Accident of Birth is a heavy metal

Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

 album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 released in 1997 by Bruce Dickinson

Bruce Dickinson

Paul Bruce Dickinson is an English singer, songwriter, airline pilot, fencer, broadcaster, author, screenwriter, actor and marketing director, best known as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden....

. It was published by Zomba Music.

This is the second album made in collaboration with guitarist/producer Roy Z

Roy Z

Roy Z is a guitarist, songwriter and producer known for his work with Bruce Dickinson , Rob Halford and Judas Priest. He also is the founder of Tribe of Gypsies, a hard rock band with Latin influences.-Biography:...

 and is therefore much different from Bruce's previous Skunkworks album

Skunkworks (album)

Skunkworks is a hard rock album released in 1996 by Bruce Dickinson.Originally, Bruce intended for Skunkworks to be the debut album of a band by the same name. However, the label would not publish the record under any other name than Bruce Dickinson. Consequently the album sounds quite different...

. It marks Bruce's return to his more melodic style of singing. He was also assisted by another former Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from Leyton in east London, formed in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. Since their inception, the band's discography has grown to include a total of thirty-six albums: fifteen studio albums; eleven live albums; four EPs; and six...

 member Adrian Smith

Adrian Smith

Adrian Frederick "H" Smith is an English musician and one of three guitarists in the heavy metal band, Iron Maiden. He is also one of the band's regular songwriters and, along with bassist Steve Harris, performs backing vocals on some songs.-Biography:While at school, Smith purchased his first...

 and the two would later return to the band in early 1999. Thanks to the slightly bigger success of this album, Bruce would work with Roy Z in the future on his solo albums (including his latest, Tyranny of Souls

Tyranny of Souls

Tyranny of Souls is a heavy metal album released by Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson on 23 May 2005. The cover art is a work by renaissance artist Hans Memling. It is Bruce's first solo album since rejoining Maiden in 1999 and his most recent studio album as a solo artist.The songwriting on the...

).

The cover art was done by Derek Riggs

Derek Riggs

Derek Riggs is a contemporary British artist best known for creating the heavy metal music band Iron Maiden's mascot, "Eddie the Head".-Career:...

, best known for being the creator of Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from Leyton in east London, formed in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. Since their inception, the band's discography has grown to include a total of thirty-six albums: fifteen studio albums; eleven live albums; four EPs; and six...

's mascot Eddie

Eddie the Head

Eddie, also known as Eddie The Head, is the mascot for the British heavy metal band, Iron Maiden. He is a perennial fixture of the group's artwork, appearing in all of their record covers and in their merchandise, which includes t-shirts, posters and action figures...

 and the artwork on all Iron Maiden albums/singles/posters/tour brochures throughout 1980-1990 (and sporadically afterwards up until 2000's Brave New World other than one additional Eddie drawing for the cover of his book Run for Cover). Four versions of the album cover exist. The regular European release had Edison (as the jester was jokingly named as "Eddie's Son") bursting out of a man's stomach. The regular cover only shows the stomach, but the poster that came with the limited edition

Special edition

The terms special edition, limited edition and variants such as deluxe edition, collector's edition and others, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints or recorded music and films, but now including...

 of the album made it clear that the stomach belongs to a man. This was deemed too explicit for the U.S. market, where the album was released with a frontal view of the puppet. The 2005 re-release also has a different cover. The outer cardboard sleeve features the puppet nailed to a cross, while the cover art on the CD booklet itself is the one showing the jester bursting out of a man's stomach. The extended edition of the album features the same cover as the original, but re-scaled so as to make the man visible.

Track listing

1. "Freak" (Dickinson, Roy Z.)  – 4:15
2. "Toltec 7 Arrival" (Dickinson, Roy Z.)  – 0:37
3. "Starchildren" (Dickinson, Roy Z.)  – 4:17
4. "Taking the Queen" (Dickinson, Roy Z.)  – 4:49
5. "Darkside of Aquarius" (Dickinson, Roy Z.)  – 6:42
6. "Road to Hell" (Dickinson, Smith)  – 3:57
7. "Man of Sorrows
   Man of Sorrows (song)
   Man of Sorrows is the second single from Bruce Dickinson's fourth solo album, Accident of Birth, released on 3 June 1997. The song was originally written for a film called Chemical Wedding, which existed only as a script at the time...
   
   " (Dickinson)  – 5:20
8. "Accident of Birth
   Accident of Birth (song)
   "Accident of Birth" is the first single from Bruce Dickinson's fourth solo album, Accident of Birth, released in 1997 and peaking at number 54 in the UK Singles Chart. Dickinson described the song as "about a family from Hell. Except they're in Hell and one of them has accidentally been born, and...
   
   " (Dickinson, Roy Z.)  – 4:23
9. "The Magician" (Dickinson, Roy Z.)  – 3:54
10. "Welcome to the Pit" (Dickinson, Smith)  – 4:43
11. "Omega" (Dickinson, Roy Z.)  – 6:23
12. "Arc of Space" (Dickinson, Roy Z.)  – 4:18

American Version – CMC International Records

1. "Freak" (Dickinson, Roy Z.)  – 4:15
2. "Toltec 7 Arrival" (Dickinson, Roy Z.)  – 0:37
3. "Starchildren" (Dickinson, Roy Z.)  – 4:17
4. "Taking the Queen" (Dickinson, Roy Z.)  – 4:49
5. "Darkside of Aquarius" (Dickinson, Roy Z.)  – 6:42
6. "Road to Hell" (Dickinson, Smith)  – 3:57
7. "Man of Sorrows
   Man of Sorrows (song)
   Man of Sorrows is the second single from Bruce Dickinson's fourth solo album, Accident of Birth, released on 3 June 1997. The song was originally written for a film called Chemical Wedding, which existed only as a script at the time...
   
   " (Dickinson)  – 5:20
8. "Accident of Birth
   Accident of Birth (song)
   "Accident of Birth" is the first single from Bruce Dickinson's fourth solo album, Accident of Birth, released in 1997 and peaking at number 54 in the UK Singles Chart. Dickinson described the song as "about a family from Hell. Except they're in Hell and one of them has accidentally been born, and...
   
   " (Dickinson, Roy Z.)  – 4:23
9. "The Magician" (Dickinson, Roy Z.)  – 3:54
10. "Welcome to the Pit" (Dickinson, Smith)  – 4:43
11. "The Ghost of Cain" (Dickinson, Smith)  – 4:12
12. "Omega" (Dickinson, Roy Z.)  – 6:23
13. "Arc of Space" (Dickinson, Roy Z.)  – 4:18

2005 Extended Edition Disc 2

An extended edition of the album was released with the following tracks on CD 2. Tracks 1-4 appear on the CD single of "Man of Sorrows". Tracks 5-9 also feature on the Japanese CD release of "Man of Sorrows".

1. "The Ghost of Cain" (Dickinson, Smith)  – 4:12
2. "Accident of Birth (Demo)"  – 4:15
3. "Starchildren (Demo)"  – 5:01
4. "Taking the Queen (Demo)"  – 4:30
5. "Man of Sorrows (Radio Edit)"  – 3:55
6. "Man of Sorrows (Orchestral Version) – 5:17
7. "Hombre Triste" (Spanish version of "Man of Sorrows")  – 3:53
8. "Darkside of Aquarius (Demo)"  – 6:20
9. "Arc of Space (Demo)"  – 4:02

Principals

• Bruce Dickinson
  Bruce Dickinson
  Paul Bruce Dickinson is an English singer, songwriter, airline pilot, fencer, broadcaster, author, screenwriter, actor and marketing director, best known as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden....
  
     – Vocals
• Adrian Smith
  Adrian Smith
  Adrian Frederick "H" Smith is an English musician and one of three guitarists in the heavy metal band, Iron Maiden. He is also one of the band's regular songwriters and, along with bassist Steve Harris, performs backing vocals on some songs.-Biography:While at school, Smith purchased his first...
  
     – Guitar
• Roy Z
  Roy Z
  Roy Z is a guitarist, songwriter and producer known for his work with Bruce Dickinson , Rob Halford and Judas Priest. He also is the founder of Tribe of Gypsies, a hard rock band with Latin influences.-Biography:...
  
     – Guitar
• Eddie Casillas   – Bass
• David Ingraham  – Drums

Additional musicians

• Silvia Tsai – Violin
  Violin
  The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
  
   ("Taking the Queen", "Man of Sorrows", "Arc of Space")
• Rebecca Yeh  – Cello
  Cello
  The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
  
   ("Taking the Queen", "Man of Sorrows", "Arc of Space")
• Richard Baker  – Piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
  ("Man of Sorrows")