New IRON MAIDEN Single!!!

[Kerrick]

(Warning, the cartoon video gets a little gruesome towards the end...)



Oh dang!  Musically, it sounds pretty good.  The last couple of albums were sorta hit-or-miss for me but if this is any indicator of what's to come (new album I assume?), then I think it'll be a good'un!

The video had some interesting biblical imagery...  I'll be curious where they go with that.

[MetalPioneer]

I am enjoying the new single. I loved The Book of Souls, so I wouldn't mind more music in that style. "The Writing on the Wall" seems a bit softer than their usual material, but of course you can't judge an album based on one song.

[Kerrick]

Yeah I'm digging the new track.  It won't be a top-favorite of mine, but it's pretty solid IMO.

They released some new details on the upcoming album.  Check out some of those song lengths!  I love the epics...  

We are thrilled to announce the release of Iron Maiden’s 17th studio album ‘Senjutsu’ coming Sept 3rd.
1.  Senjutsu (Smith/Harris) 8:20
2.  Stratego (Gers/Harris) 4:59
3.  The Writing On The Wall (Smith/Dickinson) 6:13
4.  Lost In A Lost World (Harris) 9:31
5.  Days Of Future Past (Smith/Dickinson) 4:03
6.  The Time Machine (Gers/Harris) 7:09
7.  Darkest Hour (Smith/Dickinson) 7:20
8.  Death Of The Celts (Harris) 10:20
9.  The Parchment (Harris) 12:39
10.  Hell On Earth (Harris) 11:19

Senjutsu will be released on the following formats and available to pre-order from all good music retailers starting Wednesday July 21st:
Standard 2CD Digipak
Deluxe 2CD Book Format
Deluxe heavyweight 180G Triple Black Vinyl
Special Edition Triple Silver & Black Marble Vinyl (from selected retailers)
Special Edition Triple Red & Black Marble Vinyl (from selected retailers)
Super Deluxe Boxset featuring CD, Blu-Ray and Exclusive Memorabilia
Digital album (streaming and download)

Steve says “We chose to record at Guillaume Tell Studio in France again as the place has such a relaxed vibe. The setup there is perfect for our needs; the building used to be a cinema and has a really high ceiling so there’s a great acoustic sound. We recorded this album in the same way we did The Book Of Souls in that we’d write a song, rehearse it and then put it down together straight away while it was all fresh in our minds. There’s some very complex songs on this album which took a lot of hard work to get them exactly as we wanted them to sound, so the process was at times very challenging, but Kevin is great at capturing the essence of the band and I think it was worth the effort! I’m very proud of the result and can’t wait for fans to hear it.”

Bruce continues, “We’re all really excited about this album. We recorded it back in early 2019 during a break in the Legacy tour so we could maximize our touring yet still have a long set up period before release to prepare great album art and something special as a video. Of course the pandemic delayed things more - so much for the best laid plans – or should that be ‘strategies’!?  The songs are very varied, and some of them are quite long. There’s also one or two songs which sound pretty different to our usual style, and I think Maiden fans will be surprised - in a good way, I hope!“

[MetalPioneer]

Definitely looking forward to the longer songs! I feel like they could have been a bit more creative with the album cover in terms of the background, but I guess they were going for contrast?

[MetalPioneer]

My Senjutsu shirt came in today!

[Kerrick]

Rad! Friday (release day) can't come soon enough!

[MetalPioneer]

So I've listened to the album about 4-5 times since Friday. It's a good album overall, but some of it will be more of a grower for me than Book of Souls.

Favorite tracks so far:

Stratego
The Time Machine
Hell on Earth

There's a lot of criticism going around about the mixing on the album, and while it's not as bad as some people make it out, that's definitely an issue this time around. But either way, up the irons!

[Kerrick]

Now that I've had the chance to listen to it a few times through, I'd generally agree with you. Overall it's a very solid album and unworthy of the harsh criticism I've seen. The keys and production seem to get the most gripes and I'm not bothered by either.

While I quite like all of the songs, there aren't any that especially stick out to me - either particularly good or bad. Most Maiden albums have some songs that I just absolutely love and others that seem like filler or I just generally don't care for. But Senjutsu is a bit more consistent, though time will tell if that's a good thing or not. I suspect it'll be a grower for me too but I think I'd probably rate it slightly higher than Book Of Souls - even if there are a couple songs on BOS that I like better than anything on Senjutsu.

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