Singer Bruce Dickinson, who typically works in collaboration with guitarist Adrian Smith, has an operatic vocal style, inspired by Arthur Brown, Peter Hammill, Ian Anderson and Ian Gillan, and is often considered to be one of the best heavy metal vocalists of all time. Although Nicko McBrain has only received one writing credit, on the "Dance of Death" album, Harris often relies on him while developing songs. Adrian Smith commented, "Steve loves playing with him. used to work for hours going over these bass and drum patterns."