Senjutsu

Most old bands had their glory days and best hits in their first decade and then release rubbish afterwards and rely on their old material to stay relevant. Not Iron maiden. This Album is as good as any from any of their eras.

I'll have to admit that I've been generally less enthusiastic about what I think of as the second half of the Iron Maiden musical career having gotten into them when they actually started off. To me the absolute peak of their excellence was Live After Death where they achieved the perfect balance of short, sharp and punchy songs with more complex ones to pace the show. It's not just the best album they have done, it's one of the greatest rock albums of all time.However, there is no doubt that musically Maiden have moved their personal goalposts into a more complex storytelling style. Many call it progressive but I don't feel that's the case. Maiden are still metal but have added layers and nuances and stories that have evolved things for them personally.I still love the early galloping rock sound though.And that's why oddly I rather like this album more than much if not all of their output over the last 15 years.What Maiden have done on this album to my ears anyway, is to bring together in a more cohesive way the two sides of their sound. We have the more furious galloping sounds more familiar to their early stuff but they have mixed into it the longer emotive output of recent years in a far better way than they have done previously. There is a bit of the Maiden sound for all of us in a nutshell.I guess I could go through each song tune by tune but honestly, there are pro-reviews out there that will do it better than me.However, as ever there are some standouts. And for me how far a song stands out indicates how good the album is as whole. If a particular song is miles ahead of the rest then chances are the album is not that great. On Senjutsu whilst there are favourites it's almost difficult to easily pick them and that to me means the album as a whole is of generally high standard.And this most certainly is.However, if I was forced to pick a few winners then I'd have to say Death of the Celts because of the very catching riffing mid way through that reminds me of some of the Maiden early stuff - perhaps even if I dare mention it in the same breath, but Phantom of the Opera. Which incidentally I can't every listen too without thinking of the Daley Thompson advert it was used on.Then 'Hell on Earth' must be up there. In some ways it's a bit like the European styled operatic metal such as Avantasia do. It's definitely an epic and probably the song on which I think Bruce sounds the best.Fundamentally this is a great Maiden album and in fact to my ears a return to form. I know that because I've played it back to back three times not gave it a spin and then put it to one side.One should also mention that the production is fantastic. A superb balance of instruments and vocals recorded in a clear way that gives a perfect tonal balance.Bottom line that I as an ancient metal head from the early days is chuffed to report that Maiden have after all these years managed to up their game and bring something new and exciting to their canon of work. Frankly after the superb AC/DC Power Up and now Maiden pulling out a winner the joy of old rock fans globally can be heard. In fact at the start of this review I was going to give this a four star review, but as I was writing it I had the album on again and I just figured that it would be unfair of me to put down anything other than top marks.

Maiden continue to make great albums.Loved it.

There is a strong wave of people out there who want to praise everything Iron Maiden. Their last live album being one of the worst of their career got so much tremendous praise. I listened to the album and it wasn't because the production or Bruce's vocals, it was because of brand loyalty. With the release of Senjutsu, I feel the same has happened here and the result is too much praise has been given to a perfectly average but enjoyable Iron Maiden album.Sanjutsu is a double album recorded by Iron Maiden sometime in 2019. The album contains ten brand new songs, coming at a total of one hour and twenty one minutes. The album was announced with the release of the single, The Writing On The Wall and then Stratego. They're good songs with good guitar riffs and are easily the most memorable on the album, alongside Days of Future Past. These songs are tight, mostly resembling the galloping Iron Maiden of old. The kind of thing I would love to hear more of.Unfortunately, there isn't much of that. We get a lot of songs like The Parchment and Death of the Celts, which are good songs but tread a lot of the same ground as the previous twenty five years of Iron Maiden. There's a lot of re-used motifs from the X-Factor, Virtual XI and Brave New World period. These are usually in the form of the mandatory guitar jigs, long tedious intro/outros and the ever so tedious bass guitar solos. The actual meat of the songs are pretty strong. There's a lot of great choruses and riffs in the longer tracks, like the previously mentioned songs and The Time Machine. It's just that there's a lot of fluff that they could have cut out to make the songs more consistent and tighter.That really doesn't matter because the production is unfortunately done by Kevin "Yes Man" Shirley, a true butcher of music and someone who just doesn't want to say no to Steve Harris. His production on previous Iron Maiden albums have been deal breakers for me. I still can't listen to Dance of Death without wanting to put a screw driver in my ears. His production here is very flat and very similar to the previous three albums. The guitars are hard to differentiate, the problem being their lack of good tone and space in the mix. The drums all sound sterile, have little impact and sound very muddy. The same could be said for Bruce's vocals. Bruce himself sounds awfully strained throughout, like he has a cold. His low notes are strong but he's still trying to grasp those high notes and not doing so well with it. He's put out some of his worst in studio vocals I've heard. The fact he's so low in the mix might actually be a positive.You may be reading this and thinking that I hate this album. I don't, I quite enjoyed it. The big problem I have with is the exact same problem I have had with this band for twenty years now. Steve Harris is too involved, the producer is awful, the songs are too long and fans don't have the knackers to speak up about it. I don't believe in idol worship and this is why this review is here. People are being harassed on social media and online forums for criticising it, so I'm making a point here on Amazon.Fans will find plenty to enjoy here on Senjutsu. The album is considerably better than Dance of Death and the remarkably tedious The Final Frontier but doesn't quite hit the likes of X-Factor and Brave New World for me. The band like to think they're prog icons but their songs just don't have the complexity that they think and it means they end up going round in circles. This is what is going on here. If the producer actually had the balls to sort this issue, we could have had a very solid fifty minute album.I picked the album up for an agreeable £6.66 and that is kind of what the album is worth. I've seen the price sit between £12 and £15, a price I strongly disagree with. This album could have fit on one disc easily, had some of the fluff been trimmed and I reckon it's nothing but a marketing ploy at this point. I enjoyed this album but I would definitely say wait for a sale. You'll get considerably more value for your money that way.

Iron Maiden just keep getting better, I only have a few of their albums to judge by but this one is superb. 80 minutes of great music, real value for money and not a bad track. I was lucky to see them live in July 2023 after a ten year gap and they've put so much more into studio and live work. The package arrived quickly and was well packaged.

Maiden mania is sweeping the world with the release of this awesome new album, and I have to agree. Not since their epic Seventh son of a Seventh Son have I been so excited to listen to a Maiden record. This is their finest work in a long time and quite frankly a masterpiece. It is a remarkable improvement over their lackluster Book of souls with every track building on the last, from the first track Senjutsu to the last track Hell on earth this album will give you goose bumps, the guitar work from Smith, Murray and Gers is absolutely fantastic with sweeping melodic solos, and frantic chord progressions, Bruce's awesome vocals, Nicko's thundering drums and Steve's crunching Bass lines make this album of the year. This is Maiden at their best, and if this is going to be their last record, then what a way to end an amazing career, Senjutsu is their crowning achievement.UP THE IRONS!!!