Bruce Dickinson - Tyranny of Souls

In the seven years since his last solo release, Bruce Dickinson made a hugely successful return to Iron Maiden, recording two acclaimed albums and touring the globe several times.

Tyranny Of Souls sees him renewing his collaboration with guitarist/producer Roy Z. Z has worked with Bruce since 1994’s Balls To Picasso album and most recently produced Judas Priest’s reunion album.

A staggeringly powerful album, Tyranny Of Souls takes the listener on an adventurous journey, beginning in punishing fashion with apocalyptic drumming and fiery guitar work before "Navigate The Seas Of The Sun" supplies what Bruce calls "a little chill-out moment."

From there it builds to a spectacular conclusion with the ultra-heavy title track.

The album’s piece de resistance is its title track. At turns soothingly melodic and staggeringly powerful, it can only be described as a juggernaut. "The opening part was also cribbed from the three witches in Macbeth. Basically, it’s what the whole track ended up being about – the supernatural manipulating people from behind their backs."

Lyrically, the album dips in and out of sci-fi and aviation-related areas. There are no prizes for guessing what the song "Abduction" is about, but "Soul Intruders" is a distant cousin, Bruce wondering aloud whether "there are loose spirits floating around the universe. They can zap into our bodies and inhabit us, a bit like a computer virus, and we don’t even know they’re there. When we die, they just attach themselves to somebody else." Album Description

 Bruce is back
This Tyranny of souls cd is great.Bruce and Roy Z have done it again.
there are 10 killer tracks on this collection of songs with ripping
guitar work, killer vocals and great drum tracks.
As with a lot of Bruce Dickinson's stuff the lyrics are doused with
his cultism style of poetry.
True, Bruce had a lot of hit and miss with his solo career but
there is a lot more hitting than missing on this one.
Another great cd of his would be 'the best of Bruce Dickinson'
He and guitarist ROY Z work great together.
Roy also did a good job on the production as well.
If you are a guitar player, this cd is great to play along with. April 15, 2008

 Bruce is getting better with Age
With so many bands (mostly hair metal) that had huge amounts of success in the 1980's and early 90's, releasing albums of failure, I rub my head and wonder how does Bruce Dickinson continue to release outstanding material? Easy, Bruce has proved that he wasnt just another flash in the pan. Both as a Solo Artist and with Iron Maiden, he is proven that he is just getting better with age. Sure, Bruce is the vocalist here, not the entire band, but he writes the music, and chooses the band memembers, and once again its a treat to hear his albums are all getting better as he moves on through age. Its actually strange, since his solo works seem better then the newer Maiden albums. Dont get me wrong, Iron Maidens last two releases were both very good, but still wind up a bit short of the classics such as "The Number of the Beast" and "Powerslave" . It is in this reviewers opinion, that not only has every solo album gotten better since the release of "Tattooed Millionare" , but 2005's "Tyranny of Souls" is his best solo album to date. This is the heaviest album that Bruce has done, and even though at times there are hints of Iron Maiden's sound, he manages to create a powerful crunching dose of heavy metal, played exactly the way it should be. No frills, no hip-hip overtones, no un-neccassry whimpy screams (ugggh metalcore anyone, no thanks) just straight up heavy metal. All Metal fans should love this realease. Thumbs up to Bruce for still being able to deliver after all this time. ENJOY This! February 25, 2008

 Brilliant
I wanted to add mine to the chorus of voices praising this album. I've actually owned the album since the week it came out, and I simply can't listen to it enough. It perhaps suffers slightly in comparison to Bruce's magnum opus, The Chemical Wedding (especially the reissue), but not by much.

For me, the standout tracks are "Tyranny of Souls," with it's introductory quotation from Macbeth; "River of No Return," which seems to describe the feeling a person has upon achieving spiritual awakening; and "Kill Devil Hills," a song about the flights of the Wright Brothers whose soaring chorus and impassioned lyrics give me chills everytime I hear them.



February 19, 2008

 Bruce Dickinson Tyranny of Souls
I'm amazed that anyone would rate this album less than 5 stars. What we have here is a Metal God, Bruce Dickinson, that has evolved beyond the vocalist that he was back in the day with Maiden. This album is one of the best rock albums put out in the past 20+ years. I'd even rank it as one of the best of all time. Dickinson's voice is unreal on this album, his imagination and lyrical style has reached a new level. The guitar parts by Roy Z are phenomenal, the recording is top rate, everything about this album is great. I recommend buying this album over nearly any other other rock or metal album put out...ever. One of the BEST OF ALL TIME!!! October 27, 2007

 Worst of the 3
Definitely the worst of the 3, Accident of Birth being #1, Chemical Wedding #2. Not much to speak real fondly of on this one. Buy another Maiden instead! July 25, 2007

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