Track List:
- Senjutsu (8:20)
- Stratego (4:59)
- The Writing on the Wall (6:13)
- Lost in a Lost World (9:31)
- Days of Future Past (4:03)
- The Time Machine (7:09)
- Darkest Hour (7:20)
- Death of the Celts (10:20)
- The Parchment (12:39)
- Hell on Earth (11:19)
This weekend, one of the oldest and greatest metal bands made their return with a new album. SENJUTSU is the 17th studio album from Iron Maiden. Yeah, you read that right. The band is getting close to their 50th anniversary, since they originally formed in 1975, and they’ve been consistently releasing albums since their self-titled debut back in 1980.
Over the years, Maiden has been responsible for some of the most well-known tunes in metal history, such as “Run to the Hills”, “The Number of the Beast”, “The Trooper”, and “2 Minutes to Midnight”. However, right around the turn of the millennium, when vocalist Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith returned to the lineup, making them a 6-man group, Iron Maiden began to hone and focus their progressive metal leanings that they’d been hinting at on albums like Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988) and The X Factor (1994) and started releasing albums packed with longer and longer songs. While their records still featured more palatable singles like “Rainmaker” and “The Wicker Man”, the band was getting more and more adventurous with their epic songwriting, and becoming less inclined to release blistering, galloping tunes along the lines of their past glories. Partially as a result, their albums became less frequent, and only two were released in the last decade.
This came to a head in 2015 when they released The Book of Souls, their first ever double-album, which included some of the longest songs they’d ever recorded. Despite this, the album was well-received critically and commercially, and I personally still think it’s an impressive statement from them, proving how inventive and aggressive they still had the capacity to be as the band members reached their sixties. But it’s been six years since that release, and only now have they returned with a follow-up, and to hear them tell it, Senjutsu wasn’t all that difficult to write and record. Indeed, the band claims the album was recorded in early 2019, before the pandemic, and much like their sessions for The Book of Souls, they wrote the songs quickly in the studio and recorded them immediately. One look at the song lengths, too, and anyone can tell they’re not considering abandoning this deep dive into progressive songwriting anytime soon. Also like The Book of Souls, Senjutsu is a double-album, though about ten minutes shorter than its predecessor. Where The Book of Souls was very creatively etched with Mayan imagery and mythology, especially in its album booklet and supporting tour, Senjutsu takes the setting to medieval Japan, even going as far as to give each individual song its own tribal flag and featuring a spectacular wallpaper of samurai Eddie standing on a bloodstained field outside an ancient Japanese city. At first glance, Senjutsu appears to be something of a sequel, or a spiritual successor, to The Book of Souls, but the material of the music is where the differences begin.
Senjutsu has ten songs spread over two discs, and only two of them are shorter than six minutes, with most approaching nine or ten. It opens with the title track, a warlike anthem with thundering drums and plodding guitar riffs as Bruce Dickinson sings mostly mid-range vocals telling of a great battle, perhaps a siege. It goes on for some eight minutes, featuring some far east melodies and wailing background vocals, and a chorus that’s both heroic and doleful in its tone. With the single “Stratego”, Maiden brings a galloping riff reminiscent of their 80’s hits and some interesting melodic interplay between Bruce and the lead guitars, and once again warfare is on the mind as the lyrics speak of a warrior and his storied and troubled history. In “The Writing on the Wall”, Iron Maiden surprised us all with a western-style bluesy take on their classic songwriting structure, introducing what’s one of their catchiest riffs in a long time and some fantastic soloing. It’s a whirlwind of a lead single and it rubbed some fans the wrong way, but I’ve been enthralled by it from the jump, and it’s the only song on the album quite like it, though there are surprises to come. It is followed by the nine and a half-minute “Lost in a Lost World”, which is intriguing by its eerie, wispy acoustic opening and Bruce’s soft, poetic vocals, supported by some interesting backing vocals and synths giving off a sort of ‘lost in the woods’ vibe, before slamming into some proggy riffing and heavy interludes. This track in particular reminds me of their 2006 record A Matter of Life and Death, namely in its structure and the layering of guitars in its heaviest moments. Following this comes the album’s shortest offering, the concert-ready “Days of Future Past”, which has some catchy riffs and some of Bruce’s most infectious and impressive vocals on the album and blazes by at a very solid pace. Of all the songs here, this one recalls the band’s 80’s glory days the most, and not to its detriment. It’s the one that stuck to me the easiest on first listen, not counting “The Writing on the Wall”. The first disc closes with arguably its most ambitious track, “The Time Machine”, which opens and closes on a soft note reminiscent of The Final Frontier’s “The Talisman”, but for the roughly six minutes in between takes the listener on quite the unpredictable ride through harmonically strange riffs and melodies and segment after segment of time changes and guitar breaks. And there’s this one killer guitar lick in the middle of this song that is so catchy and so quintessentially Iron Maiden that it brings a smile to my face every time I hear it. I’m undecided if this is my favorite song on the album, but it’s a pretty close race.
Disc two opens rather auspiciously with a dark ballad about Winston Churchill, entitled “Darkest Hour” (just like the movie), a war-weary anthem brooding on the hell Britain and all of Europe were facing at the height of WWII. It’s a slow-moving tune and has a pretty inspired chorus and some of Bruce’s most dramatic singing, but the song’s true highlight is its soulful and wailing guitar solos. To me this saves the song from being a bit of a dreary slog, but others may feel a ballad like this at this point of the album might be just the break from intensity it requires, particularly before it turns to its three true epics, all written by bassist Steve Harris. The first of these is the ten-minute “Death of the Celts”, which as the name implies takes on some brimming Celtic riffing and melodies. Here Maiden recalls “The Clansman” from The X Factor, a fan favorite, and indeed Bruce’s vocal range stays pretty limited throughout very similar to how Blaze Bayley sang the older tune. Multiple guitar solos help to pad the song’s length, as well as some exciting, uplifting sections in the latter half. Following this is the album’s longest track, “The Parchment”, which is perhaps its most difficult and problematic. It opens very moody and atmospheric before marching to a heavy, straightforward riff. More than previous songs, however, this one really packs in and repeats the riffs and takes its time while remaining at a consistent build without growing or slowing, and the performances here aren’t exactly staggering to make up for this. However, the album ends off rather dramatically and hauntingly with the surprisingly melodic “Hell on Earth”, clocking in at over 11 minutes. It once again adopts the signature Maiden gallop with some fantastic melodies layering over hopeful lyrics about escaping from the hell that humans have made on earth. It plays around with atmosphere and maintains the same world-weary dread that the album opened on with the title track, rounding out the record thematically quite nicely.
I’ve seen a number of fans claiming that this album has been difficult to get into, and others saying that it takes multiple listens to really appreciate. I find myself agreeing with both, despite that the latter tends to sound like a coping method to deal with a beloved artist releasing a new album that just isn’t very good. In the case of Senjutsu, I’ve listened to the album four times now, and I’ve had a different experience with each one, but by the fourth, I found myself really enjoying it, even if my enthusiasm dropped on certain songs. It is not a traditional Maiden record by any stretch, and certainly the songwriting is pretty long-winded and can be patience-testing, but the hooks are there, the performances are very solid across the board, and the album is very well-produced, with the guitars, bass, and drums really punching through the mix much more substantially than on other recent efforts. This is the first time I can remember being really excited about how great the guitar tone is every time there’s a solo; they just sound so slick and cut through very well. Every song has a great guitar solo: Adrian Smith, Janick Gers, and Dave Murray all deserve props for their performances here. Nicko McBrain’s drums are a particular highlight on the album, bringing a lot of depth and character especially to the longer songs. Bruce’s vocals do tend to get lost in the background on certain songs, which is a valid and consistent criticism I’ve seen, but there are times where I think it’s intentional, where his vocals aren’t meant to be at the forefront. His range remains impressive, and he still goes for some pretty high notes when necessary, but with each new Maiden album you can hear him settling more and more into his mid-range, and his operatic style of singing fits that range very richly. There are several songs on this album I noticed that the lead guitar doubles his vocal melody, more than I ever remember hearing it before, and I wondered if that was in any way intended to strengthen his performance. It wouldn’t be necessary, if true; he still sounds as vital and commanding as ever. As far as the progressive songwriting is concerned, I think by now Maiden fans have come to accept that the band isn’t interested in writing blistering anthems like “Aces High” anymore, and as they get older they want to continue to experiment and take their sound to new places. Senjutsu, however, is album that feels war-torn, if that makes sense. The title itself, translated from Japanese, roughly means ‘tactics and strategy’. Many songs tell of warfare, bloodshed, and the after effects it has on a land and its people, and the riffs and melodies are often tinged with darkness and the weight of generations of violence, like a seasoned veteran watching his country continue to denigrate. Given recent events in Afghanistan, it’s an eerily timely album, though the subject of war has never been an issue Iron Maiden has shied away from.
In conclusion, Iron Maiden’s Senjutsu is both more of the same when considering their post-2000 works, and a striking departure as they continue to search for ways to reinvent themselves. It’s certainly one of their more challenging albums, and I truly believe that you can’t fully absorb or appreciate it after one or two listens, which is why I’ve held off on talking about it. While songs like “Writing on the Wall” and “Days of Future Past” will hit you pretty quickly, the longer, denser tracks are going to take time to grow on you. I’m undecided as to whether it’s better or not as good as The Book of Souls; that album has its low points, but it also has some of Maiden’s all-time greatest songs. For now, Senjutsu is absolutely a worthy addition to the Iron Maiden discography, and for a band 17 albums into their career, with some of its members getting near to 70 years old, that’s a statement I don’t make lightly.
Excellent work, Iron Maiden
The King's Speech 