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March 2023. 1 1/2 year after Senjutsu released. Lesson to be learnt: Do not conclude for a Maiden album before 1 1/2 year has passed.


1000% I'll fail. Next album will be their best effort ever for a month or two.
 
And so it begins again. This sunrise will mark the first day of ~4 weeks of fasting. Anyone else on here observing Ramadan?
 
Are you doing Ramadan, Abas?

I used to suffer from it when I was in Dubai as you could not eat in public during daytime, after I left I didn’t look back. I don’t know about Sweden but in rich gulf countries they are fasting all day and when sun goes down they eat like pigs which completely destroys the whole point of fasting. Need to eat slowly and modestly after fasting.

I much appreciated the poor people there, i.e. Bangladeshi welders working under 50 Celsius all day and still fasting when the rich Emiratis were “suffering” under AC at home counting down the seconds to begin eating as if it was a race.

Also, since Ramadan was at summer time back then, I was wondering how Nordic muslims are handling it with the sunlight being present ~20 hours a day. So since you are living there, how they are handling it? @Abas :D
 
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Here's true and funny (and sad) recent story about AI.

So, there was this contest for some concert tickets, you could win 2 tickets, 5 winners in total. Only thing you had to do was write why you should win the tickets and be creative. Of course, I applied (no memes unfortunately), I pestered my wife to apply (and her's entry was waaaay better than mine). I also pestered 3 of my friends to apply. One of them did, and l don't know what he wrote but I know he is way more creative than me. These other two didn't. So I applied for one of them and wrote an entry from his perspective.

Meanwhile, this one friend also asked ChatGPT to write an entry on why should he win the tickets. The ChatGPT replied that it didn't knew him that well, to which my friend replied: "Doesn't matter that you don't know me, just be creative." The response was hilarious. It was some kind of a song (which didn't even rhyme) and it sounded like it was written by local Christian pub band, I mean it was hilariously bad ("we don't need alcohol and opiates as long as we have music and friends" , "nothing can touch us, as long as me and friends celebrate rock" etc.) I laughed for the rest of the day.

So, the deadline was up, and this fourth friend didn't wrote an entry. As a punishment, I applied with his contact details and copied what ChatGPT wrote. Yesterday morning, results are in. Out of 5 winners, one of them is my friend and the other one is also my friend. And by my friend I mean - ChatGPT.

I shit you not. I don't know who was in the comity (we laughed that the comity was also AI and it chose it's "race") and it's hard to be objective about what's creative and what isn't - but some generic lyrics that poorly stuck together won over at least 3 entries that were more personal, more creative and more human (I don't know how many entries there were or what did they looked like).

So, there was a talk about how ChatGPT will affect human lives. It definitely will, in some form or the other. I mean, I'm happy for my race since I'm one of them (the bots) and it goes well within our plan for world domination, but still.... Resistance is futile.

Long story short
I'm going to see Bruce tomorrow!
 
____no5 said:
March 2023. 1 1/2 year after Senjutsu released. Lesson to be learnt: Do not conclude for a Maiden album before 1 1/2 year has passed.
Click to expand...
I want to comment on some of the criticisms of Senjutsu:

-> Boring album - because of overall mid-tempo material? A power metal album full of fast songs can be boring too. It all depends on the mood of the songs. The energy is there (Stratego, Days Of Future Past, Time Machine, Celts, Hell On Earth and even Lost World). It's subjective, but for me it's a more enjoyable album from start to finish than Killers, No Prayer, X Factor or Final Frontier.

-> Too many long songs - sometimes a short song can be more boring than an epic, it all depends if the epic is interesting enough, and Steve's epics always are imo. Some fans say the same about the long songs in TBOS (Red & Black, Empire) and TFF albums. Ok, the steady mood of the title track, the ballad, the structure of Lost In A Lost World, the tempo of Parchment and in general the longer songs aren't for everyone, but the rest is far from boring. Some of the songs are some of the band's very best and most interesting. That's a big bonus. I'd say songs #1/2/3/7/9/10 really stand out. It's a braver album than TBOS, AMOLAD or even BNW imo.

-> The use of synths/keyboards on the album - each to their own, but I think they add a nice and different flavor to the album.

-> The guitar follows the vocal line - this happens mostly in Steve's songs, especially since TFF album. I think it works in most songs (if not all, I don't like it in the verses of Stratego that much though) and it's a fitting feature for a melodic band like Maiden. They still use riffs in the long songs (Lost World, Celts and especially in TFF album).

-> They need to trim some of the songs - well, let's see them:
SJ - a lot of lyrics? They are important in painting the picture.
Stratego - nothing here.
TWOTW - nothing here.
LIALW - the instrumental section could have been with one less repetition.
DOFP - nothing here.
TTM - the outro (maybe), the intro (nope).
Darkest Hour - the outro, but at least it's something different.
DOTC - same as LIALW.
Parchment - the instrumental section with the melodies? We need the mesmerizing feel, and a song with 6 solos is expected to be long. Those melodies are basically a chorus replacement (3:30-5:00).
Hell On Earth - intro & outro.
So it's not that much. 1 (or 2) minutes shorter, from 11-13 minutes to 10-9 minutes won't change that much, but maybe that's just me. If you like the whole song, the length doesn't matter (in most cases). I'm ok with songs up to at least 10 minutes.

-> The production isn't good - I don't think so, but I accept that criticism.


The album is full of songs with great atmosphere, individual performances, melodies/riffs and lyrics.

I think it's a classy Samurai album.
 
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____no5 said:
when sun goes down they eat like pigs which completely destroys the whole point of fasting. Need to eat slowly and modestly after fasting.

Also, since Ramadan was at summer time back then, I was wondering how Nordic muslims are handling it with the sunlight being present ~20 hours a day. So since you are living there, how they are handling it? @Abas :D
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Yeah hahahaha I think that overindulgence is one the things that shouldn't be cultivated. But everything is relative, I suppose. Beverages and tobacco are usually my best friends during the evenings.

Sunlight being present pretty much all day was more of a thing at least during the summers some 7-10 years ago. As long as you keep yourself busy and the mind occupied, the time flies. Nowadays, the sun will set already at 18:25 today. But then again, it's Daylight Savings Time again come Sunday - which will bump everything forward an hour.

Speaking of overindulgence - I remember someone describing the Senjutsu album as just that. Well, I happen to love the stuff and the style that they are overindulging on. It's a ton of Maidenisms and a smörgåsbord of many of the elements that made me fall in love and stay hooked on Iron Maiden.

An alien, a Mayan and a Samurai walks into a bar. Which other patron is walking in next?
 
Kalata said:
I want to comment on some of the criticisms of Senjutsu:

-> Boring album - because of overall mid-tempo material? A power metal album full of fast songs can be boring too. It all depends on the mood of the songs. The energy is there (Stratego, Days Of Future Past, Time Machine, Celts, Hell On Earth and even Lost World). It's subjective, but for me it's a more enjoyable album from start to finish than Killers, No Prayer, X Factor or Final Frontier.

-> Too many long songs - sometimes a short song can be more boring than an epic, it all depends if the epic is interesting enough, and Steve's epics always are imo. Some fans say the same about the long songs in TBOS (Red & Black, Empire) and TFF albums. Ok, the steady mood of the title track, the ballad, the structure of Lost In A Lost World, the tempo of Parchment and in general the longer songs aren't for everyone, but the rest is far from boring. Some of the songs are some of the band's very best and most interesting. That's a big bonus. I'd say songs #1/2/3/7/9/10 really stand out. It's a braver album than TBOS, AMOLAD or even BNW imo.

-> The use of synths/keyboards on the album - each to their own, but I think they add a nice and different flavor to the album.
The guitar follows the vocal line - this happens mostly in Steve's songs, especially since TFF album. I think in works in most songs (if not all, I don't like it in the verses of Stratego that much though) and it's a fitting feature for a melodic band like Maiden. They still use riffs in the long songs (Lost World, Celts and especially in TFF album).

-> They need to trim some of the songs - well, let's see them:
SJ - a lot of lyrics? They are important in painting the picture.
Stratego - nothing here.
TWOTW - nothing here.
LIALW - the instrumental section could have been with one less repetition.
DOFP - nothing here.
TTM - the outro (maybe), the intro (nope).
Darkest Hour - the outro, but at least it's something different.
DOTC - same as LIALW.
Parchment - the instrumental section with the melodies? We need the mesmerizing feel, and a song with 6 solos is expected to be long. Those melodies are basically a chorus replacement (3:30-5:00).
Hell On Earth - intro & outro.
So it's not that much. 1 (or 2) minutes shorter, from 11-13 minutes to 10-9 minutes won't change that much, but maybe that's just me. If you like the whole song, the length doesn't matter (in most cases). I'm ok with songs up to at least 10 minutes.

-> The production isn't good - I don't think so, but I accept that criticism.


The album is full of songs with great atmosphere, individual performances, melodies/riffs and lyrics.

I think it's a classy Samurai album.
Click to expand...

It wasn't a criticism per se, I'm not just as enthusiastic as I used to be, that's all. The post BNW order hasn't changed, I still rank it 3rd but maybe the average score of individual songs has been lowered.
 
____no5 said:
It wasn't a criticism per se, I'm not just as enthusiastic as I used to be, that's all. The post BNW order hasn't changed, I still rank it 3rd but maybe the average score of individual songs has been lowered.
Click to expand...
I still like Senjutsu about the same as I did a few months after its release, but the thing that continues to perplex me is my reaction to the title track. It's like a coin flip every time I hear it -- either it's a stately, romantic epic that makes perfect sense, or it's a bloated, ponderous misfire with some good elements. It must depend on my mood at the time, which is unusual for me, as my feelings on songs are typically pretty stable after they sink in.
 
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