Senjutsu - 20 Months Later

There's a certain feel in common, but had the lyrics been different, you wouldn't write this. Those songs are not that close.

I'm laughing at the "paint by numbers" comment. One has a verse chorus verse chorus structure, and the other has no chorus and most of the verses coming consecutively in an extended section.

Yeah they start and end with a clean tone section, but so do millions of other songs.

Really, the only similarity is one is about Celts and the other is about Medieval Scotland, a gap of over a thousand years of history:facepalm:

Trooper and Aces High are far more similar to each other, both about the British in a war, with the same build up intro into a guitar harmony riff
 
Besides some traits that annoy me (especially the vocal mimicking lead guitar... please boys just get rid of that one) I think that the last two albums were really cool, given how deep the band is on their career and how old are some of their members. I mean I don't care much about some tracks like Shadows Of The Valley, The Man Of Sorrows, The Darkest Hour - these give giving me a certain filler like vibe (although I'm a bit uncertain about giving those that label). And to a certain degree I don't listen much to Speed Of Light and The Time Machine but both have some cool moments.
Now none of these tracks is by any means awful IMO. Ok perhaps the self plagiarism that's the intro of SOTV is the only cringe moment as far as I'm concerned, but still overall everything is far away from my Maiden "worst of" and that alone is a great thing. And regarding The Parchment or Empire Of The Clouds there are some passages that tire me a bit but come on! Although not being among my favorites from their two last albums I have to admit they're really well put together songs with tons of work and attention to detail and I don't think they're fillers by any means possible.
Overall when it comes to 21st century Maiden I prefer Dance Of Death (that IMO has at least a blatant filler in Age Of Innocence), The Final Frontier and especially A Matter Of Life And Death (both devoid of fillers) but I'm happy Maiden can still deliver some cool new tunes so far on their career like they did on the last two albums, with some of them being absolute gems: great songs that aren't that far behind their best ones. At least to my ears.
 
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Senjutsu is still a top five album for me, second only to Seventh Son. To me, it's the "Seventh Son" of the reunion era: the culmination of all the previous albums leading up to this one are what make it possible.
That's a good comparison. Senjutsu is an under appreciated album just like Seventh Son was, in the US at least. Hopefully given time that will change. It's still my fav reunion album.
 
Some interesting point of view. :)

Very interesting analysis I must say.
Months and years go by, and feelings stay the same (or became even stronger): it's one hell of an album! I never get tired of listening to all of it (maybe minus The Darkest Hour, while not bad at all, its still on the same level as other calm songs they've done on their last albums, which is good but not amazing).
Doesnt rate particularly well in things like rate your music either
Just 18 ratings...and really a site like "rate your music"...does it really count?!?!? Thank god, there are more relevant ones and again if some fans are still "angry" at Maiden after all these years because they haven't released Powerslave part 2 or The return of the seventh son of the eighth son...or they do longs songs...well here's the secret: 7th son is still available as well as Powerslave, feel free to go back over and over and over again to these albums...and it's been now almost 30 years that Maiden likes to do very long songs...chances that they'll change it...none!
 
Very interesting analysis I must say.
Months and years go by, and feelings stay the same (or became even stronger): it's one hell of an album! I never get tired of listening to all of it (maybe minus The Darkest Hour, while not bad at all, its still on the same level as other calm songs they've done on their last albums, which is good but not amazing).

Just 18 ratings...and really a site like "rate your music"...does it really count?!?!? Thank god, there are more relevant ones and again if some fans are still "angry" at Maiden after all these years because they haven't released Powerslave part 2 or The return of the seventh son of the eighth son...or they do longs songs...well here's the secret: 7th son is still available as well as Powerslave, feel free to go back over and over and over again to these albums...and it's been now almost 30 years that Maiden likes to do very long songs...chances that they'll change it...none!
Im not angry and i love the reunion albums. Im just not a fan of Senjutsu
 
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