Bruce Dickinson

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Second listen, 6-10 sogs in.
Eternity - not groundbreaking but I like.
Mistress of Mercy - definitely echoes Freak (riff), more uptempo and metal. I like. After first listen was meh.
Face In the Mirror - standard balladesque song. Standard yet effective. I like.
Shadow of the Gods - yes, this song fits the Chemical Wedding Realm. Very Good.
Sonata - ambientish, Taking The Queen type song. In some parts one can feel that Bruce is on the stream of consciousness, but overall very beautiful song. Also fits The Chemical Wedding realm, imo. Save me now chorus is effective.

Second half of the album sounds even better through headphones. In think it's because songs are more restrained, not relying on heavy guitars, therefore Bruce's voice is not drowned in the mix.
After second listen: pretty solid album.
Best songs: Many Doors To Hell, Rain on the Graves, Face in the Mirror, Shadow of the Gods, Sonata.
Yeah, I see the pattern here. Calmer songs do sound better.
 
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General thoughts on the album and its issues, regardless of the songs themselves:

The album sounds unfinished and closer to demos than a commercial release due to a variety of factors. The drums sound overly digital, which we've heard on the singles as well. The acoustic guitars seem to have been recorded via cables instead of microphones and sound tinny and empty. Despite the hyping up of Mistheria there aren't that many synth parts and a larger part are "atmospheric" pads like the intros to Afterglow or Rains (this could be a positive for some).

Bruce's vocals are all over the place. It's very noticeable when some vocals from 2014 are used and then the next verse of chorus suddenly features 2023 Bruce. Furthermore, there are plenty of dodgy performances. Bruce has timing issues all over the album and there are plenty of lines that should've been re-recorded. At times he sounds unsure of the melody he's singing (makes sense in the semi-improvised Sonata; sounds bad either way).

The songs themselves often sound unfinished or rushed. Many songs have sudden endings, as if they couldn't think of any other way to end. The transitions in Resurrection Men sound as if a completely unrelated piece of music that was written much later was pasted into the project with no thought given to how it works out. This is not the result of a decade of working on songs; they had some sessions here and there but most work was done in the final couple of years and you can clearly hear that.

TL;DR: If folks had issues with how Senjutsu sounds, they might have issues with this album as well.

Wickerman1204 said:
And I am totally in love with Sonata. :)
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And that's totally fair. I'm just a bloke on the internet with an opinion, not an arbiter of truth :lol:

Jer said:
I will be curious to see if there ends up being a correlation between the people who like Skunkworks a lot and the people who like The Mandrake Project a lot.
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Nah, Skunkworks is my favorite and I dislike the new one. Though the chorus of Mistress Of Mercy is fantastic since it sounds straight out of Skunkworks (the rest of the song is a stinker though).
 
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After five or six listens I can say I really like the album.
Of course it's not gonna be as coherent as Chemical Wedding - the album was made in gaps, over a period of 15+ years.
Just glad we got so many cool (and better than the first 2)songs - Many Doors to Hell and Shadow of the Gods being my favourites at the moment.

Re the 'heavy rock vs heavy metal' - I don't mind this at all. Really wasn't expecting this to sound like Tyranny, for example.
 
Vaenyr said:
General thoughts on the album and its issues, regardless of the songs themselves:

The album sounds unfinished and closer to demos than a commercial release due to a variety of factors. The drums sound overly digital, which we've heard on the singles as well. The acoustic guitars seem to have been recorded via cables instead of microphones and sound tinny and empty. Despite the hyping up of Mistheria there aren't that many synth parts and a larger part are "atmospheric" pads like the intros to Afterglow or Rains (this could be a positive for some).

Bruce's vocals are all over the place. It's very noticeable when some vocals from 2014 are used and then the next verse of chorus suddenly features 2023 Bruce. Furthermore, there are plenty of dodgy performances. Bruce has timing issues all over the album and there are plenty of lines that should've been re-recorded. At times he sounds unsure of the melody he's singing (makes sense in the semi-improvised Sonata; sounds bad either way).

The songs themselves often sound unfinished or rushed. Many songs have sudden endings, as if they couldn't think of any other way to end. The transitions in Resurrection Men sound as if a completely unrelated piece of music that was written much later was pasted into the project with no thought given to how it works out. This is not the result of a decade of working on songs; they had some sessions here and there but most work was done in the final couple of years and you can clearly hear that.

TL;DR: If folks had issues with how Senjutsu sounds, they might have issues with this album as well.


And that's totally fair. I'm just a bloke on the internet with an opinion, not an arbiter of truth :lol:


Nah, Skunkworks is my favorite and I dislike the new one. Though the chorus of Mistress Of Mercy is fantastic since it sounds straight out of Skunkworks (the rest of the song is a stinker though).
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Does not sound too promising!

I am hoping you are wrong (at the end of the day you love Virtual XI :lol: ) but fear we’ll end up agreeing on this one.
 
Vaenyr said:
Bruce has timing issues all over the album and there are plenty of lines that should've been re-recorded. At times he sounds unsure of the melody he's singing (makes sense in the semi-improvised Sonata; sounds bad either way).
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I'm going to have to relisten to that interview where he said 80% of something or other was done in one take. After I posted that he'd said 80% of the vocals for the whole album was done one take, a couple said he probably meant just Sonata, and I thought, "eh, maybe so." Now I'm starting to think I did hear him correctly that 80% of the whole thing were done in one take.
 
After few listenings i liked: Many Doors To Hell, Eternity, Mistress, Shadow of the Gods and Sonata.

The rest is still not memorable to me.

Overall is a good album, not the best but also not the worst of him imo. Worth buy.
 
Sonata is my favorite song off the album.

The closing of Sonata is vehemently strong. I think it’s Bruce’s step in a completely different direction & honestly I love it. The songs a fairytale & Bruce’s narrative on it is like almost watching a stage play/drama with music playing in the background. I think this song would probably be a very close, second best closer after the Alchemist. The track puts you in a deep trance & has you really contemplate life (even though it’s a love song). The song is dark & emotional & something that definitely sticks inside your head. Really think Bruce has nailed the ending on this album.
 
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Azas said:
The thing is that they are so eclectic with many different sections that is hard to get the whole picture at first, if you know what i mean.
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This is usually interesting and good.
Azas said:
It's undeniable that AOB, TCW and TOS metal was maidenised to a certain level, as Roy imagined it. Modern, heavier, yet with catchy passages and so on.
This newest album is different. Bruce and Roy for the most part abandoned that formula of songwriting. They are searching for new grounds and look for inspiration in other bands. This album sounds different. It's more modern heavy rock? and not modern heavy metal. This aspect may become my biggest gripe.
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Bruce in his solo career will never want to repeat himself (in most ways) and I welcomed that. He is too talented to do only his comfortable style. Nothing wrong with that. I would have loved another album like TOS because it's my favorite, but as long as the songs are great, I can't complain. Every album should bring its own sound, vibe, ideas and story.
 
Bruce thinks the new album is the ultimate and right at the top of everything he's ever done. He view it as a kind of weird mix of TOS and TCW.

He mentioned lighting rig, backdrops (cool) and screens (Maiden's side screens?) for the tour, which should be like a time travel back to 1972.

 
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