Please post reviews and thoughts on Senjutsu here

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After 4 listens my rankings for the songs right now would be
The Time Machine
Days of Future Past
Darkest Hour
The Parchment
Senjutsu
Statego
Lost in a Lost World
Hell on Earth
The Writing on the Wall
Death of the Celts


if DotC & HoE were dropped or at least shorter and TWOTW was a non-album single this would have been my favourite Maiden album since the 80's, already I think it's much better than TFF & TBOS, i wouldn't consider any of the songs on this album to be bad just some weaker cuts among some really majestic killer Maiden
 
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It’s going to survive the time test. This album will age better than most. It should be their last. Dickinson is very good.
 
The only real stinker as of now for me is Death of the Celts. Probably I expected more from the title and comparison to Clansman.

Standouts : Stratego, DOFP, Darkest Hour, Hell on Earth and in parts The Time Machine
 
I cant still believe how good is Death of the Celts and Darkest Hour. Bruce is on fire on whole album. Self-plagiarism may work in some places (copy/paste riff from clansman in dotc). Either way - very strong album.
 
I’ve listened through the album twice. It absolutely floors me how good every second of this album is. There’s a lot to digest but my immediate takeaway is that it’s a toss up between Bruce and Nicko for best album performance. Steve is definitely self plagiarizing a bit, but I don’t really care. I think LIALW is better than Wild Wind and DOTC is better than Clansman. Parchment sounds like a reunion era version of To Tame a Land and is absolutely amazing.
 
LIALW was quite bad for me BUT was saved by closing vocals. Chills.

The biggest problem at the moment for me is Steve trying to stick sometimes 4-5 melodies together but I dont see why? First minutes of DotC - melody is changing more often than my opinion on taxes but I dont see here a plan.

Other than that - great album. I like opener very much. It seems that all reviews were right, the good and the bad ones. Also - i prefer Bruce singing in a mid-range.

Album has also strong chemical wedding vibe.
 
Had a couple listens. This album in INSANELY GOOD!! It’s the album I’ve been waiting for them to write since I first heard SSOASS in 1988. All the minor gripes I’ve had with reunion albums are gone on this one. Every song is a winner.

The Harris penned tracks are arguably some of his best work. The Parchment is in good company alongside ROTAM, infinite Dreams and SSOASS, it’s that good!
 
Got my CD delivered today.
Though needless to say, its sound quality is way better than that of what I may or may not have listened to in the last few days.
 
Seems I'm going to have to spend alot more time on DotC and HoE going by how everyone else seems to like them so much and by how much i adore the rest of the album but they seem like weak points to me, perhaps it's because The Parchment is sandwiched inbetween them and it being such a standout track

also whoever chose TWOTW over DOFP for the single needs their head checking, it could have been The Wicker Man of this decade
 
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"Senjutsu": Wow. That was unexpected, for an album opener at least. Got to be their slowest-tempo opener ever, though not without energy. It lurches ahead with the heaviness of a parade of elephants. Someone told Nicko to "play the opposite of Aces High" and somehow it worked.

"Stratego": Sequencing of this track now makes sense. That opening gallop hits twice as hard after an opener like "Senjutsu". First direct comparison I can make to the pre-release audio, and this is much better, esp. the vocal clarity.

"The Writing On The Wall": Again, the improvement in audio quality is striking; it seems like a new song again. Again, superb solos.

"Lost In A Lost World": Thick acoustic guitars (including an acoustic bass) and a early 70s vibe for the intro. Then complicated Harris riffs, against syncopated drums and a good verse melody. Now to a slightly faster 4/4 for a chorus -- I know it's the chorus, Bruce is repeating the title -- and then harmonized guitars alternating with bass-driven riffs. This is classic Harris stuff. Two Amigos take solos, and then yet another new harmony-guitar melody. Standard Harris ending: double chorus (total four song titles sung) and wind it down with some Clansman-type stuff. If all the Harris epics are this good, this album is going to kill.

"Days Of Future Past": High energy-track, a nice change after a Harris epic. Love the sequencing on this album so far. Tasty drumming by Nicko at the end.

"The Time Machine": Another slow intro, not bad at all. But once the rock kicks in, it gets even better. Tricky, twisty vocal melody and Janick playing along merrily the whole while, a whole pile of Celtic-sounding riffs. A couple good solos about two-thirds in. Modal and medieval sounding; Jan was clearly writing his new dancing music for this tour.

"Darkest Hour": Have you ever taken a vinyl 45 and played it at 33 rpm? Sounds like slow-motion music. That's what this song is: a standard Bruce+H rocker, at about half speed. Slo-mo Maiden. H stole the opening riff from "Victim of Changes". It's a good song, but why does it end on a beach?

"Death Of The Celts": It's now that time for Mr. Harris to take over my life for the next half-hour plus. Start with a long bass-driven intro, like "No More Lies" meets "The Clansman". After a couple minutes, add some distorted guitar and drums. It's another slow-to-moderate triple-meter song, like the opener and "Darkest Hour". Fast triple time for the mid-song instrumental break, with all the guitar+bass unisons you'd expect from Arry. A metric pile of solos, then slow it down for the last minute.

"The Parchment": Bass chord intro. Steve thinks he's a guitarist again. Egyptian-sounding guitar melodies over Steve's power chords. Then it kicks in loud with a riff that reminds of "Powerslave". The tempo is moderately slow, the riffing is substantially hypnotic. A larger portion of instrumental time than usual; it feels a bit like three instrumental numbers surrounding some brief vocal sections.

"Hell On Earth": Another slow bassy intro. I know it's a Harris thing, but three songs in a row gets tiring and predicatable. This intro just isn't so memorable. Feels like one could just skip the first two minutes of this song. Once it starts rocking, it's good. Another slow-down for the ending here as well -- but a surprise move for a Maiden album closer, it's a fade-out!

Overall: a good album, around the same quality for me as AMOLAD (after just one listen through). Solid and interesting, without going outside the expected box. "The Parchment" is clearly the best song of disc 2; I'm not sure about disc 1 yet.
 
Can't believe some of the decisions they made on some of the songs. I guess it has to do with the spontaneity Steve is after. Mind you it does not always work...
 
People I think it would be better to short out "Hell on Earth" to Hell than abbreviate it as HOE


Anyway, the whole family fell ill and we feel like complete and utter shit, I'm gonna make myself a tad happier and listen to it today, I need it.

So far I heard just HOE because I couldn't resist and find out if it was going to be WTWWB 2. It definitely is and I absolutely don't mind, although the intro AND the outro are ridiculously overstretched. Liked the melodies and the solos, "old Bruce" vocals ... are possibly more pleasant for me than "young Bruce" vocals - still wonder how would the reunion era albums and especially TFF - TBOS - this one sound with Blaze, though, however blasphemous it might seem to youse.

Still, despite the similarities with some previous stuff, it nonetheless feels different. Kinda out of the left field. Will see after the whole album, but for the vibe alone, this one might age better than TBOS for me.
 
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