Tyranny of Souls

Tyranny of Souls is a heavy metal album released by Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson on 23 May 2005. The cover art is a work by renaissance artist Hans Memling. It is his first solo album since rejoining Maiden in 1999 and his most recent studio album as a solo artist. The songwriting on the album was split between Roy Z and Dickinson. During composition, Roy sent recordings of riffs to Dickinson, who was on tour with Iron Maiden. Dickinson subsequently wrote lyrics and melodies. Roy also served as the album's producer and played all guitar parts as well as some supplemental bass guitar and piano parts. Drummer David Moreno featured a double bass for the album, notably using it for a blast beat in "Abduction" and for the opening of "Soul Intruders". "Kill Devil Hill" is inspired by the successful flight by the Wright brothers in 1903. See Kill Devil Hills. "Navigate the Seas of the Sun" is inspired by Erich Von Däniken's theory about extraterrestrial presence on Earth long ago and about man dealing with that in the future. The title track is somewhat based on Shakespeare's tragedy MacBeth, and includes direct quotes and lines from the play throughout the song.