Every review has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
I'll start from the end.
The tenth and final song on Senjutsu , "Hell On Earth," is one of the four epics composed by Steve Harris for the album. Besides closing Iron Maiden , it's also the best song on the album! It belongs on the list of the band's greatest classics!
After 2 minutes of a beautiful, calm introduction that sets the tone for one of the song's themes, we have… uhm… Hell on Earth ! Everything we want, expect, and hope for in a new Maiden song is here:
The traditional Maiden gallop, wonderful riffs to be sung (ôôôôô) in the stadium, Bruce Dickinson sensational in the verses and bridge, more melodious riffs, an unbelievable chorus that gives you goosebumps (even after listening to it on repeat countless times), beautiful solos, a calm part with Steve commanding with his Fender Precision and Bruce with a smooth vocal that builds and finally explodes with anger! In short, everything… ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING that a Maiden fan loves, wants and venerates! All this, in just 1 song.
Steve is a genius. Period.
At the end of the track, the same opening theme plays again, and we have space for the calm ending that fades away , leaving behind a wasteland, Hell on Earth, and concluding Senjutsu , the best Iron Maiden album in almost 30 years…
What an ending!
Well, that's the end of the album. Now let's go to the beginning…
Okay… I'm going to allow myself to close my eyes and imagine:
It's September 2022. After almost 3 years without shows, we're back in a stadium. Lights still on, people talking, anxious people, people drinking beer, and the playback playing on the stadium's PA system, a Scorpions here, an AC/DC there, an Ozzy over there.
Suddenly the lights go out and the only show in the world that starts before it starts, finally… uhm… begins:
"Doctor Doctor" by UFO and the stadium goes wild, pulsating to the sound of a playback as if the band itself were there live. Everyone knows what this song means: In 4 minutes, another Iron Maiden show will begin.
The music ends. Silence. Darkness. The anxiety is so intense you could almost touch it in the air.
A grandiose beat on the bass drum, the snare drum, and all the low-frequency parts of Nicko McBrain explodes. The stadium erupts along with it. Other drums begin to mark the rhythm. A heavy riff comes from the guitars of the trio Adrian Smith , Dave Murray , and Janick Gers . Steve's bass joins in. Bruce's voice announces epically, " Beat the warning with the sound of the drums ." The stage is still dark. A war is about to begin. The anxiety is uncontrollable.
And after 80 seconds of this true war song, a heavy and super melodic chorus explodes! And with it, a light show illuminating the Iron Maiden on stage!
This is how the title track “Senjutsu,” the opening song of the album, begins. And this is how I imagine the start of the new Iron Maiden show.
It's impossible not to compare this album's opening to The Final Frontier (2010), which also features an introduction in the opening track. But in Senjutsu, everything about this intro is better: It's more visceral. Heavier. Fewer effects and more guitar drive. It's also much shorter.
“Senjutsu” is a different kind of opening track for a Maiden album compared to most of their previous ones. It has a dense… kind of doom-ish… kind of dragging feel. Very heavy. Actually, kind of Sabbath-ish. The vocals in the chorus are spine-chilling and feature very high-pitched backing vocals.
The excellent composition by Steve Harris and Adrian Smith ends with this dragging feel, and then we receive the perfect counterpoint of the galloping and fast "Stratego".
Both “Stratego” and the album's third song, “The Writing On The Wall”, are the two singles that were released before the album, something unprecedented in Iron Maiden's history: Until then, only one song had been released before each album – with the exception of Killers (1981), which did not have any singles released before the album.
That being said, there's no point in commenting on the details of these two songs (click here to listen to "Stratego" and here to listen to "The Writing On The Wall," which will undoubtedly be a zillion times better experience than reading what I have to say about them).
I'll just quickly comment that I loved these two songs. Both have incredible choruses and Bruce is killing it. In the exceptional "Stratego," I was struck by the guitar (probably by Janick Gers, who composed the song in partnership with Steve Harris) playing along with Bruce's vocal melody in the verses – something that will be repeated several times throughout this album.
“The Writing On The Wall” was the first single released and is also the first of three songs composed by the Bruce and Adrian partnership for Senjutsu . The duo, who have already been responsible for so many hits like “Flight of Icarus” and “2 Minutes To Midnight”, now return to enchant us with these three iconic compositions, as we will soon see in “Days Of Future Past” and “Darkest Hour”.
"The Writing On The Wall" has so much to comment on, from the opening riff, so different in its folk-country style, to the numerous easter eggs hidden in the music video , but I'll only highlight the second solo, which for me is the best on the entire album. Go back and listen carefully to this solo – it starts at 4'25" or click here, I've already set it up for you .
Okay. We've talked about the end and the beginning of the album. And before we move on to the songs in the middle, it's worth noting:
The album opens with “Senjutsu”, a heavy and dense song.
It continues with “Stratego”, fast, direct and with Maiden's galloping rhythm.
And then comes “The Writing On The Wall” in a kind of folk, western style.
"Maiden is always more of the same," they say.
Yeah, right... I see.
We move on because now we're going to explore the first of Steve Harris's four epics, "Lost In A Lost World".
Without repeating itself and changing again, the track has a very different and melodious beginning with an acoustic part and Bruce's voice being interspersed with some wonderful backing vocals. It even (somewhat remotely) comes across as a heavier version of Black Sabbath .
It's obvious that we know Steve is going to "break" this calm, especially in an epic of almost 10 minutes! And this happens after 2 minutes with the entrance of a sensational riff. Nicko's drumming is very inspired in many parts of the album, but in this particular track, it's amazing!
The bridge (or pre-chorus) is undoubtedly the highlight of this song for me. Even more so than the chorus itself, which is reminiscent of choruses from the X Factor (1995).
And right after the chorus we arrive at a typical Maiden riff in the style of "Afraid To Shoot Strangers" – "Miss singing 'ôôôôô' over the riffs at a live Maiden show, huh, son?".
Anyone who's been to an Iron Maiden show knows that the audience is more like a football crowd that's there not to watch a show, but to cheer and support the band! It's like a championship final with the whole stadium screaming, singing, and jumping. Together, for a cause.
After the solos and riffs, we have the chorus again, and from the 8-minute mark onwards, the bridge is reintroduced, but with a different arrangement, slow and calm, leading the song to its end. This ending is one of the most memorable moments of the album. Thrilling!
Steve is a genius. Oh… I already said that, didn't I?
We've arrived at the song I was most excited and curious to hear. Why? Because it's the shortest song on the album (4 minutes) and it's another composition by the Smith-Dickinson duo. My expectations were sky-high. And "Days Of Future Past" delivers everything I hoped for!
It starts with a grand and epic feel that, after 30 seconds, drops into a very rock 'n' roll riff, very surprising! Bruce's voice is amazing! As in many tracks on this album, he sings in an absurdly high tone. It's worth remembering that this is Bruce's first album after his victory over throat cancer.
What a chorus!
“The days of future past, to wander on the shore
A king without a queen, to die forevermore
To wander in the wasteland, immortal to the end
Waiting for the judgment, but the judgment never ends.”
I love Steve's epics (we have 4 to enjoy on this album!), but it's great that we also have straightforward songs like "Days Of Future Past" or "Stratego" that hark back to Maiden's early albums.
We are then placed in a time machine in "The Time Machine," which transported me to a more Brave New World (2000) vibe. The track, composed by the Harris-Gers duo, begins with a slow introduction featuring Bruce's smooth voice telling us a story.
The music quickly speeds up and transforms into another of the album's great moments: verses that show Bruce following his storytelling and, precisely for that reason, singing in a way reminiscent of musicals, as if he were in Jesus Christ Superstar or Hair . At 3 minutes, the Maiden-esque gallop kicks in, beautiful riffs to be sung in the stadium or at home, and more of Bruce's grandiose performance.
At 4:35, we have a heavy riff that's somewhat reminiscent of Rush (in quotes because "new" is like Vapor Trails or Snakes & Arrows , which aren't so new anymore) and that's followed again by beautiful solos. And as Steve loves, the song ends the same way it began, with the slow intro, but with Bruce concluding his story. What story? Just mysteries from various eras of Earth. It's worth checking out the liner notes.
The third and final composition of the Smith-Dickinson partnership begins and ends on the beach, to the sound of the ocean waves. “Darkest Hour” is one of the most beautiful songs on Senjutsu and could be a candidate for radio play, being almost a ballad that narrates the vision of a soldier waiting for the sun to rise before going into battle. This last hour of darkness before sunrise and going to war is the darkest hour , a beautiful metaphor for many moments in life.
The solos in this song confirm that Senjutsu is perhaps one of Iron Maiden's albums with the most tasteful solos in the band's discography. Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, and Janick Gers are at a level of inspiration that is almost unbelievable; it's hard to believe that this creativity, technique, and good taste have endured for over 40 years (Janick a little less, "only" about 30 years...).
And the chorus is so sensational that I don't know how to describe it, you just have to hear it. In fact, the layering of solos in the last chorus works really well. It's a true climax that ends on the waves of the beach.
Well then… We've reached the final stretch of the album, which is composed of 3 epic tracks by Steve Harris – in addition to the already mentioned “Lost In A Lost World”.
Starting with what could be considered Part 2 of "The Clansman" from Virtual XI (1998). Both in the feeling of the music and in the lyrics and theme, "Death Of The Celts" transports us to scenes worthy of the film Braveheart (1995).
At 4:40 there's a complete change in tempo and style, entering a sequence of riffs that reminded me of "The Red and The Black". The riff sequence lasts 2 minutes before dropping into the solos. Just like in the song from The Book Of Souls (2015), after the solos we return to more melodic riffs that only end at 9 minutes when the song returns to its original tempo to conclude.
I think "Death Of The Celts" is the only one of the 10 tracks that I wouldn't give a 10. Although it's a good song, it didn't give me that thrilling enchantment that new Iron Maiden songs usually do. It's curious to note that journalist Nick Balazs chose this as the best song on the album. Maiden for all tastes.
In any case, the track sets the stage for us to continue on this Harrian epic with "The Parchment".
The 9th track is the longest on Senjutsu at almost 13 minutes and begins with an acoustically arranged theme that quickly transforms into pure heaviness. The entire groove is dense, dark, and heavy, somewhat in the vibe of the title track "Senjutsu" but blended with another title track, "The Book of Souls," and with somewhat Egyptian themes explored in the title track of the legendary Powerslave (1984).
Since we've known Steve for almost 40 years (seriously, literally), it's easy to tell that a change in tempo and style is coming. And indeed, it happens at the 9-minute mark when Bruce holds his voice high along with another iconic riff, the tempo speeds up, and you can imagine a crazed Eddie galloping at full speed and reaping the life of everything bad around him, as we saw in the "The Writing On The Wall" video. Sensational riffs and solos lead us to the end of the epic.
Steve is a gen… ah… nevermind.
And with that we arrive at "Hell On Earth," which is the beginning of this text and the end of this album.
I truly hope from the bottom of my heart that Maiden never stops releasing new albums… It’s something we end up living, breathing, and getting involved in a way that not many things in life can cause. But if for some reason, Steve & Co. decide that Senjutsu is the last one, the closing with “Hell on Earth” would end the Iron Maiden's discography in a brilliant and deserved way.
But Steve, Bruce, Dave, Adrian, Nicko, and Janick still have a long way to go, and judging by Senjutsu , they're getting better and better. May Eddie and the boys continue to wish us goodnight at the end of each show. And may they continue to delight us in this way for many, many years to come.
Thank you Warner Music for giving me the indescribable joy of being able to hear the album before its release.
And thank you, Iron Maiden.
Let the SENJUTSU ERA begin!
UP THE IRONS!