Bruce Dickinson

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Yax said:
Honestly, I'm kind of over Roy Z. AoB and CW are two of my favorite albums, but Tyranny of Souls was a clear step down, and TMP doesn't even come near ToS in terms of quality. That partnership evidently has withered and thus I wouldn't expect a drastic rebound in quality for a potential new album anyway. It's time for Bruce to write with other people.

This conclusion is not primarily a result of the breakdown in their relationship (although that factors in, as, who the hell would want to work with somebody you're having a huge public fight with), but because their golden years as a songwriting duo is long gone. Try something else.
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Well said. We've got two converging factors pointing to it being a good idea for us all to be ready to lay the Bruce/Z collaboration to rest--the ongoing feud, and diminishing musical returns on said collaboration. I do like Mandrake a lot, but there isn't really any argument that can convince me it doesn't belong at the bottom rank of the Bruce/Z works. Things run out of steam, and no doubt Bruce's return to Maiden was the primary contributor to that. If I were Roy after Bruce telling me he wasn't going to do much to promote Tyranny of Souls include tour it, I probably wouldn't give him my A-game either. Same goes for the ridiculously stop-and-go production of Mandrake.

So...yeah, I'd be ready for Bruce's next solo album to veer off into a new and unique direction, even if it's not purely metal (which, from early reviews, many here don't consider Mandrake to be much of a metal album anyway). So long as the writing is good and creative, I'm open to something different.
 
riff said:
New (I think?) and extensive interview with Bruce
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A very personal interview from Bruce. Great.

Is it just me, or in the intro of it we can see different footage from the Wacken show last year? Maybe Maiden will release it?

Some things from this lengthy interview:

- he confirmed that Blackmore wanted him to replace Ronnie in Rainbow.
- after he got the job in Maiden, they went to see a UFO concert at the Hammersmith Odeon.
- he said that Maiden is somehow more than a band and that they are outsiders in terms of the music industry in a lot of senses. He doesn't analyze it or question it, it just is. A strange chemistry. The music is what they have in common. He thinks the band survived because they grew as a people, but at the same time, the music is the most important. He also thinks the music is better in some respects than it was in the past.
- the music should be real. The band sets high standards. He still thinks they sounds fierce live.
- much of the magic of a live show and crowd interaction is in the eye contact. Recording, on the other hand, a record is where the band was at a given point in time. And that's why records sound different. They can't sound the same because they move emotionally and they can't be the same band from the first few albums on the new proggy album. Ofc there are people who don't like that, but that's not stopping hunderds of people coming to the shows now. The fans understand their journey. They respect what they want to do. The crucial point is that the vast majority of the fans accept this. When they go live, they try to put the best possible show with the chosen material. Some fans might not like the long material live (that could be challenging for the band), but they don't afraid to challenge them. And there's a toilet break. And it's normal. When they did AMOLAD live, some fans complained, but for the next tour, double the number of people gathered. Everything they have done is part of the building process.
- it's really hard to be authentic, but everyone should try to be.
 
CA Bryers said:
We've got two converging factors pointing to it being a good idea for us all to be ready to lay the Bruce/Z collaboration to rest--the ongoing feud, and diminishing musical returns on said collaboration. I do like Mandrake a lot, but there isn't really any argument that can convince me it doesn't belong at the bottom rank of the Bruce/Z works. Things run out of steam, and no doubt Bruce's return to Maiden was the primary contributor to that. If I were Roy after Bruce telling me he wasn't going to do much to promote Tyranny of Souls include tour it, I probably wouldn't give him my A-game either. Same goes for the ridiculously stop-and-go production of Mandrake.
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You mean Roy's A-game only for playing, not writing, right? He knew this back in 2005, with Bruce in Maiden, but they definitely should have done a short tour for TOS. Run out of steam? I guess that's what happens after no new material or tour for 20 years. AOB & TCW can't be repeated, let alone with 1 guitar and no interludes. I wonder with what (new!) material they can come up for the next album, but they clearly can't recreate the past magic, especially with the different style now. They more or less managed with TOS, but maybe if the albums were more frequent. It's also probably telling about the future since Roy revealed some of his own projects that should happen in the future. Maybe he doesn't care as much anymore, or maybe Bruce is the main songwriter now.

Idk what to think about. The ideas are good and interesting, but they are unfinished. The production was more or less expected, the modern vibe. The low mix and some of the vocals, not. Let's also not forget that at some point they had around 20 demo songs, but they wrote more, then only chose 9 new ones for the album, no additional work after 2018/2019 (most likely) and it's all odd. They probably want to save material for future albums, but now what will happen...
CA Bryers said:
So...yeah, I'd be ready for Bruce's next solo album to veer off into a new and unique direction, even if it's not purely metal (which, from early reviews, many here don't consider Mandrake to be much of a metal album anyway). So long as the writing is good and creative, I'm open to something different.
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The only pure metal songs on the new album are Eternity and I guess Ragnarok and Mistress, which is odd considering the previous album. I agree with you, as long as the writing is good (not doubt about creative), working with different songwriter and guitarists can bring something different and fresh to the sound, even unique.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
Really great interview. I don't know if I've heard all these stories before, but this feels more personal than I've ever heard him.
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Most of it are stories he had either told in the past, on What Does This Button Do? or on his different book tour shows , but it is nice to hear them again. Some details were new to me though, like Rod doing a massive line of coke after Bruce told him how he was going to be completely different to Di'Anno.
 
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Kalata said:
You mean Roy's A-game only for playing, not writing, right? He knew this back in 2005, with Bruce in Maiden, but they definitely should have done a short tour for TOS. Run out of steam? I guess that's what happens after no new material or tour for 20 years. AOB & TCW can't be repeated, let alone with 1 guitar and no interludes. I wonder with what (new!) material they can come up for the next album, but they clearly can't recreate the past magic, especially with the different style now. They more or less managed with TOS, but maybe if the albums were more frequent. It's also probably telling about the future since Roy revealed some of his own projects that should happen in the future. Maybe he doesn't care as much anymore, or maybe Bruce is the main songwriter now.
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The consensus for Tyranny seems to be that it's a good album, but not in the same league as AoB or Chemical. I guess you can read that in two ways as to why: that the songwriting wasn't quite as strong on ToS because of Bruce's very time-consuming commitments to Maiden (and flying), or that AoB and Chemical was lightning in a bottle that couldn't strike a third time no matter how hard they tried. It's very possible it's the latter, but it's also possible it's the former. It was more a food for thought statement than anything definitive.
 
CA Bryers said:
The consensus for Tyranny seems to be that it's a good album, but not in the same league as AoB or Chemical. I guess you can read that in two ways as to why: that the songwriting wasn't quite as strong on ToS because of Bruce's very time-consuming commitments to Maiden (and flying), or that AoB and Chemical was lightning in a bottle that couldn't strike a third time no matter how hard they tried. It's very possible it's the latter, but it's also possible it's the former. It was more a food for thought statement than anything definitive.
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It's true for the consensus, but I think the writing on TOS is strong (despite the unfocused writing sessions) and can be compared to AOB as an album, although there are no songs like Aquarius or Omega due to the simpler approach. Maybe the title track? TMP on the other hand has songs like Eternity and Shadow that could be compared.
We can't know if they could have made a 3rd great album with the band and the approach and style would probably have been the same as TCW.
 
Given my takes on Maiden it shouldn't be too surprising that I have some unorthodox views regarding Bruce's music as well :D

Skunkworks is my favorite, Chemical Wedding and Tyranny Of Souls are very close to each other on spots 2 and 3, with Accident Of Birth slightly behind on the fourth spot. Then we have a huge distance and gulf of quality between the top 4 and the other 3.

Balls To Picasso is on 5. It's a pretty confused record that goes in various directions but doesn't pull off most of them convincingly. Tattooed Millionaire is next and it's a fine album for what it is, but not at all appealing to my tastes. On last place we've got The Mandrake Disappointment which had a ton of potential to join my top 4, but ended up being a mess of cobbled together, underproduced and under-edited material.
 
Vaenyr said:
Given my takes on Maiden it shouldn't be too surprising that I have some unorthodox views regarding Bruce's music as well :D

Skunkworks is my favorite, Chemical Wedding and Tyranny Of Souls are very close to each other on spots 2 and 3, with Accident Of Birth slightly behind on the fourth spot. Then we have a huge distance and gulf of quality between the top 4 and the other 3.

Balls To Picasso is on 5. It's a pretty confused record that goes in various directions but doesn't pull off most of them convincingly. Tattooed Millionaire is next and it's a fine album for what it is, but not at all appealing to my tastes. On last place we've got The Mandrake Disappointment which had a ton of potential to join my top 4, but ended up being a mess of cobbled together, underproduced and under-edited material.
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Don't necessarily disagree about the Mandrake Project album, but the material does come across well live, at least in the videos I've seen. It sounds much more powerful and intense live.
 
Vaenyr said:
Given my takes on Maiden it shouldn't be too surprising that I have some unorthodox views regarding Bruce's music as well :D

Skunkworks is my favorite, Chemical Wedding and Tyranny Of Souls are very close to each other on spots 2 and 3, with Accident Of Birth slightly behind on the fourth spot. Then we have a huge distance and gulf of quality between the top 4 and the other 3.

Balls To Picasso is on 5. It's a pretty confused record that goes in various directions but doesn't pull off most of them convincingly. Tattooed Millionaire is next and it's a fine album for what it is, but not at all appealing to my tastes. On last place we've got The Mandrake Disappointment which had a ton of potential to join my top 4, but ended up being a mess of cobbled together, underproduced and under-edited material.
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Skunkworks would probably be my favourite too, but it is too long by a song or two. Don’t ask me what songs, as my opinion would change daily.

My list would be this.
1. The Chemical Wedding
2. Accident of Birth
3. Skunkworks
4. Tyranny of Souls
5. The Mandrake Project
6. Balls to Picasso
7. Tattooed Millionaire
 
Ascendingthethrone said:
Skunkworks would probably be my favourite too, but it is too long by a song or two. Don’t ask me what songs, as my opinion would change daily.

My list would be this.
1. The Chemical Wedding
2. Accident of Birth
3. Skunkworks
4. Tyranny of Souls
5. The Mandrake Project
6. Balls to Picasso
7. Tattooed Millionaire
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We agree on the top 3. My list would be:

1. The Chemical Wedding
2. Accident of Birth
3. Skunkworks
4. Balls to Picasso
5. Tyranny of Souls
6. Tattooed Millionaire
7. The Mandrake Project
 
I'd probably go with:

1) The Chemical Wedding
2) Accident of Birth
3) Skunkworks
4) Tyranny of Souls
5) The Mandrake Project tied with Balls to Picasso
6) Tattooed Millionaire
 
Hard to rank Bruce's albums as I love them all.
Have to think about this one and maybe post my list here later.

But one thing I know for sure that this is the #1 album for me:
The Chemical Wedding
 
Okay, ranking time. Middle placements might have changed sinced our ranking game.
1. The Chemical Wedding
2. Skunkworks
3. Balls to Picasso
4. Tyranny Of Souls
5. Accident Of Birth
6. The Mandrake Project
7. Tattooed Millionarie
 
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