Iron Maiden legend Bruce Dickinson has offered fans a tantalising insight into his upcoming new solo album, which is expected some time early next year. Speaking to VSX, the singer promises that the follow-up to 2024's well-received The Mandrake Project will be a heavy affair, though it will in no way be a direct sequel to that album.
'I've got a new record coming out next year, new solo album," he confirms (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). "It's kind of standalone. There's one song that has a bit of something to do with Mandrake. The album is heavy as shit."
Explaining why he didn't simply want to churn out a Mandrake Part 2, Bruce continues: "I try to not repeat - not because it's bad. You want to move on and put different nuances on things. It's like, I would say, if you have an amazing girlfriend and you start thinking, 'Yeah, I'm getting a little bit bored'...just turn the lights down and turn it a different way, and you see a side that you think, 'Oh, my God, she's absolutely incredible.' Just the red light there or the green or whatever, and you see the same person in a different day, in a different light.
"Music is something which you try not to stick too much of a format," he continues. "I'm within a particular style, for sure. But I try and vary it as much as I can."
The Mandrake Project marked Bruce's first solo album in almost 20 years following 2005's Tyranny Of Souls, meaning that he's operating at a relatively prolific pace as a solo artist right now. That's on top of Iron Maiden's ongoing Run For Your Lives world tour, which finished up its latest European leg at a spectacular show at Knebworth in the UK last month, with North American, South and Central American, Asian and Australasian dates still due to take place across the rest of the year.
