Senjutsu

There are three types of Maiden fans:
- Classic era fans 1980-1992
- Dianno fans / Blaze fans, who aren't very enamored of Bruce's vocals.
- The ones who digest everything this band do, with potato chips included.

I am in the latter group. So that rhetoric of "We have low standards for liking this" doesn't work for me. Each one handles their musical standards, and yes, I know and listen to those bands that were mentioned in previous reviews (Slough Feg, Impellitteri, Wolf, Haunt, etc.). I really enjoy each band for what they are and for what the experience could surprise me. I enjoy these young bands for their traditional approach and freshness, but I also enjoy the veterans that go for a rawer approach that leaves me wanting more music, like modern Maiden. As I had said, I accept when a contrarian tells me that "IM records the same album with different shells over the decades", but I don't mind the "these songs don't need to be long" argument because the general mood that this album leaves me is the desire to more music from this band.

You never know how an excessive, bizarre work, or rather the nonplus ultra of 21st century Maiden, will age. Senjutsu is a challenge since it's a record in which the listener is put to the test basically because the creators have also subjected the foundations of their musical philosophy to a stress test. How far can a band go? When is it too far, and where is it too far? The poison and the greatness of this new work is precisely the sin they commit in pretending that they are finished off. It doesn't take a genius to figure out or expect a change of direction that probably won't happen. Concerning everything they have proposed in this century, this is where they go the most to the extreme with the conviction that the members of the group (and especially Steve Harris) feel capable of sustaining and expanding it without straying from their terms.

In an avalanche of almost an hour and a half of very rough snow, there are glimpses of songs that have plenty of footage and some pass the test, without leaving too much of a trace. Among those long passages, The Parchment is in a superior range, it is a journey of twelve minutes that grows with each listen, with a majestic aura and a certain lack of charisma that prevents it from rising completely but it compensates with few games of extraordinary leads, unleashed solos and a fast ending that sparks. The long epics reflect a splendid Harris in his best creations. Although The Parchment is an excellent and sublime piece well suited to the theme of the album, Lost In A Lost World would fit in The X Factor perfectly and ends up being an admirable puzzle that threatens to fall apart without actually doing so, especially with the Pink Floyd-esque lines that Bruce recites in this song. Hell On Earth, which curiously has the same length as Sign of the Cross, is a masterful closer with wonderful guitar harmonies and moments in which the most primal and essential energy of the album is conjured.

Of course, this album is not a triumph in every way, but the hints of disaster manage to combine with the extraordinary passages. In a nutshell, it could be described as a triptych that finishes off with the splendid “Hell On Earth”, an album that, at the other extreme, opens the title track with powerful conviction. Unlike the earlier reunion albums that started with short tracks, the tradition of opening the album with long tracks, which began on The Final Frontier, improves on this one: we witness some of the heaviest and most endearing leads in Iron Maiden's entire career. One of the most brilliant choices to open an album with McBrain out of his comfort zone in an almost tribal rhythm, since the drums manage to recreate an almost physical tension that detonates with Dickinson's vocals. A hard piece no doubt, but dark and luminous at the same time. Probably in my top five openers along with The Ides of March, Caught Somewhere In Time, Aces High, and Sign of the Cross. There isn't much to say about the two good singles: The Writing On The Wall with its hard rock rhythm and post-apocalyptic western tone, and the fantastic Stratego that elegantly covers a very classic piece with the rhythmic gallop that any listener would respond to.

Do we have low standards for liking this? Maybe yes, or maybe it's an extreme and exaggerated assumption of those who believe that Senjustu is our "first" metal album. Their way is what it is, and I'm surprised that some debates lose the thread on this point. It is legitimate to adore or loathe this or any stage of this or any group, as much as this is not just any group. But it's nonsense to say that they still are absorbed in one type of sound because another doesn't come out and because they don't join the "fresh" trends of current bands, which by the way I also revere. Those who are looking for Troopers, Sanctuaries, and Clairvoyants will end up finding those heavy metal cyclops tinged with prog, folk, and hard rock that are already their new signature. “These songs don't need to be long”… Well, it's not really an accidental contingency. Like if they said, "Oops, I stumbled in the studio and fell over this 11-minute track with this massive bass intro and this carnival of melodies and on and on and on and on".