(Background: Incessant phone ringing.)<\/p>\n
Who the hell is this?<\/p>\n
\u201cCT? Warburg here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jesus, Jas\u2026 it\u2019s two in the friggin\u2019 morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally? It\u2019s only midnight where I live. We have a problem\u2026you\u2019ve had the new Iron Maiden album, Senjutsu<\/i>, to listen to now for a month.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes, that would be correct.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you still haven\u2019t submitted a review.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nothing gets past you, Jas. That\u2019s why you\u2019re in charge.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, why haven\u2019t you submitted a review for it yet?\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a little complicated, boss.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s so complicated? You either like it or you don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not so fast. I\u2019ve learned over time that post-reunion Iron Maiden albums have to take time to grow on the listener; while certain tracks might grab your attention from the first few notes, there are others that have to mature in the listener\u2019s mind before they can form a real opinion about the disc.<\/p>\n
And after about a dozen spins, Senjutsu<\/i> has proven to be one such album, but in the end, it\u2019s a step down (albeit a slight one) from their previous effort, The Book Of Souls<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou intrigue me. Go on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glad to, now that I\u2019m awake. For a band into their fifth decade together, Iron Maiden proves from the outset they\u2019re not afraid to take chances, such as with the title track. With its war-drum plodding beat, it tries to set a menacing tone for the disc; unfortunately, it doesn\u2019t quite live up to that particular expectation, as it tends to drag on well past any prime it might have had. The follow-up track \u201cStratego\u201d (which was also the second single) does raise the energy level, but it hardly breaks any new ground for them, and sounds a bit stale.<\/p>\n
But when you hit \u201cThe Writing On The Wall,\u201d the lead-off track from this disc, you have all the proof you need that Iron Maiden can still step up to the plate and knock it out of the park. The only flaw I\u2019d point out is that I still think Bruce Dickinson\u2019s vocals were mixed a bit too low, and should have sounded a little crisper.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you think that\u2019s a side effect of his recent battle with cancer? This is, after all, the first album he recorded since then.\u201d<\/p>\n
Actually, any weakness in vocals \u2013 aside from Kevin Shirley\u2019s production work \u2013 I\u2019d chalk up to the fact that everyone in the band is now over 60. Dickinson isn\u2019t going to have the same shriek today that could set off car alarms like he did back in 1982. He still shows many times that he can handle higher registers, but this material actually seems to demand a lower vocal register. In fact, tracks like \u201cDays Of Future Past\u201d demonstrate that Dickinson still has the pipes needed to prove why he remains one of heavy metal\u2019s most iconic vocalists \u2013 and the guitar work from Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers certainly doesn\u2019t disappoint either. And you can\u2019t overlook the drum work of Nicko McBrain \u2013 I still think he over-relies on the ride cymbal, but he hasn\u2019t lost any power in almost 40 years with Maiden.<\/p>\n
In fact, take a track like \u201cDeath Of The Celts\u201d \u2013 one I admit runs hot and cold with me, depending on the day I listen to it. The staccato guitar work brings back memories of \u201cLosfer Words (Big \u2018Orra)\u201d from Powerslave<\/i>, but never sounds like they\u2019re trying to copy it, and it creates its own unique sound that will imprint itself on the listener\u2019s brain. This, too, sometimes suffers, I think, from overstaying its welcome a little bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going to ask about that \u2013 do you think that the song length helped or hurt Senjutsu<\/i>?\u201d<\/p>\n
Honestly, it depends on the song. Let\u2019s face it: Iron Maiden has never been the kind of band to aim for radio play, so it doesn\u2019t necessarily behoove them to only write four-minute songs. The shorter songs do<\/i> work at times – \u201cDays Of Future Past,\u201d for instance \u2013 but some of the longer tracks like \u201cThe Parchment\u201d and \u201cThe Time Machine\u201d actually use their length to their advantage, keeping the listener locked in until the last note fades out.<\/p>\n
Then again, some tracks like \u201cLost In A Lost World\u201d and \u201cHell On Earth\u201d honestly don\u2019t benefit from their length. Would shortening the songs have helped them overall? I\u2019m not certain, but it might not have hurt.<\/p>\n
Oh \u2013 and someone has to say it, so it might as well be me. If Iron Maiden is going to keep recording, they really need to get a full-time keyboardist. Bassist Steve Harris has been providing the synth work in the studio for some time now \u2013 and, as a keyboardist, he\u2019s an outstanding bassist. I don\u2019t have a problem with keyboards in these songs, but the lines I hear are incredibly simplistic; if I have to hear synth work, I\u2019d like some substance to their presence.<\/p>\n
I still enjoy Senjutsu<\/i> overall, and it contains some of Iron Maiden\u2019s best work. But as an album, it\u2019s uneven, and that is what ends up hurting its status in my eyes overall.<\/p>\n
\u201cMakes sense. So, you gonna have that review to me soon?\u201d<\/p>\n
Um, Jas? I think I just gave it to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5725],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-46259","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-iron-maiden","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46259"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}