Please post reviews and thoughts on Senjutsu here

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MindlessPieces said:
I get lots of this from the album. Senjutsu is really different, The writing on the wall is really different, the parchment, Time machine, Death of the Celts all very, very different.


In the last decade or two I have found the short songs to be boring and the long ones to be the most interesting.
Maiden don't need short hits, they need space to be creative and interesting. I'm very glad they are continuing with long songs.
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i dont mean hits. and i dont mean 3-4 minutes songs either. was the prisoner a hit? or sun and steel? or moonchild? or or or ....there are so many. i was listening to the record and i caught my self saying come on !!! finish already!!! why the same melody(a few changes here and there but its basically the same ) over and over and over again??? and dont trash long maiden songs at all but sometimes enough is enough. thats why i think BOS is better .beacuse it has balance. short songs AND long epics like TRATB and EOTC. this has almost only epics and some of them totally pointless IMO. . dont get my wrong , the parchment and hell on earth are real diamonds. but why death of the celts too? why lost in a lost world must be thaaaat long and repeating the riffs again and again ? why edge of darkness is in the time machine? would be nice song even without this
 
Not sure if this is just a honeymoon thing or not. All of the albums have their moments where one track is great, another track is alright. another track so-so, and another track a masterpiece.

There's nothing that makes me think that any track is alright, or any track so-so. They are great at the very least.
 
argyris said:
. but why death of the celts too? why lost in a lost world must be thaaaat long and repeating the riffs again and again ? why edge of darkness is in the time machine? would be nice song even without this
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You're entitled to your opinion of course.
I don't find myself wanting a song to be over (well, except for Rime of the Ancient mariner, that drags on).
The second half of lost in a lost world is completely different from the first half (the quiet ending I find really nice and that takes 1 and half minutes). The Celts has a really long instrumental which is completely different to the main melody.
I find these 4 epics fly by, to me they are the absolute best part of this album.

I'm not a fan of time machine, but even that has significant changes in it, its not the same melody over and over.

Anyways, we are all entitled to each of our opinions. I'm really happy for the long songs and not so excited about the short ones.
This album is a really varied album, typically people really like a few and might dislike 1 song and those differ from person to person.

I don't like the electronic sounding guitar solo parts which pop up in a few of the songs, I'm not a fan of Time machine at all. Detest the intro to that song, and don't like the musical sounding stuff that immediately follows the intro. - that makes up about half the song.

I really do wish Bruce's vocals were brought forward more, and I would have preferred the guitar not following the melody in the quiet ending of Lost in a lost world. But overall, I love the album.
 
My favourite epic on this album is The Parchment, followed by Hell On Earth and Senjutsu.
My favourite song shorter than 8 minutes in Stratego followed by TWOTW.
 
I've listened to it a few more times already. There’s a lot to explore in this album and that’s really cool.

Favourite track: Stratego. I have this weird bittersweet feeling, because nothing on the full album topped the single for me, but well - it’s a feeling that won’t matter after some time. It’s not like the song is not a part of the record. Easy 10/10 that lands among my top favourites.

Instant highlights: Senjutsu, The Writing on the Wall, The Parchment, Hell on Earth. It’s possible some of them will get even better soon.

Grower: The Time Machine. It’s different than I expected and it threw me off initially. I’m not saying I disliked it or anything. I just instantly knew this one will need some time (no pun intended!) since my expectations, as a massive fan of Janick's writing, were unreasonably high and I imagined it to be something different than this. But I can already tell it’s growing.

Least favourite: Darkest Hour. It’s not a bad song. I just don’t find it particularly interesting.

Lost in a Lost World, Days of Future Past and Death of the Celts are a mixed bag, but definitely solid. I’m interested to see how they evolve in my mind after more listens. Well, the two epics at least, because DoFP is pretty straightforward. I'm uncertain about DotC, it might end up being the worst epic on the record, even though LiaLW seemed like the lesser one at first. Let me stress, though - when it comes to these 4 songs, "the worst" doesn't mean "bad".
 
It is difficult to compare short rockers with long epics but my ranking so far :
1. Hell on Earth (9/10)
2. The Parchment (9/10)
3. Lost in a Lost World (9/10)
4. The Time Machine (9/10)
5. Days of future Past (9/10)
6. Stratego (9/10)
7. Senjutsu (8.5/10)
8. Darkest Hour (8/10)
9. The Writing on the Wall (8/10)
10. Death of the Celts (7/10)
 
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After about 10 listens these are my ratings:
1. Hell on Earth 10/10 - beautiful melodies circa X factor, this song hit the sweet spot on first listen, instant classic
2. Lost in a Lost World 10/10 - emotional intro leads into another x factor style riff, classic maiden song for me.
3. Death of the Celts 8/10 - great bass intro, as has been said this song reminds heavily of The Clansman both musically and lyrically but is missing that big "Freedom!" type moment. Also the celtic melodies aren't as strong as in The Clansman, particularly the happy/jaunty melody near the middle of the song doesn't quite fit the dark lyrical subject matter and sounds out of place. Otherwise this song would have been a 10/10 as well.
4. Stratego 8/10 - Look in my eyes/There's no surprise, one of the best vocal lines of the whole album. Strong song, would have preferred not having heard it before listening to the album in hindsight.
5. The Writing on the Wall 8/10 - different but in a good way. Chorus could have been a little better with mire varied lyrics but the bridge before Adrian's solo and Adrian's solo itself are pure gold. Solo is very similar in style and quality to his Tears of a Clown solo, but that was followed up an underwhelming Murray solo whereas they seemed to have realised here if you can't match or top it don't bother.
6. The Parchment 8/10 - musically Nomad part 2, familiar eastern sound but still good. Lots of good guitar solos and melodies. It doesn't feel overlong to me.
7. Days of Future Past 7/10 - good song which has grown on me, intro/outro strong, trademark Smith riff.
8. The Time Machine 7/10 - subject matter has been covered before in 1986, the middle section of the song is a bit special lifting its rating after the underwhelming beginning.
9. Senjutsu 6.5/10 - a bit plodding and missing some trademark maiden guitar melodies to make it soar or a fast middle section. Good lyrics. Would have fit on to A Matter of Life and Death quite easily, but that is my least favourite IM album together with Fear of the Dark.
10. Darkest Hour 6.5/10 - decent enough power ballad Maiden style but wouldn't listen to this outside of listening to the whole album.

After BNW this is my second favourite Maiden album of the reunion era.
 
day 3 of having album and having listened to every song at least 3 times at this point. i'm going to hold off on updated ratings after a few more spins but here's what i can say definitively: this is a VERY GOOD album. it's not BNW Part 2 but there isn't a bad song on the whole album to these ears. front to back, it's the best album since BNW if it doesn't (yet) reach some individual heights seen on DOD or AMOLAD. but it doesn't have ANY weak tracks like those two albums. stellar album, lads!
 
Kalata said:
The best things in every song imo:

Senjutsu - the riff, the verses and the melodic rhythm with Adrian's 2nd solo.
Stratego - the chorus, the pre-chorus and the gallop.
TWOTW - Adrian's solo and the triple-lead guitar harmony between the solos.
LIALW - the intro/outro and the melodies.
DOFP - the riff, the verses and the chorus.
TTM - the melodies.
Darkest Hour - the verses, the chorus and Adrian's solo.
DOTC - the intro, the bass playing, the ''Celtic'' melodies and Bruce's singing.
The Parchment - the melodies and the solos.
Hell On Earth - the intro, the melodies, the chorus and Bruce's singing.
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Senjutsu - love the tone of the guitar on the riff. So crunchy! Adrian's second solo right at the end. My second most favorite song on the album

Stratego - the chorus. The doubling of the vocals and the underlying melody under the chorus is just too good

TWOTW - one of Adrian's best post reunion solos

LIALW - the skip button

DOFP - the more fleshed out riff under the verse. Also Nico's drumming changes towards the end

TTM - really liked the breakdown in the middle and the tempo change

Darkest Hour - the solos, especially Davey's

DOTC - the skip button

The Parchment - the atmospheric section after the verse with powerslave-esque feel

Hell on earth - the central melody and the chorus
 
After many many listens, here is my review.

This is a strong album, and a grower in every sense. I can't place it among the reunion albums or rank it among all of their albums yet, time will tell. Also, how it will age, will see.

My ratings are so far:
Senjutsu 10/10 - a cinematic masterpiece, one of the best songs on the album. Also a big plus is that it is a little bit unusual for Maiden. Lots of Priest vibe. Really good storytelling, you can visualize that you are in the middle of a battle. Epic!
Stratego/TWOTW - 10/10 in a bundle. The former because it is classic Maiden, and there is not a single note in it that is unnecessary, perfect songwriting and composition. The latter because again, a little bit unusual for Maiden and sounds huge. And of course the Adrian solo.
Lost in a Lost World - 6/10 the first song that lost me, definitely a grower. The intro is nice, indeed Pink Floydish. The rest is not that good to be honest, uninteresting "modern" Maiden guitar work, really drags the album down for the first time. Unnecessarily long and boring.
Days of Future Past - 8/10 nice, and unnecessarily short for a change! Could have been worked on it more, with a more interesting instrumental part, but otherwise really good vocals and melody.
The Time Machine - 9/10 It has grown on me! I like the vibe of it, and despite having some standard "modern" Maiden patterns, for some reason they work here well. It really has some proggy influences, and I love the lyrics. Might be a new favorite of mine later!
Darkest Hour - 10/10 OK, it has a simpler structure but perfect! Fully Bruce solo vibe and this is how one writes a song without any unnecessary part and it is spot on! One of the best songs Maiden has ever written (OK, Bruce and Adrian :) and one of the best solo is in this song. Perfect feel and vibe! Amazing guitar solo, let me highlight again!

Now the real problems begin ;)
Each of the Harris epics has some really good parts, or even amazing parts, and within the very same song, cringeworthy parts too. Really badly stitched together sometimes. The parts where the guitars just disappear to allow the weak synth part come in to make it a live song for a crowd singalong, well, I don't know what to say :)

But otherwise, each has its highlights and if I had to choose one, I would choose The Parchment as a standout song which more or less is consistent and has an arc and a vibe.

Death of the Celts - 5/10 The worst out of the three epics. Simply a rehash of previous ideas stitched together, in a bad way. I am not a friend with this, of course, my opinion can still change over time.
The Parchment - 9/10 The best out of all these epics. It is consistent, amazing prog influences, nice vocal performance, it has VIBE! It does not feel boring and does not drag despite its length.
Hell on Earth - 8/10 Could have been the best epic, but sadly I now know what my problem is with this. OK, I understand Steve and his long intros, even if I tend to understand why he forces these, here, not a surprise, I would have simply started the song with the punchy part after 2 minutes. To make the album flow better and the outro would have been still left intact and worked. Anyway, the song has really nice melodies, but I can't get over the similarity to a Romanian pop song and it destroys it to me somewhat. I know, I know, but still, that's my problem LOL The cheap synth part appears here too. Other than that, I am pretty much sure, this will be a live favorite.

Overall the album sounds good and it's an interesting listen. Every time I find something new.
 
My sense of objectivity suggests that if one person loves a song that the other does not like (that much), then the album just meets its aim.

Darkest Hour is one such example. It does not work for me but I see that many of you like it. It just makes me happy
 
1.Sentjutsu 8/10
2.Stratego 9/10
3. Writing On The Wall 9/10
4. Lost in a Lost World 8/10
5. Days of future Past 9/10
6. The Time Machine 6/10
7. Darkest Hour 9/10
8. Death of the Celts 4/10
9. The Parchment 10/10
10. Hell on Earth 10/10
 
Senjutsu - 10/10
Stratego - 10/10
The Writing On The Wall - 8/10
Lost In A Lost World - 8/10
Days Of Future Past - 10/10
The Time Machine - 7/10
Darkest Hour - 10/10
Death Of The Celts - 9/10
The Parchment - 10/10
Hell On Earth - 10/10
 
Senjutsu - 10/10
Stratego - 10/10
The Writing On The Wall - 9/10
Lost In A Lost World - 7/10
Days Of Future Past - 9/10
The Time Machine - 9/10
Darkest Hour - 9/10
Death Of The Celts - 8/10
The Parchment - 9/10
Hell On Earth - 10/10

These rankings may change over time.
 
mckindog said:
Initial impression, one listen: Good and worthy of heavy exploration. Familiar enough yet different enough.

Senjutsu: love the power, not certain about the monochrome pace, like nothing they've done before, good chorus; likely to be grower
Stratego: Instant grabber; fantastic chorus and rhythm.
Writing on the Wall: Polished catchy. Kinda mainstream rock, but not bland at all. Different for Maiden
Lost in a Lost World: A little clunky in construction but pretty cool. I like the intro/outro, again different for Maiden. I do hear the X-Factor references.
Days of Future Past: Very straightforward and unremarkable, but good. Not as heavy as I was expecting. Can't say yet if it's more New Frontier or Judas Be My Guide
Time Machine: Kinda goofy and familiar, very Janick. I could see this one sucking me in.
Darkest Hour: This could have come off Accident of Birth. Tasty solos, emotional vocal.
Death of the Celts: Fine. Seemed to be lacking a real hook.
The Parchment: the most cinematic track so far. Bit of a slow build but I think it will be a grower. The ending seems like something I will go back to over and over
Hell on Earth: Fantastic 'Arry melodies and rhythms. Think this will be the one that gets heavy replays early.
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Thank you. I don't think I need to bother posting a review of my own now. :)
 
Youtube views so far (excluding Stratego and TWOTW for obvious reasons):

1. Senjutsu
2. Hell on Earth
3. Death of the Celts
4. Days of Future Past
5. The Parchment
6. Darkest Hour
7. Lost in a Lost World
8. The Time Machine
 
I like the production but for some reason on Stratego I feel it's much worse. Don't know if it's Bruce singing too soft and the distracting guitar following the vocal line, but I don't like the way it sounds. I think it's stopping me from enjoying it more, it's probably the one I less go to due to that, bugs me a lot.
 
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