Senjutsu highest score: 16 (@Kalata )
That's right, we have our first tie of the game! The interesting thing about this result is that Senjutsu performed very well - a lot of people were rating it in the upper half of the discography, so it received many 10+ scores. In fact, out of 25 submissions, only 7 had it below 10 points. There were a small handful of lower scores (namely DJ James' score of 2) that prevented it from not just beating out Number of the Beast, but also potentially the next album on our ranking, as scores were very close (reweighing the results without @DJ James' scores puts Senjutsu at #6/17!!).
Still, Senjutsu tying with Maiden's "classic album" is a pretty impressive showing. I definitely think there's a bit of recency bias combined with general backlash/contrarianism against Maiden's most famous work. It makes sense. Senjutsu is a very impressive showing for a 17th album and Number of the Beast, while fantastic, does kind of represent a "phase one" for the band's golden age. I would personally take NOTB over Somewhere in Time and potentially even Powerslave, but I will not argue against the fact that they reached higher on those albums. Disregarding scoring even with Senjutsu, I think #7/8 is about right for Number.
On the Senjutsu side of things, I am pretty impressed with how well it did here, especially when it feels like the Maiden Chat subforum is pretty negative on the album sometimes. I think it is pretty incredible that people are placing it in their top 3 already, Kalata may have been the only one ranking it #2 but several other users ranked it #3. Of course it also outperformed three reunion era albums and the two that it did not topple are widely regarded among Maiden's best work. That said, the scores for BNW and AMOLAD were not close - Senjutsu has a long way to go before coming close to either of those albums. Still, this is probably the first tangible indication of how popular Senjutsu is with the board, and safe to say that Maiden has made a lot of fans very happy once again.
I was a little bit more bearish on Senjutsu, putting the album at #5, but I could see it going higher in time. The fact is, I love the album more every time I listen to it. The album has been out for over 2 years now, so the recency bias can't be that pervasive, but it still feels fresh to me. My two favorite reunion era albums are The Final Frontier and A Matter of Life and Death and Senjutsu easily feels like it sits in that same realm for me. For the record, it took 5 or 6 years for me to really feel comfortable about where The Final Frontier sits in the discography, and maybe a little less than that for Book of Souls as well.
SJ's high ranking is not a surprise for me. Head to head with a classic album too. The album is really consistent and special imo. It could have been one or two places higher.
All of the songs on it can be someone's favorite (like BNW), so that's quite the achievement. They tried some different things on it and that's great after all these years. The instrumental work, melodies, choruses, solos and Nicko's drumming are the things that should be praised.
The band exceeded my expectations!
As for the songs - the title track is a unique and epic in scope piece with so much anthemic power (which is something we expect from Maiden), while the last two songs (Parchment and Hell On Earth) are new classic for the band. I can't think of a better way to end an album.
The 2 lead singles are some of the best and most interesting (Writing) ''promo'' songs in a long time. They're usually not the best songs on their albums, but these two have so many catchy parts and characteristics. Stratego's chorus is pure gold! The other short song, Days is also very good (that chorus), but it would have been even better with a guitar harmony. The album has a special feature, a very cool full-on ballad with one of Adrian's best solos (there's more on this album). I guess it works either ways for the fans. Time Machine is a melodic song we want from every Maiden album, especially with this instrumental section. The rest of the songs, the other two epics have their place on the album and imo the album wouldn't have been the same without them. Lost World has a very fitting (for the album) and quite emotional intro & outro, which is worth it alone. The song is more riff-y with changing tempos, in contrast to the other epics on the album. Celts may feel nothing new for some fans (which it doesn't), but such a Maiden
fest of singing, melodies, riffs, solos, bass playing and fun drumming is always welcome on every album. I like the clear production. I think I can say with certain that this album will never leave my Top 5!
TNOTB couldn't have been higher because while it contains 6 amazing songs, it also has 2 more or less ''lesser'' songs, especially for the quality of the album. I think Gangland is good though. Invaders should have been replaced with Total Eclipse (or with a different chorus). Gangland to be the opener, but then again, a mid-tempo song before Hallowed probably wouldn't have been a right choice. Idk.
Hallowed, the title track and Run To The Hills are all time Maiden classics, and not only. Children is one of their best ''ballads'', 22 Acacia Avenue contains amazing piece of music and Prisoner is an old-school NWOBHM anthem with a brutal instrumental section. Not many albums have 6 songs like these in one album. The album should be praised for its instrumental parts, Clive's amazing drumming, guitar work (especially solos), Bruce's vocals and Steve's songwriting. The production is also great.
