Bruce Dickinson? Check.

Blaze Bayley? Check.

Paul Di’Anno? Check… now all we need are a couple of albums from Paul Mario Day and Dennis Wilcock and 2024 really would become an annus mirabilis for NWoBHM fans everywhere…

I’m being facetious, of course, but it is really amazing to be sitting here reviewing the third album of the year to emanate from an Iron Maiden-related wordhole. But is Warhorse – the new vehicle for Paul Di’Anno – able to live with recent releases from Bruce n’Blaze? Let’s have a listen and find out…

(thirty five minutes later)…

Well, against all the odds, in answer to my own question – yes it is. Despite a bargain-basement production job and the fact that Di’Anno’s voice now points to the name of the band being more suitably monikered Warhoarse (geddit?), Warhorse, the album, is a rollicking way to spend half an hour of anybody’s time.

Di’Anno’s spirit is palpable throughout; He almost reaches the heights of his glory days on the title track, although for most of the rest of the album he’s clearly struggling to survive in the cacophonous mix. But it doesn’t matter. You’ll find yourself willing the man on, punching the air as he attacks every song with sheer guts and ballbreaking determination. It’s quite literally a triumph, and this album will only guild the great man’s legacy moving forward, given the well-documented travails that surrounded it’s gestation.

Hrvoje Madiraca and Ante ‘pupi’ Pupačić give enthusiastic guitar and songwriting support, building a wall of sound that threatens – but never quite succeeds – to overwhelm Di’Anno’s ragged bellowing. The result is strangely compelling, and, as noted, rather tremendous on the title track and the excellent Forever Bound and The Doubt Within. Mercyful Fate‘s Becky Baldwin lends bass assistance on the majority of the tracks here, adding extra metal cred, and in the final washup – awful cover of drinking anthem Tequila aside – I’d say you’d want this in your collection if you’re a fan of ‘the original voice of Iron Maiden’…

Warhorse releases on July 19th.