The Bruce Dickinson Wellbeing Network

Tyranny of souls (2005)

Tracks
Mars Within (Intro)
Abduction
Soul Intruders
Kill Devil Hill
Navigate The Seas Of The Sun
River Of No Return
Power Of The Sun
Devil On A Hog
Believil
A Tyranny Of Souls

Recording info
Produced by Roy Z
Recorded at Castle Oaks, Calabasas & Signature Sound, San Diego and Roy Z's dining room
Mixed by Stan Katayama and >Roy Z

Lineup
Bruce Dickinson - Vocals
Roy Z - Guitar, Bass ("Power of the sun" & "Believil")
Juan Perez - Bass ("Abduction" & "Soul intruders")
Ray "Geezer" Burke - Bass
Maestro Mistheria - Keyboards
David Moreno - Drums

Singles
Abduction

Promo videos
Abduction

With Bruce obviously back in Maiden, being a pilot and radiohost plus a family father perhaps put doing another solo album further down on the priority list. As on the two previous studio albums Bruce has worked closely together with Roy Z in writing the material as well as recording and producing it. In addition to Bruce's hectic schedule Roy Z's other producing activities (Rob Halford, Judas Priest and Rob Rock) kept delaying the project. But in-between their projects the work was quick and painless. Well, painless is perhaps not entirely true. Bruce was in great pain after a nasty fall on stage with Iron Maiden prior to the recording and had to lie down in between vocal takes in Roys dining room.

Apart from producing Roy also supplies all guitars on the album. The remaining musicians are friends of Roy's. Drummer David Moreno and bassist Juan Perez were both in Tribe of Gypsys with Roy. Bassplayer Ray Burke and Roy had played together in Warrior in the early nineties. Roy himself played bass on two of the songs. The only european, apart from Bruce, was keyboard wizard Mistheria from Italy. They never meet in person but had contact with via the internet and phone and he sent his contribution to Roy over the web. This was not the only unusual thing about the recording of the album. Almost all of the guitars were recorded for the demos, before any proper drums or bass were put on "tape", but they stayed on for the final product.

Some of the material was intended for the scrapped "Three Tremors"-project (also referred to as "Trinity") that would have been made up of Bruce, Rob Halford and Geoff Tate. The keen eared listener can spot phrases intended for the each of the singers' vocal style on the titletrack.

Musically the album is a combination of "Accident of Birth" and "The Chemical Wedding". The sound is more in the style of Accident of birth, as the downtuned "Molossian"-guitars that set the character on "The Chemical Wedding" are absent.

Yet again another label, this time Sanctuary subsidary Mayan was to be the home of the record. The pile of labels to release Bruce Dickinson records are piling up!

Bruce and Roy Z in the studio

Click here for the lyrics