The thing to understand with many of these low-quality publications slating Maiden circa the BNW era is that they are trend jumpers rather than trend setters. Because it became fashionable to hate Maiden (and all old school metal for that matter) in the mid to late 90s, of course they had already decided they would trash the new album in 2000 regardless of it's quality.
Now that the mainstream have shifted their stance and now consider bands like Maiden and Priest to be respected elder statesmen, they give them good reviews. See the NME (National Music Enema as Bruce once called it) calling Senjutsu an instant classic.
