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I think the title track (Senjutsu) is awful, sluggish and boring. The worst opening song of their career imo. When I first listened to Senjutsu I was expecting another If Eternity Should Fail, but I was sadly disappointed. I was just waiting for it to pick up the pace or do something interesting, but it never did. The rest of the album was much better, fortunately.
 
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The title track has a lot of interesting and good ideas. The main verses help driving the song along to the melodic and anthemic chorus which almost sounds like something a power metal band would write. The sections with Bruce singing in his high register sound choked and strained; not a good decision. Furthermore the song is far too long and plodding without changing it up enough. If they didn't want to change tempos and have some faster sections they really should've experimented more with intensity and dynamics. You can keep the tempo steady but build up atmosphere and drama, something they didn't do unfortunately.

Also, hot take: That's another long song co-written by Adrian and I just don't think that these songs suit his style. His epics keep being my least favorite by a long shot. Days Of Future Past on the other hand works much better.
 
IMO, Senjutsu is their best reunion opener right next to If Eternity Should Fail. Final Frontier is kinda boring and the first three reunion albums all have that "super positive take life by the horns" kinda track that I don't super care for. Senjutsu is powerful and dramatic and is much more in the vein of post-metal than anything else Maiden has done. Well, aside from maybe The Parchment.
 
Trevoire said:
Yeah Senjutsu is 8 minutes of nothing. Could have worked as a short intro but got dragged out into a full song with no exciting sections. The energy level never picks up.
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Yeah but the energy level is supposed to be that way. They’re trying to emphasize heavily on death & defeat & the song just reeks of it. H’s final solo also adds a bit of that pilgrim’s vibe to the song which really adds to the emotion & entire mood of the song. I think the beat is something Maiden has never done & I kinda like it. One of their best battle/war songs in my opinion.
 
Vaenyr said:
I dislike Paschendale and think it's one of the weakest epics in their entire career, so that tracks.

BTATS on the other hand is fantastic. It's a Harris/Smith/Dickinson song though. I think my bigger issue are the pure Smith/Harris compositions.
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Paschendale is so catchy, just love it. I think BTATS could have been made a little more interesting honestly. That song has me lost after the first few minutes.
 
redandtheblack92 said:
Yeah actually wicker man is like “you’re gonna get royally screwed & there’s nothing you can do about it (evil laugh)”
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Nah, Wicker Man is more of a "seize the day" kind of song. Which shouldn't be surprising since it was specifically written about being on stage and playing in front of huge audiences every night. The "you watch the world exploding every single night" lyric is about the feeling Bruce has when he performs concerts.
 
Vaenyr said:
I think my bigger issue are the pure Smith/Harris compositions.
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The Smith/Harris songs are interesting - sometimes they may not be the strongest songs on the albums, but they are always curious and a little different. Adrian's riff-y approach and Steve's melodic approach complement each other and that's why they're cool. Their songs are short, long/er, fast, mid-tempo, heavy, proggy, classic, with noticeable intros.../ Some examples: Senjutsu, Tears Of A Clown, Great Unknown, Isle Of Avalon, Different World, Paschendale, Fallen Angel. We kind of know what to expect from Smith/Dickinson and Gers/Harris. Murray/Harris is also unpredictable.

I like Adrian's co-written epics, but -> epics = Steve and Steve and Janick.
 
chaosapiant said:
IMO, Senjutsu is their best reunion opener right next to If Eternity Should Fail. Final Frontier is kinda boring and the first three reunion albums all have that "super positive take life by the horns" kinda track that I don't super care for. Senjutsu is powerful and dramatic and is much more in the vein of post-metal than anything else Maiden has done. Well, aside from maybe The Parchment.
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Next album opener will be Juanita. :D
 
This comment could go on many of these threads. Including most controversial take, I suppose. But since it’s a reaction to a comment above I’ll land it here. PFD, as it’s been nicknamed here locally, is a fricken metal masterpiece. It is a giant in the Maiden epics catalog, and is in my opinion, one of the greatest metal epics of all time. From any band.
 
That's not really controversial though, right? Paschendale is commonly seen as one of the best post-reunion songs and is quite beloved by the fandom. The fandom is obviously wrong though, but it is entitled to its opinion :D
 
Vaenyr said:
Controversial take: I feel that Adrian and Steve kind of amplify each other's worst songwriting tendencies when they write together. When Bruce writes with them the entire process seems to work much better and they manage to deliver great material.
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The funny thing is Steve and Bruce can barely write together. Not sure if it’s a clash of egos or their writing styles are just too different where they can’t pen a song together.
 
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