Angry Metal Guy reviews Senjutsu...4 years later

What to say? Over time I have come to prefer the first 3 maybe 4 reunion albums over Book of Souls and Senjutsu. While I don't agree with the reviews I recognise their main theme, around bloated song and album length.

Some people reflect that by the 1990s, the CD format forced artists to stretch the album concept that was honed on vinyl. Now there are no constraints. Maiden are guilty of failing to self-edit like Metallica (BOS at 92 mins and Senjustsu at 82 mins is insanely long, even longer than the bloated Metallica albums).

Obviously, it is about the strength of the writing, but I find it hard for ageing artists to sustain quality across so much music.

For me, not all drawn out parts in recent Maiden songs are captivating. I think Parchment and Empire of the Clouds suffer from this, for example. I think the first burst of reunion material, when Maiden members were still aged in their late 40s through to early 50s, has more urgency to it even with the long songs. The last two albums, the bloat and the plodding is really evident to me. I like them, both BOS and Senjutsu increasingly feel at best like 8/10 albums for me.
 
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Yeah, I like Senjutsu. It is a good record, but trying to look at it from a general music fan point of view rather than a hardcore Maiden fan who also loves the Reunion/-post reunion material, it is a bit of a bloated album that lacks definite hits, aside from Writing on the Wall. The title track? It does not need to be 8 minutes and 20 seconds long. It would be a really cool 5:30 track though (that should not have been the title track anyway).

Honestly, I think the album would flow better with Darkest Hour and Celts left off. In the old days, Darkest Hour would have been cool B-side single material, whereas here it is on the album.
 
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Yax said:
Yeah, I like Senjutsu. It is a good record, but trying to look at it from a general music fan point of view rather than a hardcore Maiden fan who also loves the Reunion/-post reunion material, it is a bit of a bloated album that lacks definite hits, aside from Writing on the Wall. The title track? It does not need to be 8 minutes and 20 seconds long. It would be a really cool 5:30 track though (that should not have been the title track anyway).

Honestly, I think the album would flow better with Darkest Hour and Celts left off. In the old days, Darkest Hour would have been cool B-side single material, whereas here it is on the album.
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I agree, I think the Senjutsu title track encompasses a lot of these problems. Its a good song but it lack impact, and some sections really leaving you scratching your head as to why they are so stretched.
 
For a modern metal blog who are probably not that invested in legacy acts, I think those reviews are actually pretty fair. I don't agree with much - though I do also think the title track is too long - but by their own rating system, saying the album is around a Good (3) or Disappointing (2) isn't that brutal. At least none of them were "THIS ALBUM SUCKS CUZ IT'S NOT POWERSLAVE 2, WHY ISN'T IT THE 80S ANYMORE".
 
I agree with all the reviews… there are some good moments (and even a few great ones) but generally it would have benefited greatly from a big ‘ol edit. Have someone go through it and really slice it down to a very strong 50-55 minutes would have been amazing.

On a side note: I’m glad AMG did the write up, nice to see Maiden get some press between albums. Also the comments are full of folks asking where to start after a Maiden lapse. So… positive in my book (of souls!)
 
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For me, I mostly agree with the first review in that piece (by AMG himself). Time is the issue.

Although I think all of the reunion albums except BNW suffer from bloat, Senjutsu is the first album where I feel that bloat moreso in the songs themselves than in the overall album. The Book of Souls was bloated, but the songs (yes, even Empire) managed to still feel more gripping, more necessary. Songs like the title track, The Time Machine, Darkest Hour, Death of the Celts, and even The Parchment (which I do like) simply feel like they needed mild-to-massive editing.

I don't care about shorter or longer songs, I just want well-constructed songs.
 
Yax said:
Honestly, I think the album would flow better with Darkest Hour and Celts left off. In the old days, Darkest Hour would have been cool B-side single material, whereas here it is on the album.
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I'd leave Darkest Hour for the variety (but lose the seagulls and beach noise), cut the title track down by 2-3 minutes (or kill it entirely), cut the atrocious Lost in a Lost World, cut Death of the Celts and make it a bonus track.
 
It's fine. Just annoys me a bit that if I put it on in the car, drive to a friends house say five miles away, and I'm barely through the acoustic intro of one of the songs by the time I pull up to their house
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
cut the atrocious Lost in a Lost World,
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If Darkest Hour did not exist, that would be the weakest song on the album by far: all the elements that make most of The X Factor a mediocre album condensed into one song, with Bruce sounding either bored or incredibly strained whilst singing it. B-side material? C-material most likely!

MrKnickerbocker said:
cut Death of the Celts and make it a bonus track.
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I have a soft spot for this song. To me it is an improved version of The (vastly overrated) Clansman.
 
I like all the songs on Senjutsu in general but as stated a million times, they need to be a good bit shorter. I like the X Factor-ness of Lost in a Lost World. I love the melody of the intro/outro but there's just too many damn words. Bruce sounds out of breath.
 
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