Bruce Dickinson

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Face In The Mirror

Good song, although the vocals are kinda lazy. Was hoping for some soaring vocals over this kind of a track. Solo, well, as good as we can get from a non-guitarist. Love the Hammond and the piano.
 
Shadow Of The Gods...

The intro is beautiful. Strangely this track reminds me of Empire (surprise, same writer). Very piano heavy in a good way. Best vocals on the album by a huge margin in the 1st half of the song. That modulation from Em to Bm (baritone) fits perfectly. "This is my life..." part is surprised me, but fits perfectly in the baritone section of the song. The only thing I don't like are the mega-strained backing vocals during the last part of the song.

Overall, this and Mistress Of Mercy are the best tracks on the album. So far.

Only Sonata left... After coffee.
 
Sonata? Are those time-capsuled vocals? 0 lisp and sounds completely different than rest of the album. Sounds to me like 2014 Bruce or even 1998 Bruce.
 
KidInTheDark666 said:
The keyboards generally elevate this album.
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The keys are an integral part of the magic.
matic22 said:
Is it just me or has Roy tried to play in styles of Maiden guitarists? Middle sounds to me like Davey's style and the last part like Janick's style.
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I agree. A bit of Adrian as well.
matic22 said:
Miss H's solos at the end too.
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Yeah, but at least they added something different with the backing vocals.
matic22 said:
Like Bruce harmonizing with himself like the old school Maiden.
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matic22 said:
A rock song in the vain of Bruce's solo career. The low-tuned snare works here. Love the acoustic guitars and synths on this one.
This is the first one that I think could've been a Maiden track.
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This.
matic22 said:
Vintage Roy solo on this one. Great sound layering on this one.
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Very typical and unimaginative solo. This song should have been the opener of AOB.
matic22 said:
Was hoping for some soaring vocals over this kind of a track.
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It's a nice change from the rest of the album.
matic22 said:
Strangely this track reminds me of Empire (surprise, same writer).
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It reminds me of Nightwish too, like Wounds.
matic22 said:
Sonata? Are those time-capsuled vocals? 0 lisp and sounds completely different than rest of the album. Sounds to me like 2014 Bruce or even 1998 Bruce.
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Vocals from 1998 and 2022, I think. Very different indeed.
matic22 said:
Best vocals on the album by a huge margin in the 1st half of the song.
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Best vocals? For me - Many Doors, Wounds, Shadow, Mirror and Eternity.
 
Sonata...

An interesting song. As I said before, it seems to me like those are off the shelf vocals and not newly recorded as there are no vocal traits of post-cancer Bruce in there. The track itself reminds me of Collins era Genesis long songs (not talking about Invisible Touch, I Can't Dance, but more Fading Lights and Home By The Sea, both parts, without keyboard solos) with very straight drum patterns and goes into AOB style later. It's different, but good. Could be a bit more refined IMO especially after the "Save me now" parts.

Leana didn't do this track any favours with overhyping it. It's good, but not as good as she stated. There are better tracks on this LP.

Love the guitar playing by Roy at the very end when the drums stop.

So in short... Is Sonata the best track on the album? No. That goes to Mistress Of Mercy and Shadow Of The Gods. Is it in the top 5? Yes.
 
Poto said:
The solo adds nothing in my opinion, and the sound of Maiden is unbeatable.
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The solos is exactly what was missing in the Maiden version. It elevates the song significantly. From 9/10 to 10/10. I agree with your second comment. The playing on the Maiden version is much better, the instrumental section is pure gold, and Nicko is irreplaceable. Btw, I think Steve was right to add a 2nd verse.
 
After careful consideration, I think this is a very good album. Definitely better than Tattooed Millionaire and Balls to Picasso. I also think it's better than Tyranny of Souls. So definitely top 3. I'm sure it's not better than Chemical Wedding so the question is whether I can put it above Skunkworks :-)
 
Listening to Mistress Of Mercy again... It gives me Devin Townsend vibes in sections and I love that.

I think that track should've been the opener and I hope they play it live.
 
Starblind said:
I loved the classic Maidenesque melody in the middle of Mistress. How did Steve miss this very Maidenesque song, is a mystery to me : )
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Really? I think this is a pure Bruce solo song. The melody in the middle is Maiden-esque, yes, but overall no. And I doubt it's the song Nightmares with a different title. The only Maiden-esque song is probably Wounds (and not the whole song).
 
Overall, it's a good album. What does it miss? I think some more quality control by a non-writer (but hey, that's same as the Maiden albums recently). What else? Memorable guitar solos. That's where H's abscence comes to play. We all know that H can still play a memorable solo (TWOTW). My feeling is that Roy and H pushed eachother during AOB sessions. Roy pushed H into more technical and faster playing, while H pushed Roy into playing more for the song solos-wise. I wish some of them would be more worked out and serve the song more. MVP of the instrumentalists? Mystherea. Lovely keyboard playing throghout the album IMO.

As far as ranking in the Bruce Dickinson discography, I'd put it in 3rd place for now. Behind AOB and TCW. It's a better album than TOS for sure, despite being very different.
 
Starblind said:
It's not like that, it's in the league of Eternal.
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I agree here.
Starblind said:
His vocals mostly sound great, yet on some parts, like the beginning of Resurrection Men, he is struggling. Did he sing that part only one time, or just preferred it and left it like that... There are other parts that could be fixed vocally. (And on parts like that I thought we blamed Steve wrongfully)
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I think those vocals in Resurrection Men are on purpose. And because Bruce didn't bother to do more takes. I agree about Steve.
Starblind said:
Other than Eternity, Mistress and Face is also written and composed only by Bruce.
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We know that Eternity is written solely by Bruce, the original version. And I can imagine he solely wrote the other 2 above too.
 
matic22 said:
Love the guitar playing by Roy at the very end when the drums stop.
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The whole solo is very Adrian. Sonata is a very specific song.
matic22 said:
What else? Memorable guitar solos. That's where H's abscence comes to play. We all know that H can still play a memorable solo (TWOTW). My feeling is that Roy and H pushed eachother during AOB sessions. Roy pushed H into more technical and faster playing, while H pushed Roy into playing more for the song solos-wise. I wish some of them would be more worked out and serve the song more. MVP of the instrumentalists? Mystherea. Lovely keyboard playing throghout the album IMO.
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I definitely agree with all of that, but that wasn't the case with Roy's solos in TOS (and most of them are not longer and are memorable for sure), at least for me. Adrian is a master of solos, short or long, while Roy prefers fast and short solos, which wasn't always the case with them.
 
matic22 said:
Mistress Of Mercy

This is Bruce Dickinson. What a track. Love it. Vintage Roy solo on this one. Great sound layering on this one. Best track on the album so far, by far. The ending could've been halved, tho.
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Everyone has their own taste. :) For me, this song is by far the worst song on the new album.

The intro is good but the same as the song Freak. The instrumental part in the middle is quite good and the Chorus is ok, but the verses are awful: this is not melodious and he has not the voice anymore to sing this way. The B Sides from accident are far better for me.
 
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