Senjutsu - 3rd September 2021

Still my go to record when it comes to the post reunion era. We can debate which one is the best until we're dead but it's hard to argue which one is more consistent. I think it's a great debate between this and AMOLAD.
 
Senjutsu is my 3rd favourite reunion album, after The Book Of Souls and Dance Of Death.

I enjoy every song from all three albums, but I think the peaks on the latter two are stronger.
 
Josh said:
Still my go to record when it comes to the post reunion era. We can debate which one is the best until we're dead but it's hard to argue which one is more consistent. I think it's a great debate between this and AMOLAD.
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AMOLAD is a unique album but not a goto album in my book. BOS, TFF and Senjutsu are all pretty high up there.

Senjutsu songs seem quite easy to play on guitar and my 11 year old daughter can sing them, she wouldn't have a hope in hell of singing the earlier stuff. But that doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the songs, they are great.
 
LooseCannon said:
I think it's worth noting that the re-evaluation of Churchill's legacy over the past ~10 years is very much being driven by the phasing out of people of a certain age from academic and story-telling circles, the replacement of those with diverse figures & youth who do what always do at this point in the legacy of a major figure and question the rhetoric that we know to be true. Bruce is of an age with those being phased out, and he's not a trained consumer of historical fact.
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This.
I wasn't aware of said re-evaluation until Senjutsu was released and it's pretty radical. I remember clearly when Churchill was voted no.1 of the 100 Greatest Britons back in 2002 above Newton, Shakespeare, Alfred the Great etc. Also, I may be wrong but I don't remember any particularly negative Churchill-related remarks here during the Commentary days. So seeing this massive shift of opinion is strange.

"...he's not a trained consumer of historical fact." KUDOS!
 
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For what it’s worth, the discourse around Darkest Hour has been much more interesting to read than just about anything that came up for the songs on The Book of Souls. Seems like there’s quite a bit more to unpack there. The album in general has a lot of lyrical depth that its predecessor lacked.
 
MindlessPieces said:
Do we hate Inglorious Basterds because it wasn't historically accurate???
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I certainly consider it to be a negative for the film, which I didn't terribly enjoy. Then again, I loved Django Unchained which is also very historically inaccurate, but includes the moment where they tell Leo DiCaprio's Three Musketeer-loving slaveholder "Alexandre Dumas is black you stupid son of a bitch" which was one of the most cathartic moments in cinema for me, like, ever.

Honestly, I think Darkest Hour would get a pass if it was more interesting musically and lyrically. I just think it's very...bland, in almost every way.
 
I think Darkest Hour is Maiden’s best ballad-ish song, or at least tied with Coming Home. It’s a tough pick. Listened to Senjutsu again this evening driving to my girlfriend’s house, and I just adore every second of this album. It’s got such a mood to it. It’s got a lot of the darkness of X Factor but better produced. The Parchment is my third favorite reunion era song behind Starblind (still the best song the band ever wrote, period) and The Book of Souls.
 
I really disliked Darkest Hour like many others, but I have to agree that overall the album is pretty satisfying and solid. The Parchment is seriously epic. My favs have to be The Writing On The Wall, Death of the Celts, Senjutsu, Hell On Earth, and Lost In A Lost World. I agree with @Mosh as well that the discussions for this one are quite good! I've been watching this topic since yesterday reading through the epic discourse you guys are belting out.
 
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chaosapiant said:
I think Darkest Hour is Maiden’s best ballad-ish song, or at least tied with Coming Home.
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Musically I like Darkest Hour Better. Overall Coming Home wins though, due to some excellent lyric work:

When I feel the engines roar and I think of what we've done/
No creed and no religion, just a hundred winged souls/
Stretched the fingers of my hand, covered countries with my span
Just a lonely satellite, speck of dust and cosmic sand/
To Albion's land
Coming home when I see the runway lights
In the misty dawn the night is fading fast
Coming home, far away as their vapor trails align
Where I've been tonight, you know I will not stay

chaosapiant said:
Listened to Senjutsu again this evening driving to my girlfriend’s house, and I just adore every second of this album. It’s got such a mood to it. It’s got a lot of the darkness of X Factor but better produced. The Parchment is my third favorite reunion era song behind Starblind (still the best song the band ever wrote, period) and The Book of Souls.
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Senjutsu is a driving heaven. Highway driving though, it doesn't do very well with traffic lights.
Writing on the Wall is Maiden's equivalent of Born to Be Wild..! :D

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I've no strong feelings either way, it sounds like something Manowar would do musically, like Heart of Steel or something, but with the touch of class you get from Maiden.

I'm actually surprised I've never seen anyone mention that the intro is lifted from Victim of Changes:lol:
 
I like this one very much, for me one of the better album tracks.

It was about time for Maiden to make a straight format ballad. Without proggy bridges, sections and stuff, which Coming Home still kinda has. Also way less pompous song than Coming Home or Blood Brothers.

Upon release, I commented that it reminds me of Gates of Urizen, and if you don't hear the similarities well they're not in your face. For me it's about the phrasing of the guitar chords and lyrics atop of them, really roomy sound of guitar that allows drums to steadily clock the song, and the dynamic between chorus and verses. I also see why harrisdevot would say the melody lacks, it does, but for me, alike Urizen, it's a choice to have lyrics contrasted to guitar texture, like a story laid out on a big carpet, without having an additional musical voice in form of separate vocal melody.

I have to say that Harris should get a tip out of this, because in his output on this record, as much as it being top tier, too much stuff moves around. Even when it's not on max it should've been less. Parchment does not need a melody "voice" in the main song, the main melody is pretty reinforced by the riffs. Hell on Earth is over arranged. So on and so forth.

About lyrics, well there's two components to them. How they sound, and what they mean. In this song, IMO they sound excellent. The words, the phrasing, the pronunciation. Excellent. We discuss what they mean, while that concept is largely non existent in majority of the music that Earth listens to. The songs are written intentionally ambiguously because philosophical essays don't sound good when you sing them. You need to choose words that fit the song and not vice versa. Cohesive poetic or prosaic experience of lyrics alone is not the norm. The lyrics could be modified to the point of breaking the narrative just to fit the song and it doesn't matter, because most of the feeling comes from the music.

And it's a somber song, not very epic, triumphant or anything, so that also should be taken into account. That does add to a "balanced point of view". So, great music, and great execution of vocals with a sort of meh lyrics in itself? Still a great track in my book. As far as woke goes I don't feel anything bad while singing this song out loud so kill me.
 
Amen brother, at least some love for this beauty. And yes, lyrics do sound great for most part (except the sit & naked parts that don't, imo).

Zare said:
Parchment does not need a melody "voice" in the main song, the main melody is pretty reinforced by the riffs.
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Naked voice would fit fine, but the passage is so heroic that demands reinforcement to take us into the stratosphere and the guitar does fine the job.
I imagine some over-production, i.e. Bruce doing some backing vocals to himself or some echo in his voice or both would do great too. Not the Maiden style but still.
 
Zare said:
I like this one very much, for me one of the better album tracks.

It was about time for Maiden to make a straight format ballad. Without proggy bridges, sections and stuff, which Coming Home still kinda has. Also way less pompous song than Coming Home or Blood Brothers.

Upon release, I commented that it reminds me of Gates of Urizen, and if you don't hear the similarities well they're not in your face. For me it's about the phrasing of the guitar chords and lyrics atop of them, really roomy sound of guitar that allows drums to steadily clock the song, and the dynamic between chorus and verses. I also see why harrisdevot would say the melody lacks, it does, but for me, alike Urizen, it's a choice to have lyrics contrasted to guitar texture, like a story laid out on a big carpet, without having an additional musical voice in form of separate vocal melody.

I have to say that Harris should get a tip out of this, because in his output on this record, as much as it being top tier, too much stuff moves around. Even when it's not on max it should've been less. Parchment does not need a melody "voice" in the main song, the main melody is pretty reinforced by the riffs. Hell on Earth is over arranged. So on and so forth.

About lyrics, well there's two components to them. How they sound, and what they mean. In this song, IMO they sound excellent. The words, the phrasing, the pronunciation. Excellent. We discuss what they mean, while that concept is largely non existent in majority of the music that Earth listens to. The songs are written intentionally ambiguously because philosophical essays don't sound good when you sing them. You need to choose words that fit the song and not vice versa. Cohesive poetic or prosaic experience of lyrics alone is not the norm. The lyrics could be modified to the point of breaking the narrative just to fit the song and it doesn't matter, because most of the feeling comes from the music.

And it's a somber song, not very epic, triumphant or anything, so that also should be taken into account. That does add to a "balanced point of view". So, great music, and great execution of vocals with a sort of meh lyrics in itself? Still a great track in my book. As far as woke goes I don't feel anything bad while singing this song out loud so kill me.
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I agree with you about ''Darkest Hour''.

For ''The Parchment'' (I assume you had in mind the guitar melody following the vocals during the verses?), I think if there is one song in the album for which such detail is needed, it's this song - it sounds even more epic. This is also needed during the chorus of DOTC and during the pre-chorus of LIALW imo. During the verses in ''Stratego'' is not so effective, btw.
And I definitely don't think ''Hell On Earth'' is over arranged, exactly the opposite. The song has a beautiful intro, melodies, verses, chorus, solos and a calm middle part... the only (sort of) mistake is not repeating the chorus.
____no5 said:
Naked voice would fit fine, but the passage is so heroic that demands reinforcement to take us into the stratosphere and the guitar does fine the job.
I imagine some over-production, i.e. Bruce doing some backing vocals to himself or some echo in his voice or both would do great too. Not the Maiden style but still.
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Completely agree. Btw, LIALW has both - Bruce doing some backing vocals to himself and echo in his voice.
 
Zare said:
I have to say that Harris should get a tip out of this, because in his output on this record, as much as it being top tier, too much stuff moves around. Even when it's not on max it should've been less. Parchment does not need a melody "voice" in the main song, the main melody is pretty reinforced by the riffs. Hell on Earth is over arranged. So on and so forth.
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Harris' four songs on this album are far above the rest of the songs.
I really really really hope he doesn't take your advice. LOL

Darkest hour is one of the least exciting or interesting songs on the album. Maiden as a whole aren't great at ballads. Harris should keep doing what he is doing.
 
GhostofCain said:
Not really, and Lost in a Lost Works is mediocre at best. It sounds as if Steve was thinking: “Let’s revisit the Run to the Hills theme without rocking!”. If that was the case, he did succeed.
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And Death of the Celts pretty pointless and unoriginal.
With time I started to like LIALW which sounds like a good X Factor (with Bruce and in steroids).

Some say Harris wrote the best 2 and worst 2 songs of the album.
 
I dare to say that Steve's four epics are my four favorites on the album, followed by the fabulous Darkest Hour. I have little to no interest in the remaining tracks, except for maybe Days of Future Past.
 
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