The new issue of Metal Hammer features Bruce Dickinson on the cover, as the Iron Maiden legend releases The Mandrake Project – a new solo album accompanied by an epic comic series.
Inside the magazine, we fly to Brazil for a comic convention, where Bruce reveals the secrets behind The Mandrake Project. Two decades in the making, and collectively featuring necromancy, dead twins, bored vampires and sex magic, it’s his most ambitious solo project yet.
In the brand new interview, Bruce explains how working with his longtime guitarist/producer Roy Z is different to getting in a room with Steve Harris and co. in Maiden.
“It’s not that Maiden albums aren’t fun, but we don’t get to play like children,” he says. “Steve is very specific about stuff: things have to be done this way. It’s the way we’ve always worked and it’s obviously worked very well. Whereas me and Roy, we’re like kids in a sandbox going, ‘Hey, look at this, Zee, I can put this toy up my nose!’ It’s just energising.”
Elsewhere in the issue, Lzzy Hale chooses her favourite Halestorm songs ever – featuring ballads written on beaches, duets with Evanescence’s Amy Lee, and threesomes.
We also quiz Babymetal on their dance routines, take a trip around the tombs and monuments of Weird Britain with rising occult metal upstarts Green Lung, and dissect the life and times of black metal pioneer Ihsahn.
From samurai metal to next-gen hardcore, we choose the exciting new bands set to soundtrack the next 12 months, as well as meeting Dogma – the band of sacrilegious nuns doing naughty things with corn…
Plus, we ask triple-vocalist Swedish sensations Amaranthe why they’re so extra, and remember the making of Opeth’s haunting Windowpane.
All this, along with Tool, Sleep Token, Periphery, Alt Blk Era, Deathgasm, Of Mice & Men and much, much more!
Only in the new issue of Metal Hammer, on sale now. Order it online and have it delivered straight to your door.
