Senjutsu - 3rd September 2021

No you’re fine, more just lamenting about the speculation and inevitably disappointment around them playing ATG live. :p
 
charon said:
Lately there are too many reviews for the album but i fοund one that rates the album with 6,5/10
If there's anyone to translate it though..
www.heavymetal.no

Iron Maiden «Senjutsu» – Heavymetal.no

www.heavymetal.no www.heavymetal.no
Click to expand...
The album has its long songs on playing time, and very few of these will probably be considered for radio and TV play. I applaud them for that, that they easily shit in such. The shortest is Days Of Future Past , with its 4 minutes, but I do not hear it for me will be a hit.


There, the trip was underway. Although the band per. today is not very exciting versus what they were, and that it abounds in many more exciting bands, there is something special when the dinosaurs leave a dose of new music.


Senjutsu opens the new Maiden album, and works really well as a door opener. None of the songs have special speed and excitement about them, then this might as well be what meets the people. I don't like the two songs that have already been released, they are, after too many hearings, the two I would have picked away to trim the fat a bit. I also think Death of The Celts was a little too solid. It's reminiscent of Empire Of The Clouds or The Clansman , in being too epic, too long, and a little too simple . "


OK: Senjutsu is a bit dark, it has a heavy tempo, good drive and Bruce lies down quite well where I like him best. I'm not a fan of pushing up with the vocals. It just sounds spasmodic today.


Nope: Stratego is such a galloping song, from the beginning you understand where it goes, this sounds quite typically newer Maiden . The chorus is properly used up unfortunately, an awkward case. The solo is just a little meh, there ARE several solos on the record that are really good, this is an assembly line, and the song falls right into the ditch for me.


Nope: The Writing On The Wall , where they try to be a little lively, a little mysterious, the tones have a little folkish feel, but when the song starts with tempo, I stumble well given. It almost sounds like a village band. And you can not blame Nicko for terribly boring rhythm, he does not have much to work with here, there are probably not many alternatives. Here is the chorus as Stratego , in the same street. These typical and exhausted melodies. The solo works ok, but the surface is dull. The melody line the guitars run is something that destroys a lot. They had earned a lot from going straight to the solo after the chorus, and did not have that interlude between the solos. Last solo part is better than first.


Meh, but good: Then there's the lost world. Nine and a half minutes with Lost In A Lost World . Although the acoustic guitar playing is very simple, it works since Bruce does a decent job, and the little choruses season well. That choir was actually cool, a little unfamiliar that Maiden drives like that, even if it was only at short intervals. When the rough starts, it's typically Maiden , but not in the street I dislike. Very cool when the vocals come in and they do not simplify the riff. But that twist to the chorus ruins everything for me. It's one thing to put in a new gear, shift, but that insert there did not work for me. Not the simple one the guitar melody after rather. That's basically one of the reasons I can 't stand that much newer Maiden , the simplistic guitar lines.


Better: Days Of Future Past flashes with a little speed, but the chorus falls a little into that ditch I think. However, the versrif is good on drive. Bruce also sings well here. Cool party between solo and chorus. The song is unfortunately very typical, not one that falls big here. But a small upswing.


Partly good: The start-up on Time Machine was different, where they surprised a little. Here I think Bruce 's voice is very nice. The transition from the calm flap, although the part between the verses punctured a little. Then there is this fairytale metal again, these simple lines on the guitar, before Brucelifts the vowel to new verse. The arrangement of that part of the songs is not necessarily very typical, and it is not easy to know what to call the different parts. The break to the prog that settles as the foundation for the solo is crap, the solo also glimmers in being partially active. Especially the small start. Then it's in trallalla country again. Do they never get bored of this? :). The downsizing of the song is ok, almost a minute of downscaling before it ends. Not unexpected, but it adds to the basket of good spices.


Best: Darkest Hour is actually a pretty standard song, with a taste of Bruce 's solo time. But he sings very well here, and the song has a very nice flow. The chorus is probably so close to something I've heard before from Bruce , but in a clichéd way it's done fresh. And the mood of the vocals and the song is very down , very beautiful, and sore. The solo here is phenomenal! I get stings for Cinderella on the Long Cold Winter album.


Unsure: Death Of The Celts contains so much of this Braveheartrock that I almost get a little annoyed. But there are elements in this long song that work. I hang on to them I know, but as a whole it is too much, which they have failed at before. Are they not able to have any no-people in the circle of friends? Anyone who can hear and tip? When Bruce sings the calm, and presses the voice, one hears that he has aged. But I found it a bit scratchy to be dressy actually.


Bra: The Parchement. If the Celtic death knell was long, they present here with a parchment almost thirteen minutes long. Several of the long songs have pieces that work, but it seems like a lot is just put together and not considered. It is often a bit inappropriate tempo twist, but what The Parchment has is a flow. A flow of something epic. It also has this simple guitar piece, but there they play with changing the tones that suit the song. The solo comes in and just slides fat through a fairly long passage. What I liked was that the comp did not change, that the solos and songs generally went in the same flow. Just before the ten-minute mark, however, they failed to hold on, and drove into the typical uptempo. Actually, I like it in this songs. It's also put solo here, which I suspect isDave , or Gers . To end with over two minutes of such is perfectly fine, I like Maiden when they alternate between the soloists, that you get these contrasts.


Meh: Hell On Earth , it was violent, if they are not aiming for Trøndelag :). It begins the same with many Maiden songs given, a calm bass line with a stripped-down clunking of the guitar. Here we talk over eleven minutes with, yep, calm start, straight at a gallop and standard Maiden run. And these terribly boring guitar melodies, again! I got a little Nightwish feeling . Does it never end? Bruce sings well here, I liked how he got into the song, not typical solution from him. But where he presses his voice, there I do not like. Just before the chorus there. It's just wrong. Steve should possibly realize and adapt Bruces'age. He sings well, but something happens to the voice. The entrance to the solo is strange, what happens in the song below there. Tough but nice. Perhaps the song I felt was most unusual for Maiden here. The chorus in the chorus, the solo, the basic accompaniment, something was standard as mentioned, but… The ending is not very innovative, as many people end it by building down in a familiar style.


***


It was sliced it. I have listened to it for so many hours that I think I am on target with the way I feel the country is for me. Right NOW, as of this writing, I was bored and could not bear to hear any more. The dose was definitely reached, but it was probably in excess of a lot of Senjutsu at once. Last time, on Book Of Souls , it was a more boring review, and it sank a bit like a rock afterwards. How this new one will hold up is impossible to say yet, but based on intensive listening, the conclusion is that it is probably better than Book , but with clear shortcomings in the form of not being able to compress any of the songs. Much has been taken from the Maiden book, something is quite interesting, so as such I would guess that most fans will find something. You have those who yawn and swallow, and gulp up dice with six dots on all sides, I can not bear to think of them at once. But for someone who has followed the band since Killers (me) and had a sober relationship with the records, I feel that they deliver well to be so old, and to have released so many records that the idea bank should strictly speaking dried out for too long since. But then again, the album has moments that are fresh.


In his time, it was not me who argued that we had to have scores here when we review records, I like to read and interpret, discuss. But then it is unfortunately the case that many read the number and put too much into it. Wholeness, longevity, digestion, all this takes time, and for me it is at least five or six months before I will come with a healthier understanding of the album than here with a couple of weeks of new listening. Lifespan is very important to me, because what good is it if something works there and then if it never tempts you to take it off the shelf a few months later? I would not think that Book Of Souls is a seven today for example, as I gave it when it came out. Therefore, I want to be sober and give Senjutsu a little under, and hope it works out.


This one is going to sell anyway, unheard of, if people hate the first two songs Maiden sells. That's just how it is. But, had they climbed a bit on the production side, and they can afford it, and trimmed the aforementioned fat in some of the songs, they could have gotten a little more goodwill from those sitting on the fence, and sold even more I would guess .


Maybe they have a strategy? There are a couple who can grow better, a couple I easily hear can become live favorites.


6.5 / 10
 
Dunno if I’ve posted before, but getting big ATG vibes from the way people talk about The Parchment.
 
Here I was thinking Bruce misspoke when he said The Writing on the Wall and Senjutsu (and not Stratego) would probably be the two tracks played live on the final Legacy leg, but H says he thinks Senjutsu's going to be a good live track. Guess they're planning on playing it next summer.
 
Meliegree said:
I also think Death of The Celts was a little too solid. It is reminiscent of Empire Of The Clouds or The Clansman , in being too epic, too long, and a little too simple

whaaaat?
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I agree with him.

Both songs, Clansman and Empire, are made of very generic melodies and grooves. The SOS part and the key moving riff after first lyrical part in EOTC count up to less than a minute out of 18.

EOTC being 18 minutes and it's not even mentioned as one of their 'prog' tracks, because it's really a simple rock opera suite of sorts. Even Nicko who's always the first to put Maiden in the prog camp as soon as they do something spicy, said it's like 'a Broadway thing'.

Clansman too, there's some nice syncopation in the bass lines over a moment or two but that's about it.
 
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