Every new Iron Maiden album arrives under the weight of records made four decades earlier. Nothing the band releases now is likely to acquire the cultural importance of Piece of Mind or Powerslave, but that does not make the later catalogue irrelevant. Senjutsu again tests how much variation Maiden can introduce without abandoning the musical language it spent the eighties establishing.
The most interesting moments are the ones where that language bends. The title track is a surprisingly ominous opener, built around heavy ceremonial drumming rather than the expected gallop, with Bruce Dickinson's doubled voice adding to its strange atmosphere. "The Writing on the Wall" brings in a Spaghetti Western flavour and a country-tinged guitar figure before gradually resolving into the familiar twin-guitar harmonies. "The Time Machine" begins with delicate arpeggios and keyboard textures that recall pastoral seventies progressive rock before the Celtic melodies and galloping rhythm section reassert the band's identity.
Elsewhere Maiden return more directly to established patterns. "Stratego" and "Days of Future Past" are compact, fast-moving songs in the lineage of "The Wicker Man," driven by the familiar bass gallop and broad choruses. Both work because their relative brevity keeps the arrangements focused. Dickinson remains a commanding singer, his voice fuller and less abrasive than it was decades ago but still capable of carrying the band's long melodic lines.
The larger problem is scale. At a little under eighty-two minutes, Senjutsu contains several lengthy compositions, and not every one earns its duration. "Lost in a Lost World" has attractive acoustic passages and a beautiful quiet ending but repeats ideas Maiden have handled more decisively elsewhere. "Death of the Celts" recalls "The Clansman" so strongly that its many changes begin to feel like variations on familiar material rather than a new journey.
"The Parchment" is more convincing. Its slow, serpentine rhythm and Middle Eastern inflections sustain the atmosphere across nearly thirteen minutes, while Dickinson's lower register gives the song an unusual menace. "Darkest Hour" also benefits from restraint, building its brooding verses around atmosphere rather than speed.
This is the central tension of Senjutsu: Iron Maiden are at their best when small deviations disturb the familiar pattern, yet the pattern itself is inseparable from what people want from an Iron Maiden record. The title track's drums, the Western guitar of "The Writing on the Wall" and the slow crawl of "The Parchment" show where the balance works. When the old gallop returns after those detours, it sounds less like repetition and more like home.
GENRE: Heavy Metal
RELEASE DATE: September 3, 2021
PRODUCED BY: Kevin Shirley & Steve Harris
LABEL: Parlophone Records
RATING: 7/10