Watch the very metal video for Bruce Dickinson’s new single, Rain On The Graves

Bruce Dickinson has unleashed a new single, Rain On The Graves, with an incredibly metal music video.

The Maiden legend’s new effort follows last year’s Afterglow Of Ragnarok, with both singles taken from his upcoming solo album The Mandrake Project (which is due out on March 1 via BMG).

Speaking about how Rain On The Graves came to be, Bruce shares, “I had the chorus lyric since I visited Grasmere for a wedding back in 2012, and it wasn’t difficult years later to create the rest of the song with so much rich imagery in my head!”

In our exclusive December Cover Story with the man himself, Bruce went into a bit more detail about Rain On The Graves, explaining that, “I wrote that song, or part of it, in a graveyard. I was standing in front of Wordsworth’s grave in the Lake District, I’d been on a bit of a pilgrimage to his house. I’m standing by the church and there’s his grave, and it was drizzle and it was grey. And that was it – rain on the graves. I thought, ‘I don’t know what this is about, but this is a moment, and I’ll figure out what it’s about when I write the rest of it.’

“That was probably 2008 or something like that. I’ve had all these things kicking around in drawers, bits of lyrics and things that can all surface at some point. It’s about a guy who meets the Devil in the graveyard and the Devil says, ‘Hey, who are you then? What are you here for?’ And that’s it, isn’t it? Why do we go into graveyards? What are we looking for? It’s full of dead people! But we go into graveyards and there’s something spooky or inspirational.”

The accompanying music video was filmed in Cornwall, and sees Bruce not only put his acting chops to good use as a preacher, but also introducing his ‘House Band from Hell’ – a live band comprised of guitarist Roy Z, drummer Dave Moreno, bassist Tanya O’Callaghan and keyboard player Mistheria.

Enjoy…

Bruce hits the road this year – get your tickets here.

May

18 Glasgow Barrowland Ballroom
19 Manchester O2 Academy
21 Swansea Arena
23 Nottingham Rock City
24 London O2 Forum Kentish Town
26 Paris L’Olympia
28 Tilburg 013
29 Groningen De Oosterport

June

1 Budapest Barba Negra
3 Bucharest Arenale Romane
5-8 Gdansk Mystic Festival
5-8 Solvesborg Sweden Rock Festival
9 Oslo Rockefeller
16 Berlin Huxleys Neue Welt
17 Hamburg Grosse Freiheit 36
19-22 Copenhagen Copenhell
24 Mannheim Zeltfestival Rhein-Neckar
25 Munich Circus Krone
27-30 Clisson Hellfest
30 Esch-Sur-Alzette Rockhal

July

3-6 Ballenstedt Rockharz Open Air
5 Rome Ippodrome Delle Capannelle
6 Vincenza Bassano Del Grappa
9 Koln E-Werk
13 Zagreb Hala
16 Sofia Kolodrum Arena
19 Istanbul Kucukciftlik Park

Read this: Bruce Dickinson: “We’re all living longer and more effective lives, which is great – as long as you do something with it”