IRON MAIDEN Senjutsu | Weekly Heavy Metal Album Review

Released by Parlophone Records on September 3rd, 2021

Quick Background

Iron Maiden. needs no introduction. By many measures, it is the biggest metal band on the planet. My first album, my first band, my first guitar riff, my first show...and so forth. So yes, as a fan for most of their career I remember when Somewhere in Time was released as their new album in 1986. And I have followed every new release since then. I have also been to almost all new album tours since Fear of The Dark. Because of that I can be very critical and have high expectations. I also must say that I love all phases of the band, the only two albums that I don't really like are Fear of the Dark and Virtual XI. So I do appreciate the 2000's albums and the progressive direction. So let's get to it. 

Senjutsu 

The 17th studio album is again a double CD, now with 10 songs and clocking in at 82 minutes. The order of the 10 tracks and the CD split was very well thought. The first 3 songs and the first part of "Lost In A Lost World" are great and very different from previous efforts. The title track is surprising and distinct from anything the band has done before. Niko's drumming inspired by Taiko drummers of Japan is absolutely mesmerizing. The guitarwork and song structure, it's very distinctive and stands out. The first single "The Writing On The Wall " is also different from other tracks due to its folk influence. Great guitarwork from Adrian. The second single "Stratego" is short but inventive, diverse and powerful. A full review on the description below. Now this is the first moment on the album that I get bothered by unnecessary loud keyboards. On the other hand, "Lost In A Lost World" is a perfect use of keyboards to create this base for the acoustic strumming guitars in this unique moody intro. All the vocal layers and effects are a new experiment for the band. And it worked nicely. After 2 minutes though, we transition to a traditional Harris galloping riffs and a trademark hooks and guitar leads. It sounds a lot like "Brave New World". This is the first hint of something that is bothering some fans, the recycling of ideas, riffs and chord progressions. I still think it's a decent track. That feeling can be exacerbated by "The Time Machine" which is a great song and I love the chorus. But it does resemble "The Talisman" quite a lot with a hint of "The Book of Souls". "Darkest Hour" is already one of my all time favorite slow tempo songs from Maiden. This Smith/Dickinson tale about Churchill is very similar to something they would release in Bruce's solo album. And by the way, what great guitar solos in it! Overall, Senjutsu is probably Maiden's album with the highest number of guitar solos and they are very interesting and somewhat different from their solos in previous albums. "Days Of Future Past" the shortest and simplest song on the album brings us back to the very early days. I think it's cool they always add a couple of songs like it.    

Then of course we have CD2 featuring the last 3 epic songs. Together they add up to 35 minutes of music by Harris alone. Those tracks are what I think is causing some devise opinion among fans. I see people loving them and others hating them. The other thing is that they are darker tunes, in that sense they take me back to Blaze Bayley era. "Death Of The Celts " specially is almost as a sequel to "The Clansman" and "The Parchment" resembles "Sign Of The Cross". "Hell On Earth" is one of my favorites on the album, closing it with this sad but hopeful feeling, I just love the melodies on this one, the pace and how huge the sort of chorus sound. I think it's a magnificent album closer. I can't understand how a Maiden fan won't love this one. Once you get into the song, when you hear the guitar melodies foreshadowing the goose bumping verses to come later. And by the way there are not a lot of repetition on this song and that's the beauty is a long journey with huge payoffs when we get to those amazing vocal melodies. Specially verse 5 and 6 starting with 'I wish I could go back' and the ending bridge 'Love in anger, life in danger / Lost in anger, life in danger'. Masterpiece! 

The Picky Guy

As I noticed in Stratego and Writing on the Wall, I still think that the vocals are often a bit low on the mix. With that said except for the YouTube mix, it's not a big deal. But the over use of keyboards it is! Sometimes it is so loud on the mix that irritates me, e.g. "Stratego". I have no idea why Steve felt the need to stuff keyboards everywhere, specially when you already have three guitar players. So overall, I don't like the production. Not coincidently the Smith/Dickinson songs sound best. 

Many are complaining about the song lengths and recycling of ideas, that doesn't really bother me personally. I have a magic solution, wait for it...you can just not listen to the second CD! But seriously, Since the come back with BNW, I haven't been bothered by the longer songs, actually they are usually my favorites. On the same token, I like all of them here in Senjetsu, but it's undeniable that they were stretched. The album is just 2 minutes shy of being a single CD, I'd hate to think they pushed for double CD and triple vinyl for commercial reasons as the prices of this release have honestly been outrageous. I say that because by cutting the long fadeout of Hell on earth and the wave samples on darkest hour would already suffice. Otherwise "The Parchment" is the clearest example of a song overextended with a lot of repetition, Bruce himself criticized this one on an interview. With that said, at 8:34 Bruce burst this amazing melody 'we are ready to believe' followed by two great verses and closing with a fantastic scream 'meet me there'. It's so great that the song could end here and save 3 minutes. 

Wrap Up Opinion 

Dark and more melancholic album than the previous records, probably due to most compositions being by Harris, leads to similarities and callbacks to the Bailey albums. When it comes to music writing, this is one of the best and most consistent album since 7th Son and at par with my post 80's favorites A Matter of Life and Death and Brave New World. But production wise it is underwhelming and at points downright irritating. Look, divisive big bands such as Maiden will always cause people to complain, it's the classic reaction that when I read in posts becomes comical. Half of people will complain it sounds the same and the other half will complain that it doesn't sound like Powerslave or something else from the 80's. I don't care, either way, if I enjoy the music, I like it and period. To me this is a very good album, 86/100, and there's a chance that I will increase that with time. 

SCORE: 86/100

Genre: Heavy Metal

Released by Parlophone Records on September 3rd, 2021

Rating System

99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

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