By DAN SOUTHALL
BRUCE Dickinson is not one to avoid heavy metal pomp and despite taking nearly 20 years to finally see the light of the digital day, the multi media The Mandrake Project has finally come crashing into our stereo. But was it really worth the wait? As a huge Iron Maiden, fan I am in turn drawn to the vocalist’s solo material. Ever since talk started around the origins of his contribution on the Iron Maiden album Book Of Souls, many of us fans were intrigued to hear what he had locked away.
The Mandrake Project starts off reasonably enough with the bombastic “Afterglow of Ragnarok” and “Many Doors To Hell”, before taking a step towards his alt-metal solo material, with one of the best tracks on the album in “Resurrection Men” with a dash of gallop here, some stoner dirge there and a vocal performance that has Dickinson using every part of his powerful range.
From here, the album doesn’t have much left before it falls into the same murky, self-absorbed plod as Iron Maiden albums have suffered on and off since Dickinson rejoined. “Eternity Has Failed” began its life in this project, and sounds better because it actually has a place in the story, although some of its gallop has been taken to give it a point of difference. But the intro of the track is far superior to its brother version. “Mistress Of Mercy” does its best to get back some of that Accident Of Birth and Tyranny Of Souls bite, possibly borrowing a riff from one of those albums.
Whilst I admire the scope of the project and everything about Bruce Dickinson, the man and the artist, this album feels bland and uninspired most of the time. His vocal prowess is still something to behold and boy does he bang some notes out on the slower, second half of the album! But the punch that the Dickinson and Roy Z solo albums were built upon is often missing, and the glorious guitar tone that made albums like The Chemical Wedding a ying to Bruce’s vocal yang has disappeared for plodding mid-tempo Maidenesque meanderings that feel lost in their own grandiosity.
Where typically Dickinson uses his solo material to stretch his wings, that something special isn’t everywhere here. I hope whatever is left on the hard drives for the next part of this project manages to be more focused on the music that surrounds the story, because as a fan I really wanted more than what is here, not just more but different. Not any different, just the different that Bruce has previously put forward.
Buy The Mandrake Project on vinyl or CD
