Released March 1, 2024 via BMG
Production: Roy Z
Length: 58:49 min.
Genre: Heavy Metal / Hard Rock
“Tyranny of Souls, Part Two”
A full 19 years Bruce kept us waiting for a new album, and next to that, Axl and his 15-year slow-cook of the busted Chinese Democracy looks like a total amateur.
Over those nineteen years, both Bruce and his partner in crime Roy Z kept teasing us with news from the studio and announcements of new writing sessions, but the album just wouldn’t show up on store shelves. Bruce was too busy recording boring Maiden albums and singing on endless tours. Then Covid happened, and Bruce came down with throat cancer, which he beat. Roy Z was busy with… I don’t know exactly what. Anyway, time flew, and boss Steve ordered Bruce to hand over the track If Eternity Should Fail to Maiden for the 2015 album The Book of Souls.
And the years rolled on.
Until Bruce fired up the propaganda machine and a video for the first single, Afterglow of Ragnarok, popped up on every internet channel we hold dear. Now it was getting real. Bruce explained that it’s a concept album about the afterlife, a mad scientist, good and evil, you know how it goes. Apparently there’s a comic book too, plus a movie, plus who knows what else. Bruce is all over every medium, giving thousands of interviews, a tour has been announced, the whole shebang.
So how’s the album itself? Even before the first listen, it’s interesting that most of the crew is the same as on Tyranny of Souls from 2005. Vocals: Bruce, bass and guitar: Roy Z, drums: Dave Moreno, keyboards: Mistheria. Producer: Roy Z, songwriting duo: Bruce and Roy Z.
And the similarities don’t stop there. The sound is identical to ToS, so are the compositional approaches, and even Bruce’s voice hasn’t aged (okay, I’m exaggerating a bit there). Since ToS is my favorite album, this should all be good news. And it is.
The album has an incredible flow and momentum. From start to finish, no ups and downs, just high-quality stuff all the way through. With no standout hits, the songs run together beautifully and demand that you listen to the whole album, not just snippets. From recent history, it brings to mind an album by the German power metal veterans Gamma Ray, namely Majestic from 2005, which had the same quality.
A typical example of what I’m describing is the track Rain on the Graves, which on its own and as a video seems slightly boring and disinterested, but within the album it slots in flawlessly and enriches the whole experience.
I’d have a hard time calling the music heavy metal, though; it’s more some kind of alt hard rock. The organic production from Roy, the retro keyboard sounds and the very simple guitar riffs all contribute a lot to that, but those riffs act as glue holding the individual songs together and, as already mentioned, the whole album.
The spirit of Bruce’s solo career so far hovers over the tracks, since quite a few songs carry the sound of his older compositions. In the opening riff of Mistress of Mercy, you can’t miss the sawing start of the opening track from Accident of Birth, Freak. Face in the Mirror irresistibly recalls River of No Return from Tyranny of Souls, and Shadows of the Gods slyly and covertly works in a few musical motifs from the legendary Tears of the Dragon.
Bruce also picks up a guitar and convincingly rips out a surf rock riff in Ressurection Men. He renamed If Eternity Should Fail to Eternity Has Failed, but otherwise the song doesn’t differ much from the Maiden version, maybe just with a slightly darker touch.
The songs are mostly mid-tempo, with Dave weaving in a tasteful fill or a touch of double bass drum here and there. The whole album is fundamentally very simple: simple melodies, simple riffs, simple rhythms, even simple vocals from Bruce. And simple production on top of it all. Yet it sounds fresh, keeps the listener hooked, and you can hear that the compositions and performances are the work of masters of their craft.
A great album. I’m not sure I expected Bruce to be able to pull off another Tyranny of Souls this successfully. Honestly, The Mandrake Project doesn’t quite reach it, but I think that’s just a matter of timing. ToS did happen when we were all almost 20 years younger, it marked a slight revolution in the sound of Bruce’s solo career, and it wasn’t backed by a tour, so it always remained a kind of unfulfilled fantasy.
So The Mandrake Project is an album Bruce can be proud of, and at the same time I think that he and Roy made it with an unbearable lightness that runs through the whole album. The impression is spoiled only a little by the last, somewhat overambitious creation, Sonata (Immortal Beloved), which doesn’t have enough substance for its almost ten-minute length.
So all I can do is applaud the iron-lunged Bruce, who has once again proven, and shown the boss, how it’s possible to make a fresh and interesting album even late in a career. In my humble opinion, Bruce’s last four solo albums are roughly seventeen times better than anything Maiden has managed to release since 1988. There, I said it out loud, or rather, I wrote it publicly, so help me God.
Sweet picks: Shadow of the Gods, Afterglow of Ragnarok, Many Doors to Hell
9/10.
Author: Igorac
Track list:
- “Afterglow of Ragnarok” Bruce Dickinson, Roy Z 5:45
- “Many Doors to Hell” Dickinson, Z 4:48
- “Rain on the Graves” Dickinson 5:05
- “Resurrection Men” Dickinson, Z 6:24
- “Fingers in the Wounds” Dickinson, Z 3:39
- “Eternity Has Failed” Dickinson 6:59
- “Mistress of Mercy” Dickinson 5:08
- “Face in the Mirror” Dickinson 4:08
- “Shadow of the Gods” Dickinson, Z 7:02
- “Sonata (Immortal Beloved)” Dickinson, Z 9:51
Musicians:
Bruce Dickinson – vocals (all tracks), acoustic guitar (tracks 4, 8), bongo drums (4), additional keyboards (6, 7), percussion (6)
Roy Z – bass, guitar
Dave Moreno – drums
Mistheria – keyboards
Chris Declercq – lead guitar (track 3)
Gus G – lead guitar (track 6)
Sergio Cuadros – woodwinds (track 6)
Technical crew:
Roy Z – production, mixing, engineering
Brendan Duffey – mastering, mixing, engineering
Roger Ramirez – mixing (track 1), engineering (1)
Addasi Addasi – engineering
Alonso Herrera – engineering
Christian Cummings – engineering
Dave Moreno – engineering
Idriss Nadi – engineering
Michael Harris – engineering
Frank Gibson – engineering (track 1)
Denis Caribaux – engineering (track 7)
Bruce Buchhalter – mix assistant (track 1)
