Bruce Dickinson is back with the most anticipated album of his solo career… and in all honesty… The Mandrake Project is nothing like I expected it would be…
So let’s take a look The Mandrake Project, discuss its weak and strong points… and then answer the question whether the first Bruce Dickinson solo album in 19 years was even worth all that hype.
We will talk about each song on The Mandrake Project track by track, so here is the tracklist for you:
1. Afterglow Of Ragnarok
2. Many Doors To Hell
3. Rain On The Graves
4. Resurrection Men
5. Fingers In the Wounds
6. Eternity Has Failed
7. Mistress Of Mercy
8. Face In The Mirror
9. Shadow Of The Gods
10. Sonata (Immortal Beloved)
00:00 – Intro
00:23 – Track by track
08:52 – First conclusions
11:10 – Let’s continue
15:25 – 3 parts
16:30 – But there is more
19:39 – Verdict
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Background music: “Uberpunch” Alexander Nakarada (serpentsoundstudios.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
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Are you planning to see Bruce live this year? If so, where?
The album is good, you can listen through it without skipping forward. But after that, it's not worth buying it. It lacks really outstanding memorable songs, or songs that make you pump your fist in the air. It's good background music, but nothing i need to listen to intentionally
I fall in love with face in the mirror at first hearing and i love it 🙂
It is a very good album, but it is not worth all the pre-album hype. IMO, it is a step down from AOB, TCW and TOS. It definitely misses Adrian's influence on the record as well. I still love Bruce. I still love the album. But it didn't make me go wild like some of his past efforts. It's a slow burner fir sure. Like I said, it's my opinion, not law. 🤘🏻🇬🇧🖤
Only listened to the album twice so far but Shadow of the Gods is definitely a stand out track
sorry, the new album is boring like hell and awful. blaze bayleys new album is much much better
The breeding house one of dickinsons best songs imo, its about unit 731. Sonata is my favorite song on mandrake.
Not a bad record. Few stinkers but overall an ok listen. Obviously TCW can never be topped.
I really like this album, and I cannot wait to see Bruce live, in fact this year I'll have seen all 3 recording maiden singers solo live, but out of the mandrake project and circle of stone – I prefer circle of stone I think.
But this album was great and to have both albums release so close to each other was brilliant
It's mediocre definitely when the best track is actually a Maiden song
I feel it's a spiritual sucessor to AoB and TCW, but doesn't quite hit the highs of either. That being said, it's a massive improvement on ToS IMO.
I also think it's a much stronger album than Maiden's last two offerings.
I was massively disappointed with this one. We waited 20 years for this? Best track was Mistress of Mercy which was a bit of a throwback to a Skunkworks/AOB sounds. I do prefer Bruce's version of "Eternity Has Failed." I know their voices aren't a fair comparison and people will probably stone me for this but Blaze's album blew this one out of the water. (Not by production of course, those drums were weak sauce.)
I like the album. Glory to Ukraine!
For me, it's as if If Eternity Should Fail is the warning, while Eternity Has Failed is the consequences.
As they always say, everyone has it's own taste. Honestly, the album it's pretty good for me, there are albums that I like and I understand that many people find it boring, like Maiden's final frontier, and vice versa, albums that I don't like very much like Slayer's Reign in Blood but I understand why many people love it, to give two examples, however, I can't understand the hate that is being given to this album, do you really think there are so many bad songs in the album? There are 2 that don't convince me, but the rest are generally quite enjoyable like "Many Door to Hell", "Fingers in the wounds" or "Shadow of the gods". I give it a 4/5. I sincerely believe that the things that happens is not that they really don't like it but that the expectations were TOO high (19 years without an album, they have been working on it for many years… etc.) If you answer me, please be respectful, I have simply given my opinion.
Lostenes to it three times yesterday. I orefer it over if tyranny of souls. Rain on the graves for me is the weakest song.
and yes Bruce is back 😊 thank you for still producing so high quality music at this age!
After hearing the singles(did take time to digest and i admit i was on the fence) im positive surpriced, liked it a lot and as commented below, music you put on your favorite list isnt what you like or think is a masterpiece the first time you hear it, it takes several listens and it growns on you, thats a sign of quality and the album is there for me
Mediocre
For me it's a pass. Some songs were good, none were great. Compared to his other solo albums.
I’ve only listened to it once. I enjoyed it, but it didn’t really grab me. Something about it seems like it’s going to grow on me in a big way, but I won’t know for sure until I’ve listened a few more times.
It's a fun album. Fingers in the Wounds is about influencers and yet he decided to put bongos and Middle Eastern scales in the middle 😆 Why the hell not? I love it.
This one ages like a fine wine, it's not that great the first listen but gets better and better
It's dull, slow, messy and unimaginative
10:06 Так приятно слышать эти слова на знокомом языке
i think bruce hasn't put a bad album yet, but this one suffers from overhype and the long wait… first single got me pumped, second one, was meh… whole album mmmm… first half is ok, i love afterglow of ragnarok and resurrection men, the second half is amazing… though throughtout the album you can listen bruce struggling with his voice sometimes while in other moments he shines… overall i say 6/10… after 19 years it seems it could have been worked a little more to get a better result…
This album Come to the right time! Great album, Great song! Great production! I cant wait the live concert! 🤫🤫🤫
Too much hype. Not worth it.
I really appreciate your honest review. Pretty much every metal magazine or journal has given it blazing reviews, but I don't think they are being totally accurate. I mean, it's ok to say if some tracks are not that good right?
But all these guys writing for Kerrang, Metal Hammer, Classic Rock etc. are saying this is the best thing since sliced bread and I don't believe that's the full picture. Not one of them has written about each track and what they're like with positives or negatives, just a summary of the whole album.
So thanks Metal Pilgrim for giving this album a worthy review. Slava Ukraini! Cheers! Robin.
P.S. I posted a similar comment on Capnharris's page as I thought you communicated some ideas in common.
I agree with you 99%!
I do think the first half is the more accesible stuff, while they second one is the more intricate and experimental stuff.
I gave the record a 9/10 on my personal Review.
I think this album is over the first three Bruce records, but it underneath Accident and Chemical.
Btw, where would you rank this album in a Dickinson Ranking? It tops Tyranny of Souls? Or is it too soon??
Cheers, friend! Love your channel 🤟🏼🇺🇾
Alot of Sabbath influences in some of the heavy riffs in my opinion.
I find all the best music takes multiple listens to fully appreciate, otherwise you're better off listening to pop music 🙃
Eternity Has Failed blew me away on the first listen. I have played IESF and EHF back-to-back several times since. 🤘🏼
The new album is excellet
I was really looking forward to this album. I love all his solo albums. I went through it two times today. I didn't like it the first time. No improvement on the 2nd listen. Apart from the first single, none of the songs appeal to me 😪
Musically, brilliant. Vocal performance is superb. What lets this album down is the production.
on first listen..i thought it was was decent to pretty decent. Less heavy
I like the music!!!
Mistress of Mercy (at least the start of it) really felt like Headswitch from Skunkworks, but can definitely hear Freak in it too. Mandrake certainly isn't a weak album when compared to everything else released after Tyranny of Souls, though I think it really needs to grow on me more before I consider it to be in the same field as Accident of Birth and Chemical Wedding. Face in the Mirror really does not fit well in Bruce's catalog.
I think this is a good album, great diversity of songs and interesting production. I would like to call out to the Dolby Atmos mix, which has hits and misses on delivering the experience in many aspects. First, it worth a listen. It helps to better capturing Roy Z's intentions with the instruments and the storytelling with the production. Rain on the Graves sound more interesting when you have all those sound effects filling up the room, plus the different placements of Bruce's voice – really cool. On the other hand, Shadow of the Gods ends up a bit ruined. The orchestration gets bigger with the color and movement, but Bruce voice sounds far and is completely buried in the mix. Balance could be an issue to many parts, sometimes from verse to chorus. It makes me think they did not properly tested it before releasing it. Dolby Atmos mixes in rock/metal generally fall short, but here it was about to work fine if it wasn’t these issues. If you want to get an idea of what a good Dolby Atmos mix should sound like, check out the latest abums of Steven Wilson or the Beatles catalog remastered on Apple Music.
I liked it but not that I enjoyed it 100% (maybe I had a good mood when listening to it, who knows?), but to those who didn't like it at all I recommend it as a good antidote for insomnia haha
I'm very happy with the album. Very fun, very metal, very Bruce 🤘🏻🤘🏻
Blaze’s last couple of singles have been better than this snorefest.