{"id":21310,"date":"2025-07-22T01:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T05:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=21310"},"modified":"2025-07-20T23:24:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T03:24:00","slug":"bruce-dickinson-re-imagines-his-1994-balls-to-picasso-album-with-a-2025-release-of-more-balls-to-picasso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=21310","title":{"rendered":"Bruce Dickinson Re-Imagines His 1994 Balls to Picasso album with a 2025 Release of More Balls to Picasso"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whenever a band\/artist announces that they are about to release a \u201cre-imagining\u201d of an album, I usually roll my eyes, bite my lip, and ask the gods of all things sacred, \u201cWHY???\u00a0 WHY???\u201d\u00a0 When it was announced earlier this month that Bruce Dickinson<\/strong> would be taking this route with his 1994 debut post-Iron Maiden<\/strong> album, Balls to Picasso<\/em>, I screamed to the heavens and the hells, \u201cWHY???????\u201d<\/p>\n

Balls to Picasso marks Bruce\u2019s first time collaborating with Roy Z and utilized Z\u2019s band, Tribe of Gypsies, as the backing band for the album.\u00a0 Over the years, Balls To Picasso would be a cult classic in the metal world, yielding some of Bruce\u2019s best writing, such as \u201cLaughing in the Hiding Bush,\u201d \u201cGods of War,\u201d and the epic \u201cTears of the Dragon.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have a very personal relationship with Balls to Picasso<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Bruce had left Iron Maiden, and when he released this album, I had just left my band with a feeling of loss, defeat, and depression.\u00a0 Hearing Balls to Picasso put a lot of things in perspective for me, and it quickly became a favorite of mine.<\/p>\n

Even after all his releases, I still hold it dear, so the idea of \u201cre-imagining it\u201d had me wondering why you would fuck with something that is already a perfect album?\u00a0 What\u2019s that old saying?\u00a0 \u201cIf it ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t fix it.\u201d\u00a0 Well, Bruce thought this album needed some fixing and did so for 2025’s More Balls to Picasso<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dickinson says of it, \u201cWhile mixing all my catalogue into Dolby Atmos I had a nagging desire to revisit and reinvent the record. So putting more balls into \u2018Balls\u2026\u2019 was a labour of love. Of course, we beefed up the guitars <\/em>\u2013 courtesy of our \u2018Swedish shredder\u2019 Philip Naslund and we added some really beautiful work by Adassi Addasi on \u2018Tears\u2026\u2019 as well. Fellow Brazilian composer Antonio Teoli added some stunning orchestral arrangements, and in a unique contribution, added indigenous instruments from the Amazon (recorded by himself when he lived there!) at the beginning of \u2018Gods Of War\u2019. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Shoot All The Clowns\u2019 gets the benefit of a horn section fronted by the Berklee College of Music, and all of the record gets the benefit of the mix by Brendan Duffey, (who worked on The Mandrake Project), with notes along the way from Shay Baby, the original father of the album\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

Additionally, More Balls to Picasso<\/em><\/strong> includes two previously unreleased live in-the-studio tracks, \u2018Gods of War\u2019 and \u2018Shoot All the Clowns\u2019.<\/p>\n

After hearing this new version of \u201cGods of War\u201d with it\u2019s thunderous tribal drums and clean production taking the place of the murky original brought a whole new life to the song and if this one song is any indication of what the read of More Balls to Picasso has in store for us, I\u2019d say it\u2019s going to be a fucking brilliant masterpiece.<\/p>\n

Pre-order now, for release on July 25<\/a><\/p>\n

Tracklisting
\n<\/u><\/strong>1. Cyclops
\n2. Hell No
\n3. Gods of War
\n4. 1000 Points of Light
\n5. Laughing in the Hiding Bush
\n6. Change of Heart
\n7. Shoot All the Clowns
\n8. Fire
\n9. Sacred Cowboys
\n10. Tears of the Dragon
\n11. Gods of War (Live in the Studio)*
\n12. Shoot All the Clowns (Live in the Studio)*<\/p>\n