Rate the Senjutsu songs in terms of difficulty to play them live

Dick Brucinson

Dave Sustaine
How would you all rate the songs off the Senjutsu album in terms of being challenging for the band to play them live? Let's start with the song you'd suppose to be least difficult then making a turn to the more challenging ones. I think especially The Parchment is a killer piece of a song. Timing, instrumental sections, vocals...
My rating, though I might be wrong:

1 The Writing On The Wall
2 The Time Machine
3 Days Of Future Past
4 Lost In A Lost World
5 Senjutsu
6 Stratego
7 The Darkest Hour
8 Death Of The Kelts
9 Hell On Earth
10 The Parchment
 
I’m not a musician myself, but I think that the relatively straightforward songs are going to be easiest to play. So:

1. The Writing on the Wall
2. Days of Future Past

Then there’s the longer songs that have a few more parts to them but are still kind of rooted in the same tempo:

3. Senjutsu
4. Darkest Hour

5. Stratego - because of its relative speed and intense drum passages.

6. The Parchment - this one’s long, but it mostly follows the same tempo.

Then finally we have the longer songs with quite a few different parts to them with different tempos that could be tricky to get just right:

7. Death of the Celts - has a windy build up, changes pace for the instrumental.
8. Lost in a Lost World - lot of different parts here, but it’s also not terribly fast.
9. The Time Machine - faster song with a lot of almost proggy that it could be difficult maneuvering through.
10. Hell on Earth - the intro and outro need to be timed just right, there’s a lot of moments where it shifts gears on a dime, and it’s fairly quick for such a song.
 
1 The Writing on the Wall
2 Days of Future Past
3 Darkest Hour
4 Senjutsu
5 The Time Machine
6 Lost in a Lost World
7 Stratego
8 Death of the Celts
9 Hell on Earth
10 The Parchment

I admit that I sometimes totally forget the singer’s torment and think more about transitions and instrumental interplay.
 
Of the six songs I can (more or less) play, from the bass guitar's perspective:
  1. "Death of the Celts" - easily the toughest. Part of the challenge is physically changing instruments mid-song (acoustic to electric), and there's a lot of tricky riffs throughout. The bass is the lead instrument for most of the song. (For what it's worth, I can see Harris enjoying playing this one live).
  2. "Hell on Earth" - a distant second. Tough due to the length, the timing of some of the transitions, and also switching from acoustic to electric. None of it's technically complex, but there are a few subtle/tricky parts.
  3. "Senjutsu" - generally straightforward, but the technical riffs halfway through are a bit tough.
  4. "Lost in a Lost World" - long, but fairly straightforward.
  5. "The Writing on the Wall" - some good fills, but straightforward.
  6. "The Parchment" - long, but not particularly challenging (or, frankly, interesting) on the bass.
The other four songs ("Stratego", "Days of Future Past", "The Time Machine" and "Darkest Hour") all seem straightforward on the bass.
 
As I understand it, Iron Maiden's recordings since 2000 have more or less been done live in studio.

Is there a difference in remembering how to play them and actually playing them? If not, then it surely must be The Parchment. I recall interviews saying that they had to learn it and record it in segments.
 
Most of the songs are recorded in sections, but I think the shorter songs like ''Days Of Future Past'' and ''The Wirting On The Wall'' are not difficult. Next I would say ''Darkest Hour'' (tricky solo for Adrian?). ''Senjutsu'' and ''Stratego'' follow - the former because of the high vocals in the middle, the latter because of the drumming.

About the rest of the songs, I'm not sure. I will list the parts that I think are tricky:

''The Time Machine'' - a lot of proggy parts, double vocals in the verses, acoustic guitar under the chorus (that will be omitted, I guess), Adrian's proggy solo.
''Lost In A Lost World'' - the ''ah-ahs'' in the intro, steady rhythm, high chorus.
''Death Of The Celts'' - a really fun song for everyone in the band. A lot of different parts and riffs, the bass is in action all the time (acoustic and electric even in the middle?), busy drumming.
''The Parchment'' - Janick's leads are a lot in the album, a lot of lyrics, fast part.
''Hell On Earth'' - the intro & outro shouldn't be a problem, the gallop too(?). The guitarists need to be focused all of the time (different parts again), the vocals are not so easy.

I guess the long songs with different parts in them would be a bit of a challenge live.
 
I'm interested to see how they'll pull off Hell on Earth given they don't have Nicko keeping time in the intro for over two minutes. They could just have him step on the hi-hat pedal.
Maybe the intro will be a bit shorter live. Has this happend before? The intro of ''Revelations''? Someone from the crew or someone from the band could signal Nicko when to start. Its length is 2:14 minutes, 2 passages (the first is repeated 4 times, the second 5 times).
*Maiden's intros in the epics are usually 1-2 minutes long.

Speaking of that intro, it could have easily been a separate song/instrumental before the actual song on the album - it's that strong imo and with the sudden interruption it would have been perfect for that. But Maiden didn't do that in 2010 (TFF album), so it was out of the question. The song could also start straight out with the drums (no intro, but plus the outro) and it will still be great. I'm not sure if there is any other song that is without singing for over 3 minutes (starting with the intro) that I like (so much).
 
Maybe the intro will be a bit shorter live. Has this happend before?
The band shortened some of the repetitions in "Where Eagles Dare" when they've play it live. They did that on the Legacy of the Beast Tour, and I'm pretty sure they did this in the mid 2000's as well. (For what it's worth, I like that change). So it's rare for the band to cut out parts of the song when they play it live, but it's not entirely unprecedented.
 
The intro could be used as a stand-alone instrumental, but I would not recommend it. I liken it to an 18th century opera overture with, among other things, the typical hints of the later themes of the opera.
With the beginning of the main part of the song, the curtain rises.
 
The intro could be used as a stand-alone instrumental, but I would not recommend it.
I agree.
''The Parchment'' - Janick's leads are a lot in the album...
I said Janick's leads here, and while it's true, I think Dave also plays most of the leads in this song (along with Janick and Adrian in some parts(?)).
Btw, which is the song in the album with the most leads by Dave? ''The Parchment'' or ''Hell On Earth''? Probably the former. The latter has different leads from all guitarists and harmonies played together and I think its intro is played by Janick (''When The Wild Wind Blows'' vibe). Or maybe in ''Death Of The Celts'' (like for ''The Clansman'') along with Janick again (like they did under the chorus of ''Stratego''). ''Lost In A Lost World'' is probably all Janick's leads? He is without a solo in the song. Or Janick and Adrian (like in ''The Writing On The Wall'' or ''The Red And The Black'', although the guitar harmony in ''The Great Unknown'' for example is played by Janick and Dave). But what about the melody under the pre-chorus and the powerful riff in the instrumental section? It could be Dave.
 
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I agree.

I said Janick's leads here, and while it's true, I think Dave also plays most of the leads in this song (along with Janick and Adrian in some parts(?)).
Btw, which is the song in the album with the most leads by Dave? ''The Parchment'' or ''Hell On Earth''? Probably the former. The latter has different leads from all guitarists and harmonies played together and I think its intro is played by Janick (''When The Wild Wind Blows'' vibe). Or maybe in ''Death Of The Celts'' (like for ''The Clansman'') along with Janick again (like they did under the chorus of ''Stratego''). ''Lost In A Lost World'' is probably all Janick's leads? He is without a solo in the song. Or Janick and Adrian (like in ''The Writing On The Wall'' or ''The Red And The Black'', although the guitar harmony in ''The Great Unknown'' for example is played by Janick and Dave). But what about the melody under the pre-chorus and the powerful riff in the instrumental section? It could be Dave.
LEAD MELODIES:

Dave: Lost in a Lost World, The Parchment (along with Janick in The Time Machine, Stratego)
Janick: The Time Machine, Hell on Earth, Stratego
Adrian: The Writing on the Wall (along with Janick), Days of Future Past and Darkest Hour (intros and outros), Hell on Earth (along with Janick)


RHYTHM GUITARS ON EACH SONG (for example long instrumental part in TRATB Adrian and Janick play leads while Davey plays rhythm):
Senjutsu - all three play rhythm
Stratego - Adrian
TWOTW - Dave
LIALW - Adrian
DOFP - Dave, Janick
Darkest Hour - Dave, Janick
DOTC - all three play both leads and rhythm
Parchment - Adrian
HOE - Dave
 
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