GhostofCain
Ancient Mariner
Those were the days!
Those were the days!
Azas
Arcanum
Now that’s a band! Though if Eddie’s on bass, they’re short a drummer. Maybe Dave will jump behind the kit—in the end, he’s the most handsome of the bunch anyway. I can’t wait to hear what they come up with!
Kalata
Out of the Silent Planet
True, but that wasn't an issue for TOS, even though they didn't tour for the album. Or for BTP, recorded with one band and toured with different musicians. I'm starting to think Roy invited his friends to play on the album without Bruce knowing. One musician can overshadow another, for sure. Which won't happen with his new band because they seem to enjoy playing and get along so well.
It's a way of looking up the things, but Bruce and Roy were the band, the main team. AOB-TCW lineup is probably a different beast. A special band in time.
Big agree, it doesn't matter if it's a first album - but I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to hear Adrian write and play a solo song with Bruce again. I really like the new band, they're all great players (Dave and Mistheria have proven that before), but Bruce, Adrian and Roy are a special combo.
Yeah, like on almost all of his solo albums.
Shadow is the perfect song for Mistheria to shine even more (btw, he will be more lively on stage now). I wonder if it will be played at the end of the set. I don't expect that many different songs for the tour compared to the 1st leg, but rotating really helps so a few.
GhostofCain
Ancient Mariner
Yax
Ancient Mariner
It works great for Dream Theater, so I don't see it tbh.That looks so Spinal Tap!
dickinson1978
Ancient Mariner
Im not sure if mistheria was the guy who recorded the keyboards durinh tyranny of souls he did a great job then. But live now i hate road to hell.
Starblind
Ancient Mariner
I did a poll on my twitter page. %55 voted Empire of the Clouds (which is of course a naive choice to say the least), %23.4 voted Flash of the Blade, %19.1 voted Sun and Steel and %2 voted Face in the Sand (I put it for -mostly- fun). I personally think he'll play Flash of the Blade. And hopefully at the first concert or this curiosity will kill me
Ascendingthethrone
Ancient Mariner
It’s the same guy. He recorded all the keyboards for Tyranny of Souls remotely from Italy. At the time I thought that was magic!
Kalata
Out of the Silent Planet
Bruce Dickinson on What’s Next for His ‘Watchmen-Type’ Music/Comic Book Project: ‘I’m Aiming High Here’
Bruce Dickinson on his solo tour, 'The Mandrake Project' and Iron Maiden tour in 2026.
www.billboard.com
''In April we convened and had a massive, collective brain dump in the studio and came up with 18 song demos, maybe two or three that are connected to Mandrake. Now we’re refining the demos.''
A couple of the new demos are leftovers from TMP or just the lyrics? Probably written solely by Bruce. It would be nice if the lyrics are on different themes.
Something curious about the stage: He’s been working on some fresh visuals, too, and promises a re-set of the stage from what he did before. This is odd and cool at the same time. Fresh visuals are needed.
More:
When I did Mandrake I looked back at all this stuff I’ve done and I went, ‘I’m actually proud of all this stuff. It’s really good!'” he continues with a laugh. “I tend to discount stuff that I’ve done once I’ve done it. I don’t revisit it. Maiden’s the same way. The artist in me wants to move on, move on, move on and keep pushing, but sometimes it’s just nice to sit back, roll in it all and go, ‘This is really cool.’ It’s great to discover I’m a fan of the stuff I did — isn’t that weird?
Mandrake, the story, is constantly unfolding and constantly teaching me things about writing. Episodes five, six and seven are scripted and we’re in the middle of the artwork for that now, getting those done. It’s a long process. It’s a really fascinating process as well. It’s not like a book. It’s not like a film. It really is a complete hybrid art form. So I’m aiming high here; the holy grail in all this is sort of the Watchmen-type comic. And if I even get halfway there, I’ll be very happy. Writing for Mandrake, is like “having a conversation in your head with a thing you’ve already written. In a way you’re interviewing the character you’ve created by saying, ‘Why are you like this? Tell me about yourself, and I’m gonna write a song about you.’ Very interesting.
We have a reasonably varied repertoire, because the band is so flexible, and because it’s not like a Maiden tour where we’re locked into that set with the show and the lights and everything. With this solo tour we can vary it. We can say, ‘Hey, what do we fancy doing tonight? Let’s do this one as an encore’ and so on. It’s fun. It’s nice to have the flexibility of being a little bit random.
Mandrake, the story, is constantly unfolding and constantly teaching me things about writing. Episodes five, six and seven are scripted and we’re in the middle of the artwork for that now, getting those done. It’s a long process. It’s a really fascinating process as well. It’s not like a book. It’s not like a film. It really is a complete hybrid art form. So I’m aiming high here; the holy grail in all this is sort of the Watchmen-type comic. And if I even get halfway there, I’ll be very happy. Writing for Mandrake, is like “having a conversation in your head with a thing you’ve already written. In a way you’re interviewing the character you’ve created by saying, ‘Why are you like this? Tell me about yourself, and I’m gonna write a song about you.’ Very interesting.
We have a reasonably varied repertoire, because the band is so flexible, and because it’s not like a Maiden tour where we’re locked into that set with the show and the lights and everything. With this solo tour we can vary it. We can say, ‘Hey, what do we fancy doing tonight? Let’s do this one as an encore’ and so on. It’s fun. It’s nice to have the flexibility of being a little bit random.
Diesel 11
As you scream into the web of silence...
Could be new songs just based on the story.
Vaenyr
Ancient Mariner
No leftovers, imo. This clearly reads like new music with connected lyrics (or maybe even just similar themes). Bruce is proud of his new band, has put a lot of emphasis on them being a unit, there's no way he'd go back to old ideas he's had with Roy for the first studio outing of his new band.
dickinson1978
Ancient Mariner
So tomorrow starts the tour? Lets see what he playBruce Dickinson on What’s Next for His ‘Watchmen-Type’ Music/Comic Book Project: ‘I’m Aiming High Here’
Bruce Dickinson on his solo tour, 'The Mandrake Project' and Iron Maiden tour in 2026.
''In April we convened and had a massive, collective brain dump in the studio and came up with 18 song demos, maybe two or three that are connected to Mandrake. Now we’re refining the demos.''
A couple of the new demos are leftovers from TMP or just the lyrics? Probably written solely by Bruce. It would be nice if the lyrics are on different themes.
Something curious about the stage: He’s been working on some fresh visuals, too, and promises a re-set of the stage from what he did before. This is odd and cool at the same time. Fresh visuals are needed.
More:
When I did Mandrake I looked back at all this stuff I’ve done and I went, ‘I’m actually proud of all this stuff. It’s really good!'” he continues with a laugh. “I tend to discount stuff that I’ve done once I’ve done it. I don’t revisit it. Maiden’s the same way. The artist in me wants to move on, move on, move on and keep pushing, but sometimes it’s just nice to sit back, roll in it all and go, ‘This is really cool.’ It’s great to discover I’m a fan of the stuff I did — isn’t that weird?
Mandrake, the story, is constantly unfolding and constantly teaching me things about writing. Episodes five, six and seven are scripted and we’re in the middle of the artwork for that now, getting those done. It’s a long process. It’s a really fascinating process as well. It’s not like a book. It’s not like a film. It really is a complete hybrid art form. So I’m aiming high here; the holy grail in all this is sort of the Watchmen-type comic. And if I even get halfway there, I’ll be very happy. Writing for Mandrake, is like “having a conversation in your head with a thing you’ve already written. In a way you’re interviewing the character you’ve created by saying, ‘Why are you like this? Tell me about yourself, and I’m gonna write a song about you.’ Very interesting.
We have a reasonably varied repertoire, because the band is so flexible, and because it’s not like a Maiden tour where we’re locked into that set with the show and the lights and everything. With this solo tour we can vary it. We can say, ‘Hey, what do we fancy doing tonight? Let’s do this one as an encore’ and so on. It’s fun. It’s nice to have the flexibility of being a little bit random.
FearOfTheLark
Trooper
She's a great player! Good pick for the band
dickinson1978
Ancient Mariner
Tears of the dragon,isnt it? Lol
Kalata
Out of the Silent Planet
Of course, by why would he want to continue writing with the same theme of Mandrake, it's not a sequel album, right.
But if these old ideas were solely written by him and are good, why not. I understand what you mean, and he said maybe though. The band will further work on them. He will discard the co-written songs, but why material written solely by him? I guess we will never hear TCW's leftover song and Nightmares, which is sad.