Bruce Dickinson has released his brand new single, Rain On The Graves, accompanied by a thrilling video introducing Bruce’s live band, comprising guitarist Roy Z, drummer Dave Moreno, bass player Tanya O’Callaghan and keyboard maestro Mistheria.
Rain On The Graves is the second single to be taken from Bruce Dickinson’s forthcoming solo album The Mandrake Project, which will be released on March 1, via BMG.
Riding on a towering guitar riff, with dramatic keyboards and a commanding vocal performance, it was inspired by a rainy visit to Romantic poet William Wordsworth’s grave in the Lake District. The song grew into a rumination on the nature of mortality and the deal with the Devil that artists have come to feel themselves making ever since Robert Johnson proved it worthwhile back in the 1930s.
“I had the chorus lyric since I visited Grasmere for a wedding back in 2012,” explains Bruce, “and it wasn’t difficult years later to create the rest of the song with so much rich imagery in my head!” It is a classic Dickinson/Roy Z collaboration; a catchy but heavy piece – full of melody but stripping out the spoken vocals of the verses in almost poetic fashion – maybe a further ode to the great wordsmith who inspired the title, somehow juxtaposed with music fit to raise the ghost of Robert Johnson at his metaphorical crossroads.
