Bruce Dickinson

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D+2 and 'Resurrection Men' have emerged as my favorites so far. The 'Change of Heart' percussion groove is so good.
srfc said:
Think Bruce is fine on the album but Roy has dropped the ball, very little decent riffs,
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Definitely. I love some of Roy's previous works; even wished that Maiden's approach to guitars resembled his here and there. But this time, he dropped the ball quite a bit.
 
Since everyone is now able to listen to the album freely I don't need to be as descriptive and can focus on what I enjoyed and what I didn't like about the album.

Afterglow Of Ragnarok: Unnecessary atmospheric intro (something a few of the other songs on the album do as well), cool main riff and great verses. The pre-choruses suck and the last one in particular shows blatantly that the album didn't receive the attention and care it deserved. It sounds unfinished and hastily edited together. Not a fan of the chorus either; Dorian as a mode is something that I dislike in 9 out of 10 cases. Best case would be some modal interchange like in Dance Of Death, where it works great. Here? Not so much.
The outro vocals are neat and I would've like some more experimentation like that. 7/10.

Many Doors To Hell: This one didn't really impress me on first listen but has grown on me. It's my third favorite song on the album now. I appreciate the vocal harmonies and it's gonna work well in a live setting. 8/10.

Rain On The Graves: Don't like the main riff, don't like the verses, don't like the chorus either. Like I've said before, the solo section is the only good thing about the entire song. 2/10.

Resurrection Men: What a massive disappointment. The western section is cool, though the production of the album severely harms it; the middle groovy part is kinda neat and I like the vocals. The chorus is quite lazy (still not a fan of the title either), the chromatic riff that returns every now and then is horrible and the vocals during the first verse which follow the same root-minor 2nd-major 2nd-minor 2nd progression are some of the worst vocal lines I've heard in a Maiden/adjacent project. Even The X Factor, known for its weak vocals, doesn't stoop that low. Didn't think there'd be a song worse than ROTG on the album but this one managed to do that. 1/10.

Fingers In The Wounds: The intro and chorus are by far the weakest part of the song. Once more in Dorian, just like Afterglow Of Ragnarok, but this time it's a bit better and more interesting. Kinda neat that the final chorus changes the vocal lines a bit by going for the higher line on every second one, instead of only once per chorus.
The verse isn't anything spectacular, but it was the first moment on my first listen through the album that impressed me. For some reason it connected to me and I love the vocal lines there, which is rather creative despite its simplicity.
The oriental section is amazing as well and I would've loved if the album had more parts like that. The percussion sounds amazing and the keyboard work is great. Kinda going between a 6 and a 7 but I'll go with the higher score for now. 7/10.

Eternity Has Failed: This one is different to gauge. Neither of the versions is perfect. The flute and the percussion in EHF sound better, but the reverbs and delay of IESF are sorely missed. I'm ambivalent about the tempo difference and I'm okay with IESF's added verse missing here, which makes the structure of the song a bit more exciting, due to being rather unusual.
Really dislike the new chorus compared to IESF's. It was simple but amazing. I don't like the new lyrics for it, nor the way it's recorded and produced which is such a stark contrast to the verse recorded in 2014. The added "ooh"s in the final chorus don't really work and feel half-assed. The flute is neat I guess, but not the most interesting thing in the world.
The instrumental section is far superior to IESF's though. We finally get some solos and even a keytar solo. The drum beat that introduces it is so much more interesting than the tom rolls in Maiden's version, which always sounded weird and even silly to me.
All in all I prefer the Maiden version, which gets a better score thatn EHF's 6/10.

Mistress Of Mercy: In a way this one is the inverse to Fingers In The Wounds. The main riff is lazy and essentially copied from Freak, the verses and pre-chorus as generic as they get, but the chorus is brilliant and genuinely one of the highpoints of the album for me. The mixolydian section is fine, the solo afterwards, particularly its second half, feels completely unfinished and cobbled together again. Such wasted potential. Probably a 5/10 because I'm feeling generous right now.

Face In The Mirror: This one seems to be one of the songs most people see as their least favorite and it's really a shame. It's my second favorite and was the first song on my first go through the album where I wasn't disappointed in some way when it was over.
Bruce and piano is always a great combination. The majority of the song is in his lower range and I've been rather vocal that I'm really not a fan of his highest range nowadays (or the 80's for that matter lol The air raid siren only sounded good between 1995 and 2009-ish for me). The vocal harmony in the chorus is simple but elegant. Bruce's solo isn't particularly interesting, but it's a neat addition I suppose.
The added high range vocals in the final chorus where a bad decision and not only aren't they adding anything to the song, they are taking away from it.
The poor production, especially the acoustic guitars, are a detriment to this song and it deserved so much better. Nevertheless, this one is a strong 8/10.

Shadow Of The Gods: By far the best song on the album and I'm happy that the consensus rates it rather high as well. The lyrics are great, Bruce sounds phenomenal, the song structure and the chord progression are involved and interesting. A big issue I have with the entire album is that there are plenty of songs, but not enough music. What do I mean by that? Let me elaborate:
Many of the songs feel very formulaic. Almost as if they thought "okay, we need a verse, we need a chorus. Now repeat each once. Maybe add an intro, or a pre-chorus. Done, next song". Not every song has to have progressive song structures and there's definitely a place for more simple songs, not gonna deny that.
I'm also of the opinion though, that there are songs and musical ideas that need room to breathe; room to evolve. An idea explored fully, following it to wherever it goes and elaborate on its journey. This song does that. It evolves with the story told in the lyrics and at the same time shows a huge difference in writing quality compared to most of the songs on the record. There's thought put into every facet of the song. The music isn't just a vehicle to deliver the lyrics; it itself has something to say, even if it's just a rather simplistic riff in the middle of the song used effectively at the right moment to change gears. It just reinforces the feeling that Bruce was willing to put much more effort in his songwriting a couple decades ago than he was in the last couple of years.
More on the song itself: The "One drop will fill the night" part is pure hype and I really enjoy the "world of the dead" thrashy parts. The harmony vocals in the final section of the song are super strained and the only detraction. 9/10.

Sonata (Immortal Beloved): What an absolute mess. With proper restraint and editing this one might've been a good 7/10. It's far too long, doesn't do anything interesting with its structure, doesn't really react to the lyrics which makes sense considering that the instrumental stood for the most part when Bruce improvised his vocals over it. This could've been a proper epic and could've explored some fascinating musical ideas, but alas it wasn't to be.
It's nice to hear younger Bruce again and there are some parts where he sound amazing. Then there's the "Bring back my queen" line which I utterly despise and is one of the most ridiculous vocal deliveries I've ever heard on an official album. The first half of the song has some good ideas but the second half squanders everything. Sonata, unfortunately, is boring, tedious, overindulgent and in desperate need of editing. 2/10.

I've mentioned it before, but the production for this album is bad. The drums sound hilariously digital. The acoustic guitars sound like a demo. On the other hand the percussion and flutes sound perfect. Bruce sounds great. Bruce sounds awful. The entire thing is deeply inconsistent.
I'm still not a fan of the album title and given how most songs aren't part of the concept anymore I don't think it fits. The presentation of the booklet, as well as the art work are very lacking as well. It truly feels like once Bruce started with the comics he kinda lost interest in the album and pushed it out as a by-product of the far more exciting (for him, I couldn't care less) comic project.

So, the album averages 5.5/10 for me unfortunately. MDTH, FITM and SOTG will probably enter my regular rotation. I don't see me returning regularly to the rest. I like the album more than Tattooed Millionaire (which technically has better written songs in my opinion, but I'm not a big fan of the style for most of them) and I'm unsure if I prefer Balls To Picasso or The Mandrake Failure. Given that SOTG is easily the best thing on the album I can't help but feeling that I'd rather have had the Three Tremors project working out and delivering some interesting music, rather than this album that we got.
 
Melony said:
Are we sure that's what he means (given that Bruce has recently become the master of ambiguous statements that spark rumors). I'm just puzzled, because I would make such an appeal to my bandmates personally, but I wouldn't publish it.
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yeah, that statement was super ambiguous. It can be read in so many ways from "hey guys, maybe this will excite you enough to make another album" to "retirement is done at this moment (but not announced) but maybe when they hear TMP they will change minds".
 

Interesting bits about Roy not being on the tour (he had a lot going on at home and in the studio) and also the remixes (ALL solo albums are going Dolby Atmos, and some are getting "reimagined," like BtP getting heavier--oh, and he's rethinking adding Skunkworks songs to the set).
 
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I've only listened to the album once all the way through (and that was in the car) so I can't quite put down my thoughts yet.

However, one thing that struck me was that Eternity Has Failed is just a remake of IESF with a few changes. I was under the impression that this was a sort-of sequel song. Slightly disappointed by that.
 
Vaenyr said:
I'm still not a fan of the album title and given how most songs aren't part of the concept anymore I don't think it fits.
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Aside from “Sonata” and possibly “Face In The Mirror”, which other songs do you think aren’t part of the concept? The rest all seemed to tie in to me. (And you could even loop in “Sonata” if you take it as metaphor.)
 
Jer said:
Aside from “Sonata” and possibly “Face In The Mirror”, which other songs do you think aren’t part of the concept? The rest all seemed to tie in to me. (And you could even loop in “Sonata” if you take it as metaphor.)
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Afterglow Of Ragnarok, Resurrection Men and Eternity Has Failed are obviously part of the concept.

According to Bruce himself: Many Doors To Hell is about a vampire, Rain On The Graves about a deal with a crossroads demon, Fingers In The Wounds is about social media and influencers and about Jesus coming back as an influencer, Mistress Of Mercy is about music, Face In The Mirror about alcoholism.

Shadow Of The Gods was written long before the Mandrake concept, as was Sonata, so these two songs are definitely not part of it in my opinion. Fingers In The Wounds, Mistress Of Mery and Face In The Mirror are entirely divorced from the concept as well. The remaining two songs could be argued either way and until the rest of the comics release we won't know for sure, but currently I'm leaning MDTH not being part of it, but Rain On The Graves apparently is teased at the end of the first comic (I think you shared that info? or someone else a few pages back) so that one seems to tie in with the concept.

So, in my opinion, 3 out of 10 songs are confirmed to be part of the same concept, 5 that aren't, and two that could theoretically tie in.
 
TheMercenary said:
Interview of Roy Z by Metal Hammer UK. :)

www.loudersound.com

"When we first started, he did not want to sound like Iron Maiden": Roy Z on his three-decade creative partnership with Bruce Dickinson

Producer and guitarist Roy Z explains how Bruce Dickinson's solo material has evolved in the past 31 years
www.loudersound.com www.loudersound.com
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I think I’d like to see a more comprehensive interview from Roy on this album. I feel he’s probably holding back thoughts since Bruce is at the helm of everything. I could be wrong but wanna hear what he has to say.
 
dmort93 said:
Bruce is on good form in this interview!
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Yep. So he's not sure if he won't be playing stuff from Skunkworks live because the 2 guitarists and Dave Moreno are massive fans of the album. I think he'll end up playing songs from all of his albums by rotating some of them throughout this may 2-3 years tour.
Brazilian Benjamin Breeg said:
But this time, he dropped the ball quite a bit.
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This.
Jer said:
Aside from “Sonata” and possibly “Face In The Mirror”, which other songs do you think aren’t part of the concept? The rest all seemed to tie in to me. (And you could even loop in “Sonata” if you take it as metaphor.)
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Sonata, Face In The Mirror and Many Doors To Hell for sure are not. Shadow Of The Gods with its lyrics, yes. Songs like Rain, Mistress and even Sonata can be tied into the comic.
 
TheMercenary said:
Interview of Roy Z by Metal Hammer UK. :)

www.loudersound.com

"When we first started, he did not want to sound like Iron Maiden": Roy Z on his three-decade creative partnership with Bruce Dickinson

Producer and guitarist Roy Z explains how Bruce Dickinson's solo material has evolved in the past 31 years
www.loudersound.com www.loudersound.com
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing.

I am amazed by the quality of the journalism displayed on that article. Thanks to it, I have learnt that Roy Z has worked with Bruce since Balls to Picasso and on every subsequent release. I wonder what he did on Skunkworks…
 
Vaenyr said:
Since everyone is now able to listen to the album freely I don't need to be as descriptive and can focus on what I enjoyed and what I didn't like about the album.

Afterglow Of Ragnarok: Unnecessary atmospheric intro (something a few of the other songs on the album do as well), cool main riff and great verses. The pre-choruses suck and the last one in particular shows blatantly that the album didn't receive the attention and care it deserved. It sounds unfinished and hastily edited together. Not a fan of the chorus either; Dorian as a mode is something that I dislike in 9 out of 10 cases. Best case would be some modal interchange like in Dance Of Death, where it works great. Here? Not so much.
The outro vocals are neat and I would've like some more experimentation like that. 7/10.

Many Doors To Hell: This one didn't really impress me on first listen but has grown on me. It's my third favorite song on the album now. I appreciate the vocal harmonies and it's gonna work well in a live setting. 8/10.

Rain On The Graves: Don't like the main riff, don't like the verses, don't like the chorus either. Like I've said before, the solo section is the only good thing about the entire song. 2/10.

Resurrection Men: What a massive disappointment. The western section is cool, though the production of the album severely harms it; the middle groovy part is kinda neat and I like the vocals. The chorus is quite lazy (still not a fan of the title either), the chromatic riff that returns every now and then is horrible and the vocals during the first verse which follow the same root-minor 2nd-major 2nd-minor 2nd progression are some of the worst vocal lines I've heard in a Maiden/adjacent project. Even The X Factor, known for its weak vocals, doesn't stoop that low. Didn't think there'd be a song worse than ROTG on the album but this one managed to do that. 1/10.

Fingers In The Wounds: The intro and chorus are by far the weakest part of the song. Once more in Dorian, just like Afterglow Of Ragnarok, but this time it's a bit better and more interesting. Kinda neat that the final chorus changes the vocal lines a bit by going for the higher line on every second one, instead of only once per chorus.
The verse isn't anything spectacular, but it was the first moment on my first listen through the album that impressed me. For some reason it connected to me and I love the vocal lines there, which is rather creative despite its simplicity.
The oriental section is amazing as well and I would've loved if the album had more parts like that. The percussion sounds amazing and the keyboard work is great. Kinda going between a 6 and a 7 but I'll go with the higher score for now. 7/10.

Eternity Has Failed: This one is different to gauge. Neither of the versions is perfect. The flute and the percussion in EHF sound better, but the reverbs and delay of IESF are sorely missed. I'm ambivalent about the tempo difference and I'm okay with IESF's added verse missing here, which makes the structure of the song a bit more exciting, due to being rather unusual.
Really dislike the new chorus compared to IESF's. It was simple but amazing. I don't like the new lyrics for it, nor the way it's recorded and produced which is such a stark contrast to the verse recorded in 2014. The added "ooh"s in the final chorus don't really work and feel half-assed. The flute is neat I guess, but not the most interesting thing in the world.
The instrumental section is far superior to IESF's though. We finally get some solos and even a keytar solo. The drum beat that introduces it is so much more interesting than the tom rolls in Maiden's version, which always sounded weird and even silly to me.
All in all I prefer the Maiden version, which gets a better score thatn EHF's 6/10.

Mistress Of Mercy: In a way this one is the inverse to Fingers In The Wounds. The main riff is lazy and essentially copied from Freak, the verses and pre-chorus as generic as they get, but the chorus is brilliant and genuinely one of the highpoints of the album for me. The mixolydian section is fine, the solo afterwards, particularly its second half, feels completely unfinished and cobbled together again. Such wasted potential. Probably a 5/10 because I'm feeling generous right now.

Face In The Mirror: This one seems to be one of the songs most people see as their least favorite and it's really a shame. It's my second favorite and was the first song on my first go through the album where I wasn't disappointed in some way when it was over.
Bruce and piano is always a great combination. The majority of the song is in his lower range and I've been rather vocal that I'm really not a fan of his highest range nowadays (or the 80's for that matter lol The air raid siren only sounded good between 1995 and 2009-ish for me). The vocal harmony in the chorus is simple but elegant. Bruce's solo isn't particularly interesting, but it's a neat addition I suppose.
The added high range vocals in the final chorus where a bad decision and not only aren't they adding anything to the song, they are taking away from it.
The poor production, especially the acoustic guitars, are a detriment to this song and it deserved so much better. Nevertheless, this one is a strong 8/10.

Shadow Of The Gods: By far the best song on the album and I'm happy that the consensus rates it rather high as well. The lyrics are great, Bruce sounds phenomenal, the song structure and the chord progression are involved and interesting. A big issue I have with the entire album is that there are plenty of songs, but not enough music. What do I mean by that? Let me elaborate:
Many of the songs feel very formulaic. Almost as if they thought "okay, we need a verse, we need a chorus. Now repeat each once. Maybe add an intro, or a pre-chorus. Done, next song". Not every song has to have progressive song structures and there's definitely a place for more simple songs, not gonna deny that.
I'm also of the opinion though, that there are songs and musical ideas that need room to breathe; room to evolve. An idea explored fully, following it to wherever it goes and elaborate on its journey. This song does that. It evolves with the story told in the lyrics and at the same time shows a huge difference in writing quality compared to most of the songs on the record. There's thought put into every facet of the song. The music isn't just a vehicle to deliver the lyrics; it itself has something to say, even if it's just a rather simplistic riff in the middle of the song used effectively at the right moment to change gears. It just reinforces the feeling that Bruce was willing to put much more effort in his songwriting a couple decades ago than he was in the last couple of years.
More on the song itself: The "One drop will fill the night" part is pure hype and I really enjoy the "world of the dead" thrashy parts. The harmony vocals in the final section of the song are super strained and the only detraction. 9/10.

Sonata (Immortal Beloved): What an absolute mess. With proper restraint and editing this one might've been a good 7/10. It's far too long, doesn't do anything interesting with its structure, doesn't really react to the lyrics which makes sense considering that the instrumental stood for the most part when Bruce improvised his vocals over it. This could've been a proper epic and could've explored some fascinating musical ideas, but alas it wasn't to be.
It's nice to hear younger Bruce again and there are some parts where he sound amazing. Then there's the "Bring back my queen" line which I utterly despise and is one of the most ridiculous vocal deliveries I've ever heard on an official album. The first half of the song has some good ideas but the second half squanders everything. Sonata, unfortunately, is boring, tedious, overindulgent and in desperate need of editing. 2/10.

I've mentioned it before, but the production for this album is bad. The drums sound hilariously digital. The acoustic guitars sound like a demo. On the other hand the percussion and flutes sound perfect. Bruce sounds great. Bruce sounds awful. The entire thing is deeply inconsistent.
I'm still not a fan of the album title and given how most songs aren't part of the concept anymore I don't think it fits. The presentation of the booklet, as well as the art work are very lacking as well. It truly feels like once Bruce started with the comics he kinda lost interest in the album and pushed it out as a by-product of the far more exciting (for him, I couldn't care less) comic project.

So, the album averages 5.5/10 for me unfortunately. MDTH, FITM and SOTG will probably enter my regular rotation. I don't see me returning regularly to the rest. I like the album more than Tattooed Millionaire (which technically has better written songs in my opinion, but I'm not a big fan of the style for most of them) and I'm unsure if I prefer Balls To Picasso or The Mandrake Failure. Given that SOTG is easily the best thing on the album I can't help but feeling that I'd rather have had the Three Tremors project working out and delivering some interesting music, rather than this album that we got.
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Arguably his worst solo album. Tattooed Millionaire might be an uneven one, but it features several gems, which I cannot find any on The Chocolate Coin one. :(
 
If I have to rank the songs:

1.Shadow Of The Gods
2.Sonata (tie)
3.Eternity Has Failed (tie)
4.Fingers In The Wounds
5.Face In The Mirror
6.Many Doors To Hell (tie)
7.Mistress Of Mercy (tie)
8.Afterglow Of Ragnarok
9.Resurrection Men (tie)
10.Rain On The Graves (tie, doesn't deserve to be last)

It's not easy to rank them, so the album is quite good for me it seems.
 
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