than in many Maiden albums. Of course, he's writing the songs to suit himself, Steve has no say.

Anyway, buy this.

Not Bruce's best, but still a great and solid album

My favorite tracks are: Cyclops, Gods of War, Change of heart, Tears of the dragon :)