Bruce Dickinson

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At least they are a little more current now. In the past, they often reported on something weeks after it happened.
But maybe he shouldn't have mentioned the marriage? The Blabbermouth Facebook users call him stupid for it. Of course he could care less, but why make it an topic at all?
I would hate it if something like that made as many headlines as my new song.

The third marriage is probably going to get more interest than the new song.

By the way, before anyone starts making any assumptions: I do NOT have a facebook account.
 
So which song do you like better - Afterglow Of Ragnarok or If Eternity Should Fail?

I think they are pretty equal to me now, but Eternity is a very strong song and it's hard to compare because one of the songs actually has an instrumental section (maybe the 3rd repeat of the pre-chours should have been replaced with a short one). Both songs have a similar driving and melodic heavy riff, but I think I like the intro and outro of Bruce's song more. The choruses are strong (with a little advantage for a soaring chorus from Bruce). Great songs. It's the traditional strong Bruce solo song that starts with ''A'' in the title, but due to the lack of a longer instrumental section, I can't compare it to songs from SJ for example. It certainly has that Writing On The Wall feel to it (especially with its melodic riffs) and can stand proudly next to it, but as much I think it's a very good song - I can only prefer it to 1 song from this album.

Edit: the perfect combination would be -> Afterglow Of Ragnarok with Writing On The Wall/Stratego melodic passage, the length of Stratego's solo... and If Eternity Should Fail chorus just as an option.
 
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Bruce's spoken-word show had a pretty thorough U.S. tour schedule in 2022, and it mostly filled a much larger capacity theater in Minneapolis (~1000 seats) than the Accident Of Birth tour did (a tiny dive bar with ~100-150 people max), and you'd hope a musical tour would draw more people than a spoken-word one, so hope springs eternal.

The one thing I'd be cautious about re: comparing spoken word sales and potential solo gig sales is that he's talking about Maiden, so you're going to get Maiden fans going to spoken word gigs, whereas there's a substantial amount of Maiden fans who have never shown any interest in his solo career.
 
The only reason I even bother with pre-orders is the local record store here, that I had been buying Maiden releases on release days all the way back to Man on the Edge, let me down with the Maiden Picture LP's. They got the picture lp's in but couldn't be arsed with getting the box for them as it would have increased the shipping costs. A box set without the box FFS. Haven't gone back since.

If it's something I really want, I'll go with the pre-order to make sure of getting it, if it's a pre-order with click and collect from a store in town, that's what I prefer. For someone reason, the shop I usually go to now is taking it's time with putting The Mandrake Project on it's website.

Yesterday I went to my local HMV, which has a very big vinyl section, and Bruce's single was nowhere to be seen. Click and collect will have to be the option then.
 
Are there any wedding pics available?

I'm not the one to care about his personal life: my true motive is to see what insane outfit he came up with for his own wedding.
 
The one thing I'd be cautious about re: comparing spoken word sales and potential solo gig sales is that he's talking about Maiden, so you're going to get Maiden fans going to spoken word gigs, whereas there's a substantial amount of Maiden fans who have never shown any interest in his solo career.

I just thought that was a very clear assessment: "spoken word salad", but then I looked again: "spoken word sales"
 
So which song do you like better - Afterglow Of Ragnarok or If Eternity Should Fail?

I like both but definitely prefer IESF.

Afterglow Of Ragnarok has a lot going for it. I enjoy the verses and the main riff. The outro was surprisingly good as well.
I've shared my issues with the pre-chorus before, particularly the post-solo one. The chorus uses the Dorian mode and that's something I tend to dislike in 99% of cases. This falls under the 99% unfortunately and I would've preferred something different.

IESF on the other hand has its own issues of course. The outro doesn't work for me. The verses aren't particularly interesting. The intro is okay.
The chorus was an instant classic for me though. Love the lyrics and the melody. In a sense the opposite of Afterglow Of Ragnarok. There are plenty on songs on TBOS that I prefer to IESF, but overall I like it more than AOR.
 
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So, I've been digesting the new single. It's a decent song, and Bruce is singing fine indeed. The chorus is catchy, but I don't think it gels naturally with the verses and the pre-chorus (the pre-chorus is pretty stock. It doesn't do much for me). From what I can tell from skimming the thread, the production has caused some to go "wow, Maiden should change their approach", while I certainly put myself in the other end. This is far from Roy Z's best. The synergies with his work on Spirits of Fire's first album are evident, with that dodgy, recessed mids "fat" drum sound that doesn't fit that well with the rest. It sticks out a bit like a sour thumb. Roy doesn't do this kind of production very well, while he's excellent with old school fairly "realistic" sounding records like CW, AOB, Resurrection (yes, is certainly sounds and is sample reinforced, but there is still a measure of realism and there are mids here). Sure, this is scooped and all, and a lot of people seem drawn to recessed mids. But just because there's treble and bass and can be perceived as "fat" doesn't necessarily make it great. As far as I'm concerned, this release is around the floor in terms of production quality I expect from a Bruce release.

All in all, this doesn't get me that excited about the new album, but it hopefully contains better tracks.
 
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