Accident of Birth is a heavy metal album released in 1997 by Bruce Dickinson. It was published by Zomba Music. Dickinson's second collaboration with guitarist/producer Roy Z, the album is markedly different in style from his previous effort Skunkworks. As well as Roy Z, Dickinson was also joined for the album by fellow former Iron Maiden member Adrian Smith; both Dickinson and Smith would later return to the band in early 1999. Thanks to the slightly bigger success of this album compared to his previous solo releases, Dickinson would continue to work with Roy Z on his subsequent albums The Chemical Wedding and Tyranny of Souls.
Critical reception
In 2005, Accident of Birth was ranked number 338 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.
Album Artwork
The cover art was produced by Derek Riggs, best known for being the creator of Iron Maiden's mascot Eddie and the artwork on all of Iron Maiden's albums/singles/posters/tour brochures throughout 1980–1990. In reference to this, the jester puppet featured on the cover was jokingly christened Edison. A grim reaper is also faintly visible in the background, such a figure having previously been included by Riggs in his artwork for Iron Maiden's Live After Death and Somewhere in Time albums, as well as on the band's earlier single "The Trooper". Four versions of the album cover exist. Originally, the artwork showed Edison graphically bursting from a man's stomach, but for the original European release this image was cropped so as to remove the man's head. The cover was deemed too explicit for the US market, where the album was instead released with completely different artwork showing a frontal view of Edison. The 2005 re-release again used a different image for the cover, showing the puppet nailed to a cross; this image had previously been used for the Japan-only "Man of Sorrows" single. Finally, the extended edition of the album features the original, unedited artwork, with the head of the man from whom Edison is bursting clearly visible.
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".
