Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson spoke with Dom Lawson for Metal Hammer about the documentary Scream For Me Sarajevo, which tells the story of Bruce's solo show in warring Sarajevo in 1994. In this clip, Dickinson discusses the power of music:

During the longest siege a capital city has faced in the history of modern warfare, and amid the mortars and grenades, a heavy metal band agreed to play a concert...

Scream For Me Sarajevo is the astonishing story of the most unlikely of rock concerts, performed by Bruce Dickinson and his band Skunkworks in 1994. Risking their lives, they were smuggled into the besieged city to play a concert for its citizens amidst the chaos of war.

The film is far from a straight concert movie and provides an insight into a wider story of the people of Sarajevo taking drastic measures to endure the privations of war and pushing the boundaries to survive. It reflects a thriving underground arts community who were living their lives in the shadow of war and making music in the face of devastating loss, and the huge impact the concert had on the people of Sarajevo at a time when they thought they had been forgotten by the rest of the world.  

This must-see documentary includes footage of the gig and the war itself, as well as recent interviews with Bruce and his bandmates.  The documentary also follows Bruce making an emotional return to Sarajevo, “War turns the world on its head, but this is an optimistic message”.  Speaking of his experience Bruce said, “It changed the way I viewed life, death and other human beings.” *

In addition to the film’s June 29th release on DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital via Eagle Vision, the music from the film is being released on CD/double LP via BMG.

Comprising music from the film which spans Bruce Dickinson’s solo career, the album features the rarities "Acoustic Song" (previously only available as a bonus track on the 2001 Best Of Special Edition), "Inertia" (Live) (previously only available as a bonus track on the expanded re-release of Skunkworks in 2005) and the album closer "Eternal" (previously only available as Japanese bonus tracks on Tyranny Of Souls).

Scream For Me Sarajevo tracklisting:

"Change Of Heart"
"Tears Of The Dragon"
"Gods Of War"
"Darkside Of Aquarius"
"Navigate The Seas Of The Sun"
"Road To Hell"
"Arc Of Space"
"Omega"
"River Of No Return"
"Power Of The Sun"
"Strange Death In Paradise"
"Inertia" (Live)
"Acoustic Song"
"Eternal"

Scream For Me Sarajevo the film and album is now available to pre-order exclusively via PledgeMusic at this location.

* Taken from Bruce Dickinson’s autobiography, What Does This Button Do?, available now.