Bruce Dickinson
Tyranny Of Souls

I was a nascent fan of Iron Maiden when I discovered Bruce Dickinson's solo career. After acquiring all his solo works, I stumbled upon this CD completely by chance. After getting it and listening to it for the first time, I fell in love with it to the point of knowing every little detail and considering it one of my absolute favorite albums. With this introduction, I want to explain my choice to review this, in my opinion, almost-masterpiece.

This album, although Bruce had already hinted at its release while touring with Iron Maiden, is a disorienting one: both because Roy Z, friend, guitarist, and producer, played all the bass and guitar parts present on the record, and because of the sound, completely different from what we were accustomed to in the last albums with Bruce (but also without) as it returns to those hard and dark sounds that characterized the last two albums (but especially the last one, "The Chemical Wedding"). It is precisely what any fan of Iron Maiden, especially if staunch and more attached to the first phase of their career, might desire the most: an album without Harris's progressive ambitions, with immediate but also epic music, with hard and dark lyrics, with a strong desire to enjoy their own music. And the old Bruce delivers divinely in this LP, not missing a beat, both in the compositional phase, never superficial, without writing filler songs that we so often find in Maiden's albums, and in the execution phase; he indeed delivers a series of excellent, spirited, and flawless performances.

But let's talk about the songs, perhaps a bit few, only nine plus an intro, but perfect. "Mars Within" is a dark and apocalyptic start that introduces "Abduction", a great song that sets the assault coordinates; grim, fast, and powerful as we had almost forgotten, it leaves us momentarily stunned, then moshing and euphoric that a master of heavy metal has been hard at work. The following "Soul Intruders" starts suddenly with an insane drum piece combined with another riff of rare effectiveness. "Kill Devil Hill" is a more epic track that closes with a magnificent acoustic arpeggio fading. It continues with "Navigate The Seas of The Sun", completely acoustic, but no less beautiful for that: a sweet and melancholic song, pervaded by a sadness that fascinates anyone and amazes with its poetry. Good as well is "River of No Return", which is more similar to "Kill Devil Hill", with a hard and epic tone. "Power of The Sun" is the shortest and most immediate song and it reminds us most of the Irons; introduced by Bruce's scream that opens into a powerful riff, it runs quickly and, even if it brings nothing new to its style, is one of the best on the disc. Then comes "Devil On A Hog", a song with a catchy chorus, featuring a perfect solo by Roy Z. "Believil" is the darkest piece, with abyssal and very dark sounds, with a screamed chorus that isn't bad, but it's the least favorite song of mine on the album.

The album concludes with the masterpiece "Tyranny of Souls"; it starts slow and subdued, but the atmosphere is very tense and we anticipate the spike that arrives punctually in the chorus, one of the most beautiful moments of the album, but the real masterstroke is the introduction of a second guitar in the second chorus, with a sharp and brilliant sound, enveloping the listener and absolutely convincing them of Roy Z's talent, author of a sensational performance that accompanies one of the most fitting choruses of Bruce's career. The only flaw of this record is that it ends too soon. It is an excellent CD for those who want to know the true soul of Bruce Dickinson, which does not stand out in Iron Maiden and is also a great record for all those who want a heavy metal without prog nuances, authorial and brilliant.