Put your initial thought after your first listen to the Senjutsu album to one sentence please.

[Dick Brucinson]

Try to remember the Senjutsu album release back in autumn 2021... and put your initial thought after your very first listen to the album to one sentence please.

 

[Terry1958]

They've still got it.

 

[el diablo]

I'm going to be listening to Disc 2 in heavy rotation for a long time.

 

[breeg]

This album is really ... long!

 

[Kalata]

The magic is still there. Or - What a melodic and very memorable, interesting and varied album.

Also, the long instrumental passages stood out.

 

[Edington]

Hm... is that it?

(It took a bit of time to grow on me)

 

[Ascendingthethrone]

‘WTF is this opening song?’

I like the song now, but I was a bit bewildered by Senjutsu at first.

‘Come and listen to this chorus!’

That’s what I shouted at my wife the first time I heard Hell on Earth.

 

[Vaenyr]

When I got the album, I sat down, listened to it in its entirety and basically wrote down my thoughts in real time. I still have that mini-review somewhere, but trying to boil it down to one sentence is difficult, since some impressions were really positive, while others were somewhat negative. If I had to, I'd focus on the positive and say:

There's a lot to love there.

 

[Melony]

It's not flawless, but still, I'm impressed. Hats off!

 

[GhostofCain]

“Some good ideas but were so many lumbering longueurs really necessary?”

 

[GhostofCain]

Hm... is that it?

(It took a bit of time to grow on me)

It has not grown on me yet.

 

[TheMercenary]

A lot of melodies, maybe too much and too long, but still a great record IMHO.

 

[GhostofCain]

“The seagulls. The fucking seagulls!”

 

[Ascendingthethrone]

“The seagulls. The fucking seagulls!”

How can we make this a double album?Seagulls and waves! I can just imagine Steve heading to the beach with a portable recorder to get the required sounds!

 

[GhostofCain]

How can we make this a double album?Seagulls and waves! I can just imagine Steve heading to the beach with a portable recorder to get the required sounds!

Incorrect. It was Bruce, with a boner after singing about Churchill.

 

[Kalata]

A lot of melodies, maybe too much and too long, but still a great record IMHO.

Too much melodies? There is no such thing You probably meant that the long instrumental sections are more prominent than ever - and that's why the album feels longer than it is. Ofc because of the dominant longer material, too.

How can we make this a double album?

By extending certain parts a little longer. In Kevin's diary, some of the songs were slightly shorter. Maybe they work on intros/outros last?

It's not flawless...

You have a chorus like that of Hell On Earth and it only repeats once....

not to mention the hollow middle part of Days.

 

[Jer]

“Long and a bit uneven, but that final half an hour completely rules!”

 

[Vaenyr]

Another summary could've been "Mostly great songwriting, but man could the production be better"

 

[Magnus]

"8th album, finally, could have been better though".

 

[CA Bryers]

A lot to absorb, not entirely sure how I feel about it.

That's the one sentence version. The slightly longer is that there was a lot to love about it, a lot to feel...mixed about, but overall I'm always grateful when we get another Maiden album, because they could've stopped this ages ago. Nowadays, the prevailing thought is that it could've been edited down to a single disc and there would've been no impact felt.