BRUCE DICKINSON - The Mandrake Project
Scream For Me, Mandrake!
Written by: Chris Rattray | Friday 23rd February 2024
In a post-Covid Tik-Tok world where music has been reduced to bite-sized clickbait for views, BRUCE DICKINSON (part-time IRON MAIDEN vocalist, full-time creative Force Majeure) has torn a full ten-song album's worth of narrative kicking and screaming from his soul to our ears via The Mandrake Project.
The sonic chapters are illustrated with Dickinson's signature vocals, growling in parts, soaring in others, but always assured. Guitarist, producer, and collaborator, Roy Z, provides an energetic canvas for the rest of the company to paint tales of dangerous occult temptation, hope, tragedy, and longing.
From the urgent foot-stomping thrust of the opening track, ‘Afterglow of Ragnarok’, to the Latin American/BLACK SABBATH pastiche of ‘Resurrection Men’, The Mandrake Project is confidently delivered with bombastic precision. It's dramatic and tense, with just a touch of dreamy psychedelic madness exemplified by the Eastern-tinged track, ‘Fingers in the Wounds’.
As singable as the snack-sized songs are though, it's those that linger around the longer length that shine as they fully allow Bruce and mates to express the conceptual nature of the material. ‘Eternity Has Failed’, ‘Shadow of the Gods’, and ‘Sonata (Immortal Beloved)’ are the highlights.
The former has been kicking around in various forms for a while and is so bloody good that Bruce's other bandmates in IRON MAIDEN co-opted a version of it to open their 2016 album, The Book of Souls under the title, ‘If Eternity Should Fail’. Here, it's re-interpreted with cinematic flair.
’Shadow of the Gods’ moves through three distinct movements to form a satisfying whole. The opening piano-led QUEEN-like few minutes give way to a classic head-banging riff, before resolving into a lighter-raising haunted melodic trance; proper goose-bumps stuff.
The closing track continues the haunted melodic trance thing, as the album builds to release on this. On its own, it probably wouldn't be as satisfying, but with the build-up of the proceeding nine tracks, ‘Sonata (Immortal Beloved)’ is a deserved finale; a meditative salute like a soul drifting across The River of the Dead on their last journey... before raising a joyous middle finger to the abyss.
Because, despite the weighty subject matter, there's a cheeky element of play infused throughout. The catchy hook-driven chorus of ‘Many Doors to Hell’ and the chuggy nursery rhyme of ‘Rain on the Graves’ ensure a darkly comedic tone. Track seven, ‘Mistress of Mercy’ is a sassy howl of defiance, though the following track, ‘Face in the Mirror’, despite a promising start, falls a little flat with its repetitive chorus. But that's a minor misstep.
Overall, The Mandrake Project is a glimpse into the funfair of BRUCE DICKINSON's internal universe. There's always something new to discover with each listen, and though none of us know our fate, we will go to it laughing... or at least screaming along to some killer tunes.
