It's growing on me, but it's still in the bottom half for me.
Stratego is fine but uninteresting. Speed of Light and The Alchemist are so much better as far as the short blazers go. Now, Days of Future Past is more comparable to them, and I want to say it's my second favourite from the album.
Lost in a Lost World is catchy as hell, and honestly that's pretty cool. I can't think of songs with that running time that aren't epics. My problem with it initially was actually exactly that, it didn't feel big enough compared to the other long songs. But the more I realize it doesn't have to be another Paschendale, the more I like it.
TWOTW makes me go, "neat", and then I forget about it. Just don't care for it much. The Time Machine has found friends in Lightning Strikes Twice and Charlotte the Harlot close to the bottom of my rankings.
The title track makes me go, "awesome!", and then, "but why the synth???" Seriously, what's up with that annoying synth sound throughout the album? It rarely actually adds to the atmosphere and it's especially bad on Senjutsu and Stratego. If TFF has bad production as its "overarching issue", then Senjutsu has the synth. The synth and guitar lines following the vocals too often.
Darkest Hour is great. I love the ambient opening, and the vocals are fantastic in this range. Also nice to hear the "3 chord band" do a little more harmonically. I think it's a (surprisingly) unique ballad in the discography, like what's the next closest thing? Strange World? Wasting Love?
Now, the elephant(s) in the room:
Death of the Celts is probably bottom 4 or so as far as long songs go. It has some really cool parts, for example I love the bass going higher in the instrumental section. And it feels great when the verse finally moves to the chorus. But dammit it's far too long.
The Parchment is weird. The release in the "heading for afterlife..." part remains one of the most satisfactory moments in the entire discography. I'd give the song a 10 if it was for that part alone. But I agree 100% with GhostofCain and Ironalice. The solos may be good, or they may not be, I can't tell because it's so self-indulgent that it loses me 4 minutes in until the vocals come back. And once they do, we still have the entire Transfăgărășan ahead of us. It's a long long road and not always worth it.
Finally, Hell on Earth, and it's so many cuts above the rest here it's ridiculous. I'm talking top 10, when in my most recent ranking of the songs (which I already don't agree with...) The next highest from the album was Days of Future Past at #74. This song goes through the motions so masterfully, and it's possibly the most dynamic song of them all, it's like a compact Empire of the Clouds in this regard! Every little quirk here is so perfectly placed, from the "Prey!" to the tempo change as the solo comes crashing down... They really bring this already fantastic song to life, and it boasts such a great chorus too!
I rank the reunion albums
1. The Book of Souls
2. A Matter of Life and Death
3. The Final Frontier
4. Brave New World
5. Senjutsu
6. Dance of Death
With a decently sized gap between 4 and 5. Both Senjutsu and DoD suffer from that unevenness problem in a way the others don't. You have a top 10 song and a bottom 10 song on the same album.
One of the strengths of the album, I guess, is that it's very varied. You have a ballad, the short rockers, 3 epics of different tastes, the doomy opener, and the slower
stuff (TTM and TWOTW). And whatever LIALW is.
What album competes with this? AMOLAD is just one mammoth after another. Surely nothing from the 80's. Dance of Death has some variety, maybe that's where the unevenness of both it and Senjutsu is born.