{"id":102532,"date":"2024-03-01T00:00:16","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T00:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=102532"},"modified":"2024-03-06T10:48:36","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T10:48:36","slug":"album-review-bruce-dickinson-the-mandrake-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-bruce-dickinson-the-mandrake-project\/","title":{"rendered":"BRUCE DICKINSON – The Mandrake Project (2024) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

BRUCE DICKINSON
The Mandrake Project<\/strong><\/span>
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\nBMG (2024)<\/span>
Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s crazy to think that Bruce Dickinson\u2019s last solo outing Tyranny Of Souls<\/em> was released nearly two decades ago, and even crazier that his debut solo album, Tattooed Millionaire<\/em>, was issued 34 years ago. Damn, time really does fly. The Mandrake Project<\/em> is the Iron Maiden frontman\u2019s seventh full-length solo record and arguably one of his best when it comes down to production. It\u2019s also a very heavy platter and thankfully far more trim than the last Maiden snoozefest (2021\u2019s Senjutsu<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no denying that Dickinson (alongside Roy Z) knows how to write a good tune and the early stages of this ten-track affair serves up some extremely memorable choruses along with the darkened chugs of album pre-release singles \u2018Afterglow Of Ragnarok\u2019 and \u2018Rain On The Graves\u2019, both of which boast hefty riffs. Both tracks were a perfect way of teasing fans and enticing them into this well constructed metallic lair, but maybe some wouldn\u2019t be fully prepared for the diversity within.<\/p>\n

Bruce has always been adventurous with his solo works and that continues with the almost pop-rock of \u2018Many Doors To Hell\u2019, the sombre ballad \u2018Face In The Mirror\u2019 and the epic yet sporadically subtle \u2018Fingers In The Wounds\u2019. I\u2019m sure there will be listeners craving songs that resemble Iron Maiden and to an extent Dickinson delivers with the colossal \u2018Sonata (Immortal Beloved)\u2019 and the gloomy doomier rock of \u2018Eternity Has Failed\u2019. As with a lot of Bruce\u2019s work there is always an air of melancholy although that’s probably down to those familiar operatic banshee wails.<\/p>\n

As with any Dickinson solo project there isn\u2019t a bad song in sight. In fact, Bruce is as powerful as ever, but it\u2019s also a stark reminder that as Dickinson slowly drifts towards his seventies these type of rock frontmen just don\u2019t come along that often. Savour then such grandiose statements as spaghetti western cum 80s goth rock galloper \u2018Resurrection Men\u2019, majestic slow builder \u2018Shadow Of The Gods\u2019 and the chunky, and initially almost funky speedster \u2018Mistress Of Mercy\u2019.<\/p>\n

There are variations aplenty here for another brooding powerhouse of a concept opus that comes accompanied by a vast comic book series. The Mandrake Project<\/em> sounds dark, dramatic and cinematic and has more in common with Soundgarden than those all too overlong recent Maiden records, and for that I\u2019m thankful. This isn\u2019t just a project that Bruce Dickinson has created, but another world that we are blessed to be part of.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BRUCE DICKINSONThe Mandrake Project BMG (2024)Rating: 8.5\/10 It\u2019s crazy to think that Bruce Dickinson\u2019s last solo outing Tyranny Of Souls was released nearly two decades ago, and even crazier that his debut solo album, Tattooed Millionaire, was issued 34 years ago. Damn, time really does fly. The Mandrake Project is the Iron Maiden frontman\u2019s seventh […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5596],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-bruce-dickinson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102533,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102532\/revisions\/102533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}