Senjutsu - 3rd September 2021

Both the title and artwork surprised me. The title feels very un-Maidenish, and I was expecting the cover to have more details. I think I like it though. Eddie being front and center of attention is the way it should be.
 
LooseCannon said:
I like Samurai Eddie quite a lot more than I expected to, based on the CGI version from TWOTW. I wish his face was a little less brutal, but the grimace here is far more natural than it was on the CGI guy. The detail work in the gusoku is really stellar by Wilkinson, as is the crest on the kabuto.
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This is more bearable than the video Eddie, indeed.
 
I'm a huge fan of the this and the last album's quality of a sort of minimalist cover. Eddie is front and center, as he should be, and the details are all on him. And with Wilkinson's work, I swear if you told me Derek Riggs was the artist, I'd believe you. His style is even closer to Riggs than Grant's ever was. I like the black/dark back ground of the albums. It's stark, bold, and not super busy. We have plenty of album covers full of busy details, and they're great. But sometimes an album needs to be a statement of the band's intent, and a bold minimalist cover helps to convey that message.
 
Belshazzar said:
You can't have it both ways, mate. You either want a short record or a full album experience... When I listen to music, that's my focus. I don't have it in in the background.

I remember when DoD came out, I got the audio DVD and listened to it in surround sound. I plonked a chair slap bang in the middle of the room, cranked it up, stuck a blindfold on and allowed myself to be absorbed.
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Hmm, I believe I can have it both ways. I regularly sit down to listen to albums that are an hour plus and actively enjoy them. One of many examples being my bi weekly listening of Alive of Athens, and yeah I'm damn near hooked for the full thing. The last five Iron Maiden albums have been over an hour long and only two I can stomach to listen to in one sitting. There's just too much fat and not enough trimming, in my opinion. And from how Book of Souls was for me, I don't feel good about the 83 runtime.
 
Mosh said:
It’s also interesting that they’ve decided to match what they were doing on TBOS in so many ways. Same studio, same recording approach, even the same cover artist. I am surprised they went for the simple Eddie on black cover scheme again. That was such a unique move on TBOS. I hope there’s a nice gatefold piece like TBOS had.

With all that said, the writing credits are pretty surprising. Very little Dickinson input, which I was not expecting at all. Even Smith and Gers seem a little less present. And of course no Murray. I wonder what the story is. Steve must have come in with a lot of material from the beginning.
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The story is:

"Ok Bruce, H, Jan, Dave. You've had your fun on the previous five albums. This time I have some serious stuff on my mind."

(kicks rest of Smith music to Smith/Kotzen record; Bruce spent more time on other hobbies in the last years, so there probably wasn't much to cast aside)
 
As much as I like the new Eddie, I am not thrilled about a fourth chunk of black album spines on my record shelf. After TBOS, Live Chapter, and NOTD, I was hoping we'd get something with a little more color and vibrancy in the background.
 
Poto said:
I suppose it was about time Dave stopped writing songs. I am bit surprised Bruce "only" has three credits though.
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What a bullshit. Dave had no songs on Beast, Powerslave. He had more than one on various other records, and now he slowly gets closer to his average output.
 
Forostar said:
The story is:

"Ok Bruce, H, Jan, Dave. You've had your fun on the previous five albums. This time I have some serious stuff on my mind."

(kicks rest of Smith music to Smith/Kotzen record; Bruce spent more time on other hobbies in the last years, so there probably wasn't much to cast aside)
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I think you’re probably right. I bet Steve got the writing bug big time at the end of The Book of Souls, after taking more of a back seat. I hope he was inspired by some of Dickinson’s offerings. The biggest surprise to me is very little Gers involvement. It’s not like there wasn’t room on the CD, considering a double album. My hunch is that Steve knows this is the last album (also explains why they took the unprecedented step of recording it in between legs of a tour) and he wants it to have as much of a Harris stamp as possible. Well deserved IMO.

I don’t want to complain because I am really excited for this, but I was hoping that if they had gone for another double album they’d really fill up the two CDs. That’s a really minor gripe though.
 
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