I might as well admit it, I've never been a die-hard 'Iron Maiden' fan although they started releasing albums in the period when I was discovering all the great hard-rock and metal bands of the 70s/80s and as the years went by, the albums got spaced out and it wasn't until 'The Book Of Souls' in 2015 that I started to get interested in these pioneers of 'British heavy metal' again with this magnificent double album that really made me discover that beyond their heavy metal label, 'Iron Maiden' is definitely a progressive band for me. 6 years have passed and it's still a dense 80 minutes album that the English offer us in 2021 with 'Senjutsu' which is a Japanese word translating as "tactics and strategy". I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by a first listening that made my mouth water and gave me this irresistible desire to dive back in, a feeling that I find every time I listen for the first time to a rich and dense album of progressive music and that improves after listening.
And yet, not necessarily very progressive, the album's eponymous track welcomes us into a heavy mid-tempo with a remarkable rhythm section from the almost septuagenarian 'Nicko McBrain' that gives a slow processional feel throughout the 8 minutes with a catchy first chorus that grafts itself directly into the head, then, 'Stratego' which follows, is also quite direct and shows a nice melodic efficiency in a faster tempo. With 'The Writing On The Wall', the first minute of instrumental music sets the stage beautifully for the catchy vocal part, which gives us a new chorus that the whole audience should be singing along to, and a masterful guitar solo in the second part that will have us headbanging, then, Lost In A Lost World' brings the first really progressive track with different changes of atmosphere and rhythmic which, even if one can regret some redundancies, didn't bore me at all and could constitute a good concert track with a first part favourable to sing along the repeated melodic phrase and a long central instrumental part that the audience should chant. In the same style as 'Stratego', 'Days Of Future Past' is a catchy track that alternates long tracks with shorter formats of effective heavy metal. But, for my part, the best is yet to come with the last 5 compositions which all exceed 7 minutes and which bring this progressive diversity with, first of all, 'The Time Machine' which, after a peaceful introduction continues in an energetic sung part with a memorable melody and with a magnificent guitar solo, alternating different rhythms throughout the track and which ends in a beautiful acoustic guitar/vocal part. Then follows the power ballad of the album 'Darkest Hour', certainly classic but so effective, which brings us back to the best metal ballads of the 80's, then the 10 minutes of 'Death Of The Celts' accentuates the progressive side with a composition in several drawers with a long and magnificent introduction led by an imposing bass which takes little by little of the amplitude and which brings the sung part in the form of a ritornello in a heavy mid-tempo, Then it offers us a long and catchy instrumental part whose melody can remind us of Irish dances, to fall back in the last minute, ending this long title in fine style. With 'The Parchment', we embark on a journey to an epic historical fresco that unfolds a grandiose atmosphere with an addictive heavy tempo that starts the headbanging machine and gives way to long instrumental passages (magnificent successive guitar solos) and has a long final acceleration that ends up falling back into some guitar chords. And it's not over yet because 'Hell on Earth' closes the album with another long development that alternates between different parts with different intensities and rhythms which definitely makes it one of the major pieces of 'Senjutsu'.
To sum up, this last Iron Maiden album will probably make two types of heavy metal audience clash, those who like direct and efficient tracks that are not too long and those who like more researched compositions that bring a good dose of progressive because 'Senjutsu' contains both styles but, for my part, it is precisely this diversity that I like and that shows that the English, 40 years after their debut, continue to offer us dense and rich albums that will remain in the history of heavy metal... | |
