BRUCE DICKINSON Releases Music Video For New Solo Single, 'Rain On The Graves'

Архив новостей | Русская версия

IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson has released his brand new single, "Rain On The Graves", accompanied by a thrilling video introducing Bruce's live band, comprising his long-term co-writer and producer Roy "Z" Ramirez, drummer Dave Moreno, bass player Tanya O'Callaghan and keyboard maestro Mistheria.

"Rain On The Graves" is the second single to be taken from Dickinson's forthcoming solo album "The Mandrake Project" which will be released on March 1 via BMG. Bruce and Roy recorded the LP largely at Los Angeles's Doom Room, with Roy doubling up as both guitarist and bassist. The recording lineup for "The Mandrake Project" was rounded out by Mistheria and Moreno, both of whom also featured on Bruce's last solo studio album, "Tyranny Of Souls", in 2005.

Riding on a towering guitar riff, with dramatic keyboards and a commanding vocal performance, "Rain On The Graves" was inspired by a rainy visit to Romantic poet William Wordsworth's grave in the Lake District. The song grew into a rumination on the nature of mortality and the deal with the Devil that artists have come to feel themselves making ever since Robert Johnson proved it worthwhile back in the 1930s.

"I had the chorus lyric since I visited Grasmere for a wedding back in 2012," explains Bruce, "and it wasn't difficult years later to create the rest of the song with so much rich imagery in my head!" It is a classic Dickinson/Roy Z collaboration; a catchy but heavy piece — full of melody but stripping out the spoken vocals of the verses in almost poetic fashion — maybe a further ode to the great wordsmith who inspired the title, somehow juxtaposed with music fit to raise the ghost of Robert Johnson at his metaphorical crossroads.

With a video shot entirely in a wintery Cornwall — again with director Ryan Mackfall — we get to see Bruce the actor, a preacher no less, making his own deal with the Devil and dragging his "House Band From Hell" into the bargain.

The follow-up single to the hugely acclaimed track "Afterglow Of Ragnarok", "Rain On The Graves" showcases the inventive, expansive and absorbing nature of "The Mandrake Project". Sonically heavy and rich in musical textures, the album sees Bruce bring to life a musical vision long in the making.

However, "The Mandrake Project" is not just an album. The comic book of the same name is a dark, adult story of power, abuse and a struggle for identity, set against the backdrop of scientific and occult genius. Created by Bruce, it is a collectable series of graphic novels scripted by Tony Lee ("Dr. Who"),stunningly illustrated by Staz Johnson ("2000AD") and with covers by industry heavyweight Bill Sienkiewicz for Z2 Comics, which will be released as 12 quarterly issues that will be collated into three annual graphic novels with the first coming at the end of 2024. The first individual episode was released in comic shops on January 17 and the special collectors' edition sold out within 48 hours of release.

In a recent interview with Brazil's A Rádio Rock, Bruce spoke about the inspiration for "The Mandrake Project". He said: "[In] 2014, I was gonna do a solo album, follow-up to 'Tyranny Of Souls'. And it was gonna be called 'If Eternity Should Fail'. And the title track I wrote, we did a demo of it, which is actually on the ['Afterglow Of Ragnarok'] single. I actually put the demo of 'If Eternity Should Fail' on the single, on the flip side of the single, so people could see, with the main track, how it evolved from the demo, from the beginning to the MAIDEN version. And because it ended up on [MAIDEN's 2015 album] 'The Book Of Souls', I went, 'Hmm, oh, well. Maybe I won't use it as the title track,' something else. But in any case, I had some other tracks we were working on, with Roy. So then, at the end of 2015, I got diagnosed with throat cancer. So that was a year before I could do anything. And the first thing I had to do was go and go tour with IRON MAIDEN to make up for the time we had lost. So that was 2017. And then I went, 'You know what? Let's go back to America. And, oh, COVID.' And that was three years of not being allowed to go into America. So it was five years —more than five years. I lost seven years of my life [laughs] during that. So in the meantime, the idea of the graphic novel… It was originally just gonna be one comic to do with the album, but the story had grown and changed, and so it became this 12-episode monster. And I was running ideas past a guy called Kurt Sutter, who wrote 'Sons Of Anarchy' and 'The Shield' and stuff. He's an amazing Hollywood writer…. 'Sons Of Anarchy' was the inspiration for the four bikers of the apocalypse in the video [for IRON MAIDEN's] 'The Writing On The Wall'. I wrote the script for that and was very involved in the production, and whilst I was doing it, I was Zooming with Kurt and I ran the idea of 'The Mandrake Project' past him. It wasn't called 'The Mandrake Project' then. We were doing this album and I had no idea what it was gonna be called. And I had this story, and I didn't know what to call the story. And I actually have no idea how I came up with 'The Mandrake Project'. Somewhere I have a piece of paper, and it's got some absolutely ridiculous ideas for the album title. I'm writing them down, 'What about calling it this? What about calling it this?', and just look at them all and go, 'Which one feels right?' And none of them felt right. And then… 'Mandrake' is such a great word. And, actually, has anybody done something [using the word] 'Mandrake'? The answer is no. I was amazed. There was a DEEP PURPLE song, 'Mandrake Root'. There's a French comic called Mandrake The Magician. And there was something called The Mandrake Project, but it was like a one-off drum-and-bass thing. And I thought, 'Well, that's not gonna be an issue.' So, 'The Mandrake Project'. I thought, 'That sounds really cool.' So I thought, 'Well, I could call the album and the comic 'The Mandrake Project'.' Because I had the story, but now calling it 'The Mandrake Project' — brilliant, now I can put that in there. So that's how it evolved — piece by piece by piece."

Last month, Bruce told Brazil's Omelete about the lyrical concept for "The Mandrake Project": "So 'The Mandrake Project' is, one, is an album. It's the name of the album. The comic is a 12-episode graphic novel, kind of adult. There's lots of stuff in it — there's lots of sex and drugs and violence and all kinds of stuff. But it's basically a story about a guy who is looking for his identity, Dr. Necropolis. He's an orphan, he's a genius, and he hates it, and he hates life, but he's involved in The Mandrake Project. And The Mandrake Project aims to take the human soul at the point of death, capture it, store it and put it back in something else. And the guy that's running the project, Professor Lazarus, he has one vision of what's gonna happen with this technology, and Necropolis has other ideas. And on we go with the story."

"The Mandrake Project" track listing:

01. Afterglow Of Ragnarok (05:45)
02. Many Doors To Hell (04:48)
03. Rain On The Graves (05:05)
04. Resurrection Men (06:24)
05. Fingers In The Wounds (03:39)
06. Eternity Has Failed (06:59)
07. Mistress Of Mercy (05:08)
08. Face In The Mirror (04:08)
09. Shadow Of The Gods (07:02)
10. Sonata (Immortal Beloved) (09:51)

(Source: www.blabbermouth.net)

Roman P-V - 2024-01-26 14:54:42

eXTReMe Tracker