Bruce Dickinson

TheMercenary said:
if Roy Z had the complete control on the production from A to Z, from the recording to the mastering, the result would have been comparable to the sound of 'Tyranny Of Souls', to name only this album, for example. ;)
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Highly doubt it. That sound ideal is, sadly, gone. Nobody is shooting for it nowadays in metal (aside from Maiden I suppose), and I don't think Z would either. It's a good record, that sounds genuine. Cue just a couple of years later, and natural sounding albums were gone.
 
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Yax said:
Highly doubt it. That sound ideal is, sadly, gone. Nobody is shooting for it nowadays in metal (aside from Maiden I suppose), and I don't think Z would either. It's a good record, that sounds genuine. Cue just a couple of years later, and natural sounding albums were gone.
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Well, it's the case for many records nowadays. Most of them are recorded through things as Pro-Tools and stuff like that. It's not really the problem, as we have great records with a very dynamic sound ('Hell, Fire And Damnation', 'Unvincible Shield') using digital technics. The Maiden/Dickinson camps should use them with parsimony and more wisely. Or utterly coming back to some analogic recording as they did in the 80's. With Martin Birch on consoles, they sounded better than every stuff Maiden has recorded since 'A Matter Of Life And Death' and maybe Bruce and Roy Z did the same mistake. As Accept said some years ago, analogic stuff is sounding better.
 
TheMercenary said:
Well, it's the case for many records nowadays. Most of them are recorded through things as Pro-Tools and stuff like that. It's not really the problem, as we have great records with a very dynamic sound ('Hell, Fire And Damnation', 'Unvincible Shield') using digital technics. The Maiden/Dickinson camps should use them with parsimony and more wisely. Or utterly coming back to some analogic recording as they did in the 80's. With Martin Birch on consoles, they sounded better than every stuff Maiden has recorded since 'A Matter Of Life And Death' and maybe Bruce and Roy Z did the same mistake. As Accept said some years ago, analogic stuff is sounding better.
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Pro Tools and digital recording isn't the problem. The problem is the sound ideals of metal production for the past 15 years, and the sound on Bruce’s album is an extention of that. They are intentionally unrealistic, and while Sneap makes terrific sounding modern artificial metal, drums don't really sound like that. No "real drums", as in traditonal miked and processed kit, sound like that. The point of modern metal production is to make it sound like something else than a dynamic composition of instruments - there used to be much more prominent separation between isntruments, while you nowadays want them to seemlessly integrate and have a "fat sound". Sneap and Hansen are fantastic at that kind of revamped classic metal sound, but if you want records that sound like miked up guys in a room playing together, they aren't for you. ToS sounds like real drums in a real room, because it is. You can hear the mic bleed and the snare gate. ToS has more in common with 70’s and 80’s records than it does with Sneap Sneap's stuff doesn't sound ”natural” and while I love his style, it is a bit boring at this point and certainly not suited for every band (like Maiden).

And no, analog gear does not necessarily sound better, and especially not the past 10 years, from where things really have taken off. Digital modelling is so close that any difference is neglible. Analog gear has gotten kind of a mystic aura to it, while not too long ago, it was just a hassle, and the modelling advancement was hailed by many as a welcome development. But you know, throw a couple of Neumann U87 mics on almost anything and it will sound good (but a good room and mics is out of the budget for many, so extreme sample replacement is sometimes just tools to cover up poor sounding raw material), and I've travelled more towards the beauty of old school simplicity, because at this point I'm bored by modern metal production. Bruce’s new album intentionally strives for a modern, unnatural sound (but is b-level quality in terms of that. No sneap quality here) It is not by mistake.
 
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The Mandrake Project album review by Sonicperspectives.
www.sonicperspectives.com

BRUCE DICKINSON – The Mandrake Project (Album Review)

1984 is generally regarded as the greatest year in metal. The release of Iron Maiden’s 'Powerslave,' Dio’s 'The Last In Line,' Judas Priest’s 'Defenders of The Faith,' Saxon's 'Crusader' are only a few examples of how great it was. Just a few months later, in January 1985, the Rock in Rio...
www.sonicperspectives.com www.sonicperspectives.com
 
Really interested in hearing Mandrake Project now. While I really favor AOB, TCW, and TOS I'm glad were are not getting a retread of those albums. We might have if Bruce put out another solo record a few years after TOS. But it's been 19 years. Artists will grow, tastes will change, new ones develop. They want to explore new ideas (unless your AC/DC).
 
Iron Lurker said:
Really interested in hearing Mandrake Project now. While I really favor AOB, TCW, and TOS I'm glad were are not getting a retread of those albums. We might have if Bruce put out another solo record a few years after TOS. But it's been 19 years. Artists will grow, tastes will change, new ones develop. They want to explore new ideas (unless your AC/DC).
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In my opinion it is not comparable with any of those records. A quite different animal
 
Iron Lurker said:
Really interested in hearing Mandrake Project now. While I really favor AOB, TCW, and TOS I'm glad were are not getting a retread of those albums. We might have if Bruce put out another solo record a few years after TOS. But it's been 19 years. Artists will grow, tastes will change, new ones develop. They want to explore new ideas (unless your AC/DC).
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Let’s hope those ideas are good, because Bruce gave us gems like Tibet, Over and Out, and Cadillac Gas Mask when exploring new ideas (brainfarts would be a better description for those). :D
 
GhostofCain said:
Let’s hope those ideas are good, because Bruce gave us gems like Tibet, Over and Out, and Cadillac Gas Mask when exploring new ideas (brainfarts would be a better description for those). :D
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How can a man who wrote Revelations, Powerslave and The Chemical Wedding come up with such turds?

By the way, I hope you are not marking students’ work when listening to the album for the first time…
 
Ascendingthethrone said:
How can a man who wrote Revelations, Powerslave and The Chemical Wedding come up with such turds?
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Because Bruce wanted something really different and he admitted that at the time he didn't know how to write songs except only for Maiden.
Iron Lurker said:
While I really favor AOB, TCW, and TOS I'm glad were are not getting a retread of those albums. We might have if Bruce put out another solo record a few years after TOS. But it's been 19 years. Artists will grow, tastes will change, new ones develop. They want to explore new ideas.
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This. Maybe TMP is what ''go beyond TCW sound'' is for Roy, which given the singles is somewhat true. I doubt they would make something more heavier in terms of everything than it, but it's not impossible, even for the next album.
 
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____no5 said:
Isn't that the man that gave us the Pankrement? A few more gems here, i.e., 1818 :D
Warning, it may contain spoilers for some.

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Watched this and good to see he hasn’t name-fucked any song on Bruce’s album :D

Besides found his review rather superficial. It feels like a half-assed review
 
I feel that comparing TMP to TCW is not fair. TCW doesnt have a single bad song - all are great. TMP on the other hand has great songs BUT also have songs that either you like or hate ( rain ). So I would compare it to the TOS.
For me TOS was quite average - something around 6.5/10 by average song score. So...
If TOS is 6.5/10 and TCW is 9/10 i would say that TMP is somewhere between 7.5 and 8 / 10.
 
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