Let's try and get 1,000,000 replies to this post

bearfan said:
Possibly a big move in my future

I know this is a bit vague, but I really cannot say much about the project. But myself and a few other people developed a pretty cool piece of software 3-ish years ago really designed to help 1 person who had cancer track his treatments and help guide them. I think it made a bit of a difference in him outliving his prognosis by well over a year.

Once he passed away, we thought about productizing it, but there were a ton of legal issues that we finally got past and got 2 patents all of which took about 2 years. The initial plan was to sell it (good domain name, the code, and the patents), take a small cut for ourselves and set up college funds for his kids.

A company in Europe is looking to fund us to fully develop this for longevity purposes .. not what we originally designed for .. but it will work for that. Basically help rich Russians and Euros live longer to enjoy their money
:)


Anyway, looks like that is fairly close to happening and I might be spending the better part of the next several years in Europe. My wife is on board, if our dog could speak I am guessing she would be a no vote (hates cold and snow).

Beyond the initial longevity roll-out, I think this could do a ton of good in the traditional medical space and help with highly individualized treatment plans. Technically it is a cool project and if it pans out, probably my last project and I can retire when it is done.

In any case, think I will know for sure in the next month or two.

If it does not pan out, I think I am going to shift what I do for my last 7 or 8 working years, but still in the tech space. I am pretty sick of the projects I have been working on the past few years. Nothing bad, they are just incredibly boring and/or a combination of soul sucking/mind numbing
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That sounds very interesting and exciting! I wish you the very best of luck.
 
Perun said:
I find it fascinating how people can already write essays about what exactly in Senjutsu makes it the best/worst Maiden album ever, how minute 4 of song whatever is doing this or that for them... I remember that TBOS came out in September 2015 and the listening where it finally "clicked" with me for good was in July 2016. I'm in absolutely no rush to evaluate Senjutsu or give it my percentage scores. I have the rest of my life to spend with this album.
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I gave scores, but those are based on my overall enjoyment and I'm trying not to sit and evaluate every little thing as well.
 
@Travis The Dragon welcome back man. I noticed you essentially absent for many days and I was grinning inside me thinking ‘Travis should be diving ecstatically -deep in Maiden’s Ocean right now’.

You had what, 3 posts in 5 days? That was a long trip, awesome! How did you like it?
 
Perun said:
I find it fascinating how people can already write essays about what exactly in Senjutsu makes it the best/worst Maiden album ever, how minute 4 of song whatever is doing this or that for them... I remember that TBOS came out in September 2015 and the listening where it finally "clicked" with me for good was in July 2016. I'm in absolutely no rush to evaluate Senjutsu or give it my percentage scores. I have the rest of my life to spend with this album.
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I hear you. I'm the same, especially with scores (the ratings).
I do have enthusiasm to share though and there are always interesting details/items to discuss. And I really like reading what people love about the album. It is weird to say (or admit) but I rather do not read (lots of) negativity yet. It is too early for me to disqualify (elements of) the album, but it is not too early to really like or appreciate stuff.

But yes, no large essays (yet) from me, I hope. Certainly no final ones.
 
Decided to celebrate my birthday this weekend rather than on the Wednesday. Took the Friday off for Senjutsu and we listened to that and did the Maidenfans Listening Party, which was incredible fun.

Had two good friends come up on Saturday, we played some games and then spent the evening at the tiki bar at my parents' house. Dad barbequeued a ham and mom made corn and veg and potato salad. Easily the best corn on the cob I've ever had - it was basted in butted laden with tandoori sauce and mmmm. A couple other friends came over and we stayed up until midnight.

Yesterday I helped my buddy taste all the beer at the local brewery in preparation for the first keg in his new kegerator and in the evening went to a theatre at the other side of town to watch AEW All Out with a small and socially distanced crowd, which was awesome, because 1) wrestling is meant to be watched in a group and 2) it was the best event I've seen in years and years. And since today is a holiday, I get some quiet time to recover and play some games and listen to Senjutsu again and again.

A highly successful weekend, if I say so myself.
 
Perun said:
I find it fascinating how people can already write essays about what exactly in Senjutsu makes it the best/worst Maiden album ever, how minute 4 of song whatever is doing this or that for them... I remember that TBOS came out in September 2015 and the listening where it finally "clicked" with me for good was in July 2016. I'm in absolutely no rush to evaluate Senjutsu or give it my percentage scores. I have the rest of my life to spend with this album.
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Imo there’s a strong correlation between the people already making these comments and the ones who were going crazy over waiting for the leak. There’s less enjoyment in letting these things marinate and the art is far more disposable.
 
OK, I hear The Talisman in the intro (very obvious) and parts of the verses have a Mother of Mercy feel. Not sure what the breakdown with the first solo reminds me of. Some of the solos remind me of stuff from Dance of Death.

It's not difficult to hear Janick was involved in writing the song. But apart from the Talisman/TBOS throwbacks, I don't hear other similarities to particular songs, apart from the style.

And I guess if I'm going to get any more serious now, I should head for the song commentary thread.
 
Dr. Eddies Wingman said:
OK, I hear The Talisman in the intro (very obvious) and parts of the verses have a Mother of Mercy feel. Not sure what the breakdown with the first solo reminds me of. Some of the solos remind me of stuff from Dance of Death.

It's not difficult to hear Janick was involved in writing the song. But apart from the Talisman/TBOS throwbacks, I don't hear other similarities to particular songs, apart from the style.

And I guess if I'm going to get any more serious now, I should head for the song commentary thread.
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The solo section sounds a lot like “Ghost of the Navigator” (I think, maybe I’m actually thinking of “Brave New World”?).
 
Diesel 11 said:
The solo section sounds a lot like “Ghost of the Navigator” (I think, maybe I’m actually thinking of “Brave New World”?).
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There's one fragment of the solo (near the end) which is somewhat similar to something Janick did in those two, but I was thinking more about the lick before that. Very Dance of Death-ish. But the rhythm for the solos is not particularly similar to any former Maiden song. As mentioned, I thought of Dream Theater's "Take The Time" due to the chord progression (I - ii - IV, a progression starting with those chords is used several times in that song).
 
After AMOLAD first listen I was ecstatically stunned. Let's say stratosphere stunned. Then, almost immediately the album started to fall, as you would expect, nothing too bad, still well above Olympian heights.

But this one. This one. It started definitely much lower than stratosphere and it keeps going up and up day after day, after day. Oh man. Five days in a row. Never happened before.
 
I have a duality about this album - if I were to judge it by the hypothetical crap they could've released into the hungry fanbase that's happy for the band to even exist as a live force at this point in time, who would've eaten it even if it reeked of crap, and if I included the fact that I believed we're not getting metal albums from IM anymore per se, which is something I thought about after seeing change of live guitar sound and style of play of riffs backed by TBOS which has a lot of pentatonic moments and bluesy intentions...I'm fucking ecstatic. The album is full on, dark, varied, produced, strong, and with inventive riffs, monster mid tempo grooves and shit ton of solos.

But then, I start judging it for the position of the best ever.

For instance, AMOLAD would be straight out greatest ever if it were trimmed, just a bit. Lord of Light would be top 3 Iron Maiden track for me, if it ended on a bang in the last instrumental section - the massive riff after Dave's solo. That thing is directly applicable to Days of Future Past where they had a bridge riff in between first chorus and second verse which should've been used as a banger ending, instead of slowing down the song again and repeating the stuff that's already heard.

So, instead of comparing Senjutsu to Piece of Mind, Somewhere in Time or Seventh Son, where one cautiously must avoid direct arrangement and flow comparisons because of apples and oranges problem, 45 vs 90 minute albums, I can compare it more directly to 2006 effort, and not accentuate the reunion problem of forcing the fabulaic structure on songs.

The flow of the record is hard. Senjutsu is a strong song but as an opener it's sort of a stretch, straighten out only by the bombastic Stratego. In my own subjective listening experience I have more drop in energy than listening to Different World. Lost World is still hard to digest, and I can now pinpoint it to Bruce's delivery in the verses, he sounds disinterested and I don't think I can grow into that. The Parkour is one of the best reunion tracks but the last part seems too bright for an otherwise fully noir song, just like The Legacy. Celts I avoid, because it's not my style. I know Maiden has folk inspirations, not my cup of tea. It's not irritating at all, it's a ok song to listen to but I don't feel anywhere competent to rate it.

The biggest issue I have is about Hell on Earth, because I'm flipping around it. I blast out parts of this song but as a whole... The style of intro becomes tedious at that point in album, but it's well done. In first 3:30 the song features no vocals yet it uses every melody that will be present in first 8 minutes or so. It culminates in the awesome chorus, one of the best surely they've done in the last who knows when, but then slows down to end piece which is a novel part followed by the novel part and then the song ends in the formulaic approach.

In the end feels like Senjutsu posseses more direct heaviness, more bombastic shorter tracks, and it's more of an metal album than AMOLAD is, while still having prog stuff and a lot of novelty. On the other hand, AMOLAD does not have a track that should be rearranged, I believe, does not have a track of a very low vocal investment and certainly does not have track which is completely out of my interest zone. Certainly I don't feel AMOLAD's consistency is under threat by this one which may have higher highs, tho.

Having said that all, I firmly predict this one stays with AMOLAD and TFF with the best 3 of reunion, as already mentioned 80s albums stand for me as the best three among them - it's a category I don't mix.
 
____no5 said:
@Travis The Dragon welcome back man. I noticed you essentially absent for many days and I was grinning inside me thinking ‘Travis should be diving ecstatically -deep in Maiden’s Ocean right now’.

You had what, 3 posts in 5 days? That was a long trip, awesome! How did you like it?
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I absolutely love it! It's tied with Book Of Souls for my most favorite Maiden album ever.
 
Same here. Gets better with every listen and it was already high during the first one.
I revised quickly my lists, it's around No.6 ~7 which is quite high, considering what they've released so far.

I didn't know that you rate so high TBOS! Good to see that you didn't change your mind after the honey moon of 2015 -16 ;)
 
____no5 said:
Same here. Gets better with every listen and it was already high during the first one.
I revised quickly my lists, it's around No.6 ~7 which is quite high, considering what they've released so far.

I didn't know that you rate so high TBOS! Good to see that you didn't change your mind after the honey moon of 2015 -16 ;)
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I'm glad you loving SJ so much as well!
 
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