Please post reviews and thoughts on Senjutsu here

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MindlessPieces said:
They were not only criticising the production, but also the editing the tightness of the playing, the construction of the songs, the length of the songs, the tempo of the songs, the intent of the band to play for themselves rather that to please an audience, the self plagiarism.
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Oh man reading the above was quite painful it reminded me the what have the romans ever done for us part from Life of Brian! :D

MindlessPieces said:
It doesn't resonate with me because I love these longer songs, I don't have to have music at fast tempo. But it would be nice to have professional level production like they used to have pre-Shirley.
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Agreed. My point exactly.
 
Rosscopolis said:
Starts strong but soon peters out. Overall 6-ish out of 10

Senjutsu – 7.5
Stratego – 7.5
Writing – 7.5 (5 for the song, 10 for Adrian’s transcendent solo)
Lost – 5
Days – 5.5
Time – 7
Darkest – 6
Death – 5.5
Parchment – 6.5
Hell – 5.5
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Repeated listens have reinforced my initial impressions of it being ponderous, samey and over long. Stratego has grown on me and I'd bump that up to 8/10, but only in the context of the album. Everything else, including the title track, which I liked at first but has really started to grate, is a 5 or 6 out of 10. *For me*, it's a case of quantity over quality, and plod over immediacy.
 
Finally got around to listening it.

Maybe it's because I'm not as madly into Maiden as I was five or so years ago, but this album feels a little underwhelming on the whole, definitely not the worst in my view, but sort of underwhelming, whereas I still maintain Book Of Souls is their best album since BNW.

There's some highlights, but a lot of the songs blend into each other and are relatively unmemorable (like, is anyone going to say Lost In A Lost World is their favourite Maiden song?). And even the highlights aren't the best of Maiden's career or anything. It feels forgettable more than anything else.
 
RTC said:
There's some highlights, but a lot of the songs blend into each other and are relatively unmemorable (like, is anyone going to say Lost In A Lost World is their favourite Maiden song?). And even the highlights aren't the best of Maiden's career or anything. It feels forgettable more than anything else.
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I have had this thought when listening through to this album. It's like I almost gotta convince myself that what I'm listening to is actually good, but in fact I am bored and just listening to a very sub par Maiden album. I've listened to the album maybe 6 times and can only remember 3 songs from it. Not a good thing in my opinion.

It's just far too long, way too much filler and fat. First time I listening to it I audibly groaned multiple times when checking to see how long a song had left. Riffs and musical passages are repeated for far too long. Guitars oddly get lost in the mix a lot. Definitely doesn't sound like they have three guitars playing. As it stands, it's still my least favorite Iron Maiden album.

That all being said, The Parchment is fantastic.
 
Dityn DJ James said:
I have had this thought when listening through to this album. It's like I almost gotta convince myself that what I'm listening to is actually good, but in fact I am bored and just listening to a very sub par Maiden album. I've listened to the album maybe 6 times and can only remember 3 songs from it. Not a good thing in my opinion.

It's just far too long, way too much filler and fat. First time I listening to it I audibly groaned multiple times when checking to see how long a song had left. Riffs and musical passages are repeated for far too long. Guitars oddly get lost in the mix a lot. Definitely doesn't sound like they have three guitars playing. As it stands, it's still my least favorite Iron Maiden album.

That all being said, The Parchment is fantastic.
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Now I can die happy, the torch is passed. Now that I know that there is a new generation of Gk1s in this world I can just enjoy this new album in a serenade of glory!
 
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See the Eagle as it Flyyyyeeeyy-EEEZ… ON THE WIND!
While some are apparently convincing themselves of LIALW being good…. Others are trying to convince ourselves that life will go on after the song ends. Truly feel sorry for anyone not getting the experience Senjutsu is providing. The album kicks arse- song after song.
 
Dityn DJ James said:
First time I listening to it I audibly groaned multiple times when checking to see how long a song had left. Riffs and musical passages are repeated for far too long. Guitars oddly get lost in the mix a lot.
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To me, this is literally what The Parchment is. Ok song as is but could have been incredible if it was at least 5 minutes shorter. Oddly enough, it's the only song on the album that I feel is too long.
 
Donner said:
To me, this is literally what The Parchment is. Ok song as is but could have been incredible if it was at least 5 minutes shorter. Oddly enough, it's the only song on the album that I feel is too long.
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PS: not directed at Donner specifically, but at all people that complain about length of songs.


Can someone please tell me what the ideal song length is?
What length is terrific and should be cheered and applauded?
What length is borderline OK?
And what length is wholeheartedly not acceptable?

In my immense naivety on this matter, I just stupidly grin all the way through a song that I enjoy listening to, but it seems I should be watching a clock and starting to get more and more upset as the seconds tick by.

In my view, if you like a song, you wish it never ends, if you don't like a song, it can't end soon enough.
The great thing about songs you don't like, is that you don't have to play them at all, you don't even have to listen to a single second, let alone 10 minutes. If you don't like it, don't press play on it.
 
Well, I love Revelations, but don't want it to be a second longer. On the other hand, I wasn't happy when they shortened it for live version in the 2000's. I love Still Life and don't want it to be longer. Same with all my favourite songs from the 80's.

I wouldn't mind if they had trimmed the epics from the last few albums. Martin Birch would surely have told them to work those songs a bit more. Remember that he made Bruce do the scream of NOTB numerous times, before he was happy. But people get lazy as they grow older. The albums are still pretty good, luckily.
 
I think that the remarkable thing about this album is that despite the length of the songs not a single one drags for me. If i listen to one track i find myself listening to the whole album. Iron Maiden have created an immersive listening experience where i can dip out of reality for a 80 minutes and it feels like mere seconds pass. It takes skill to make such long and bombastic music feel so addictive.

And Bruce should be Knighted for his vocals, so much character and personality in his inflections. He's made up for his slight drop in power with an ever greater intimacy.
 
stjerky said:
Well, I love Revelations, but don't want it to be a second longer. On the other hand, I wasn't happy when they shortened it for live version in the 2000's. I love Still Life and don't want it to be longer. Same with all my favourite songs from the 80's.

I wouldn't mind if they had trimmed the epics from the last few albums. Martin Birch would surely have told them to work those songs a bit more. Remember that he made Bruce do the scream of NOTB numerous times, before he was happy. But people get lazy as they grow older. The albums are still pretty good, luckily.
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People keep bringing Martin Birch into the discussion when song lengths and arrangements are discussed, but he didn't have anything to do with that! And that has been mentioned 5802 times in various interviews.
 
I am sure Martin said that his suggestions on the arrangements always hit a brick wall with the band. He was however a master on capturing the best performances from each member and of course also getting a crystal clear and dynamic sound
 
Yeah I can imagine the Unforgiven solo situation between Bob Rock and Hammet/Urlich in Maiden.

Birch ranting something to Murray about his solo, Dave smiling from ear to ear and thinking what the fuck is this guy on, while McBrain interrupts with oi, if you think you can do better take the fucking guitar then you wanker
 
I am still really enjoying the new album.
I have listened to it every day since release and am not even slightly bored with it.
In fact my appreciation of the songs has increased.
Even getting into TTM a bit more (it is my least favourite song ) and rating has increased for this song to 7/10.
 
Gk1 said:
I am sure Martin said that his suggestions on the arrangements always hit a brick wall with the band. He was however a master on capturing the best performances from each member and of course also getting a crystal clear and dynamic sound
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It would be interesting to find this interview.
However I think that Birch had much more say than Kevin will ever have. The reason is simple, he had a legendary status already when was hired by an aspiring band. I think he worked exclusively for Maiden too, that speaks a ton.
Kevin on the other hand, had made recently a huge album (I believe the only breakthrough album in his career) with then teenagers Silverchair -who oddly didn't hire him back for their second album- but he was not even remotely the legend Birch was.
My impression is that Steve wanted a good engineer but not someone that will change him, the way Bob Rock did to Metallica. And he didn't want someone to particularly say no to him.

Zare said:
Yeah I can imagine the Unforgiven solo situation between Bob Rock and Hammet/Urlich in Maiden.

Birch ranting something to Murray about his solo, Dave smiling from ear to ear and thinking what the fuck is this guy on, while McBrain interrupts with oi, if you think you can do better take the fucking guitar then you wanker
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:)

All kidding aside, I was driving a 300-ish km today and naturally I was listening Senjutsu. But this time after each Senjutsu song I was listening a "similar" Black Album one. (i.e. Darkest Hour -Nothing Else Matters, Wherever I May Roam -Stratego etc)
After a few comparisons, I realized a simple truth that escaped me so far:

You cannot "produce" a band who doesn't want to be "produced".

You can insert other verbs to the above such as change, manage, guide, etc. It's the same principal of openness and utter trust towards your producer, mentor, manager, guide, you name it.
 
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