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Bruce Dickinson – The Breeding House

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“His spawn lay in the freezer, the killers that bore his name”

The Breeding House is one of a number of recorded and abandoned tracks that Bruce Dickinson worked on in the years preceding his 1994 album Balls To Picasso: his first solo album since leaving Iron Maiden. The pressure of making his first post-Maiden statement resulted in a number of rethinks and reshuffles and a right mixed bag of music. Ranging from tried-and-trusted Tattooed Millionaire style rock to totally daft experimentation.

The Breeding House was one of the earliest of these unused tracks to get a release when it appeared as a B-Side on the Tears Of The Dragon single. Of his output at the time, this was the closest in style to his previous band: with chord progressions and harmony guitars straight out of the Maiden playbook. Jagged Edge/Skin guitarist Myke Gray zips around the fretboard in style and the Air Raid Siren soars throughout, especially in the thrilling bridge, and contributes a layer of intrigue with some dark and cryptic lyrics.

I had lost interest in Maiden and Bruce in the early 90s but The Breeding House had a sense of freshness and commitment that got me excited to hear what Dickinson had to offer as a solo artist.

29 thoughts on “Bruce Dickinson – The Breeding House”

  1. Talked about this solo career last night! Bruce really went all out experimenting in that era though as you mention this song doesn’t show that off. But he felt he had to pursue his new direction.

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      1. We called it Lead Singers Disease and we talked about all the bands that changed singers in the 90s. Motley Crue was my favorite to talk about but we did VH, Priest, Maiden, a little Anthrax, Skid Row and Sabbath.

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    1. Accident Of Birth is a good one to start with I think. Chemical Wedding is great too but I think it’s better to hear Accident first and then go to that one if you like that.

      This track is a bonus on Balls To Picasso. It has some of his best stuff… but also some of his worst!

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  5. I really like the music in this song. Not a fan of his melodies, they felt stale but the music. Excellent.
    Also Mike mentioned how Bruce experimented during his solo career which I think is important to note as every artist has that itch to try something different.

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      1. I think the CD length made em release tracks they probably shouldn’t.

        But I’ve been saying for ages that Adrain Smith is a big influence on the songwriting. He’s more in the RRhoads mode. His solos are worked out and song within song moments whereas Murray and Gers just hit the delay and off they go blending notes into notes.
        And Smith has some memorable riffs.

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      2. I felt that straight away with Maiden when he left. Losing a good writer is way more of a problem than losing a musician. Blaze got the blame for his era but I always said the poor writing was the problem there.

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    2. I do like the melody in the bridge. The “angels of death” bit. But then there’s bits like the chorus that feel a bit unfinished or clunky. I feel like it’s a really promising demo rather than the finished article though. If it had made the album it would been worked on more.

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      2. There was way worse songs that made it on to the album. But I can see why this may have been too much like his older stuff to get used. He was wanting to scratch an itch to try new things, like you were saying.

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      1. I didn’t have any reaction to the Maiden reunion at the time because it happened the year I was born. But I’m happy they did. They made great music in the 90s and they made great music after, and that’s all that matters to me

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      2. Haha now I feel old. I forgot that was 20 years ago. I was happy eventually cause they did do some great stuff. But at the time I was disappointed. I enjoyed being able to see Bruce and Adrian playing in small clubs!

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  7. I like this. I can see why he wanted to leave it off as it does feel very Maiden and he wanted to do something different. I need to give those solo albums a spin. It has been on the backlog since I read his book.

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