 Oh my lord, it's been so many years. Bruce Dickinson finally has released some new music. He has with Roy Z with me today. Jaws Lavery all the way in Germany. Yes, just go out of the shower. Nice. Nice. You're clean. You're clean for a review, right? Bruce Dickinson. After Golo Vragnarok. This is the first track off of the upcoming album. Mm hmm. The Mandrake Project, which will be released in the new year the exact day. Maybe you can see it there, but I don't have it in front of me. Thought I had it. Anyways, this is the new track. This is the first single to be taken from the album, a dramatic and epic track that introduces the world, not just to the music of the album, but to the compelling narrative that forms the basis of the Mandrake Project. The Mandrake Project is a dark adult story. Abuse and a struggle for identity set against the backdrop of scientific scientific and occult genius. Created by Bruce Dickinson, scripted by Tommy Lee and stunning illustrations by Stas Johnson. All right, right off the bat. What did you think? First impressions? You heard the song, you go, Bruce is back. I listened to it twice so far. Um, it's a mid tempo. Powerful song with a good chorus and a good hook. It's going to take a little bit more digesting than I've had time to give it because I literally just got it. It's definitely not a road to hell or, you know, quick, short, fast up tempo number like some of his other solo stuff. Or obviously, Iron Maiden. It certainly indicates that we're in for a fairly conceptual piece of work, the dreaded concept album. Because of Brick. But anyway, yes, it's good. It's very good, and it's going to get better with repeated listens and, you know, hearing a properly mastered file. So, yeah, it sounds to me, it sounds more like something of tyranny or souls than chemical wedding. OK, my first impression. All right. I mean, we should also mention who's in the band. And of course, we know that Roy Z is doing all the guitars. Tanya O'Callaghan is the bassist. Dave Moreno is drums and Mysteria is keyboards. Are you familiar with these people other than other than Roy Z? No, neither am I. I kind of I think I've been always waiting for Bruce Dickinson to come out with that perfect album. Like as much as I love chemical wedding, tyranny of souls, accident of birth. I don't find him as perfect albums. I think they're amazing. They're great albums. But I just feel I always get this feeling that he's got one knockout album that will be his legacy as a solo artist. And after hearing this song, I think he's on the right track. I haven't heard the rest of the album, just this one song. I don't know. I think there's something big about the production. I think I hear I'm not sure if it's downtuned or not. It might be slightly downtuned. What do you think? Generally, generally, when he works with Roy Z, they do take it down. You know, we will we'll see. I mean, Bruce Bruce likes to downtune. He always laments the fact that I'm made and like could terrified to do so. And they did it on one song and the sky didn't fall. He said so. But yeah, he definitely is a fan of tuning things down a little bit and making them a little bit heavier. And they even put bass strings on the guitars on the chemical wedding. So yes, I expect a heavy rock cabinet rumbler of a record, as we used to call him. You know, it's interesting. He sings the verse and it's very he's got that soundscape at the beginning, right? That sort of that build up. And then it goes into the verse. It's really, you know, that sort of neonites you're going to run, you're driving your car pedal to the metal kind of upbeat sound. And then he gets into this bridge and I was kind of thinking to myself, is he like changing key into a minor key at this point? Maybe the guitarist out there can tell me more, you know, the minds of music can tell me out there. But he sort of goes in this higher register on the bridge. And he sounds like he's singing, I don't know, in a minor key. Good, most good heavy metals in a minor key. That's the difference between a lot of these sunset strip bands that were very major key kind of rock jump around the room party rock and then, you know, things like Rainbow and obviously Sabbath and, you know, I made no exception. The minor key is the heavy metal. The darker side of heavy metal. The darker key, yeah. So there we go. It's a great song. What about the chorus? Typically an Iron Man were used to, you know, the band repeating the title of the song. I like that. I like that because in case you forget the name of the song, they'll remind you. You die with your boots on. If you're going to die, you're going to die. Don't you think I can save you? Don't you think I'm a savior? Don't you think I could save your life? Being my favorite. Yes, the chorus, like a lot of Bruce's stuff would made in and without. It's just begging for a bit more background harmony and stacking those vocals in the chorus is a little bit more to make it pop. Otherwise they sound like verses with a singular vocal. I think he's got a double in there. I would love to hear that. But usually, therefore, it takes a couple of listens for the chorus to really get ingrained because there isn't that big highlighter pen over top of it in the form of a ton of stacked vocals to go, yes, this is the chorus. In case you didn't realize, here it is. But it's a great song. I love the chorus because to me, what you're just saying, it has those elements. Maybe it's not the, you know, come on, feel the noise, big gang vocals. But it does have that. Well, kind of Madness is a good example of good use of harmony with an Iron Maiden. So is Wasted Years. There's numerous examples. There never been ones that are gonna overdo it and you're not gonna get like, you know, a Chicago type of harmonies in there. But it doesn't hurt in rock to have a couple of those in the chorus. I'm just trying to say that in this chorus, I find it's a big chorus. It's a melodic chorus. It's a catchy chorus. And because he doesn't have that can I play with Madness, you know, thirds and fourths in the chorus, he's got that keyboard in there which brings it out more and makes it big and more melodic and more memorable and more accessible, right? Yes. What about the guitar solo? Do you remember that part? Yeah, it's good. I mean, you know, it's a good guitar solo. I mean, Roy's, he's a brilliant guitar player and a great musician. And he's a good example of a guitar player that writes songs and riffs. I mean, like you always, I mean, again, someone like his hard player friends will hate me for this, but no one cares about your chops as much as they care about the song and are you playing in key and in time? Those three things are far more important than your solo. So... That's a good point because that is a great segue and he does just that on the solo. Very remind me a little bit of a rage against the machine, Tom Morello, you know, pushing that pulsating. He's got that guitar effect, that pitch-shifting effect on the solo, but it's not a long solo. It's just short enough to your point. It's just a short suite and goes... Randy Rhodes, of course, being the ultimate in both worlds, both amazing solos and amazing songwriter. All right, so how would you compare this to Iron Maiden, with the exception of the downturn? The same way I would compare Turenia Sol's and Chemical Wedding in Accident of Birth to Iron Maiden, everyone sort of, not everybody, but a lot of people come out and say, well, these are the best albums Iron Maiden didn't make and haven't made since Power Slave or whatever, but they're actually very different. Iron Maiden have never, ever been as riff-driven now. I mean, Bruce's... That's a good point, that's a good point, right there. Bruce's solo stuff harkens back more to like the Tony Aomee, just really propelling the song along with a powerful, powerful riff. Resign Maiden are a bit more Jeff Royce's style influence, where the melody is doing most of the work, which is, again, brilliant, and they're my favorite band, but Bruce's stuff is far more riff-rhythm and riff-driven, and that's why you get that big wall of powerful guitars that starts off, you put any of them on. Everything from Accident of Birth onwards. Well, I think that you nailed it because this is a riff-driven song. It's a car-driving riff-driven song, a neonite-ish sort of riff-driven, right? I mean, King and Crimson being a case in point from Chemical Wedding. I mean, there's an example of that riff-driven... You know what the trick was? Because the 90s was very much returning to the riff, getting, it's more rhythmical, bands like Tool and all that, but those bands lost all the melody, that's the problem. They had the riffs, but they lost the melody. Whereas when Bruce put out Chemical Wedding, Accident of Birth, it was riff-driven, which meant it could sit in the 90s in a contemporary way, but he didn't lose the melody. He kept the Maiden melody, or the heavy metal melody, or the heavy rock melody type. That was very typical of the 80s metal bands, particularly the band he came from, Iron Maiden, but it was coupled with the powerful riff. So that's what made it work. That's why a lot of younger people say, wow, I love Chemical Wedding. It's one of my favorite heavy metal albums, because it satisfies that, you know, people that want that driving riff along with a big chorus, that's just burst out of your speakers and grabs you. Yeah, yeah. And you know what I also really liked about it? There's a little bit of a spoken word, right before the chorus. There's a little bit of a break or a bridge. Yes. And it sort of brings out the concept nature of the song. And I think this is exactly how they stated in the press release that it sets it up. This song sets up the album perfectly. I mean, it looks, all signs are pointing to this being a concept album, which does worry me a little bit. Because I mean, Crimson Idol, amazing. Judas Priest, Nostradamus, not so amazing. But I'm sure Bruce knows better, so let's wait and see. All right, so what do you think about the whole conceptual artwork that, you know, that blue that? I haven't seen it. I've seen pictures of it on Facebook, but I haven't seen the, I haven't held it in my hand. I can't buy it anywhere. I wanted to order it from Amazon. It's gone. My local satin store doesn't have it. So, yeah. But you've seen Bruce sort of like, you know, in that? Yeah, I've seen the cover. But if something that's not the cover of the single, the single's got to be in. No, I'm talking about just the imagery of that we're seeing on Facebook. Lara Croft. Yes, yes, yes. That's right. That's Tomb Raider. Yes, yes. That's like her. So, so far, what do you think? What are your first impressions? What do you think? Nothing to worry about. I think we're good. I think it's going to be a decent, good, very respectable, presentable, and perhaps even seminally robust solo album from Bruce Dickinson. I love this song. I love every part of the song. I love the intro. I love the bridges. I love the solo. I just, I think this is a perfect way to start off, to kickstart off the campaign for his new album. And I think it's more organic. It's very, it sounds very car-driven, organic. Still, Bruce is not doing his, his Iron Maiden singing style. He's more of the Bruce solo album singing style, which, which less operatic, I shall say. OK, well, I like them both. But I like them both, but they're different. That's all. And that's it. All right, thanks everybody for tuning in, Charles. Let's, let's do our reaction video pose.