5 Common Criticisms of Iron Maiden's Senjutsu - My Rebuttal 

The parchment is stunning. It is all about building the dramatic picture and story. The melodies running through the song and that of Hell on earth are beautiful. Steve knows what it, takes to pace an epic he's, been doing it long enough lol.

I agree. Some of the criticisms seem warranted, but the problem, as you pointed out, is you have to allow an album time to grow on you. Most criticisms happen early in an album's life cycle, right after it comes out. Everyone rushes to be the first online with a hot take critique, but they clearly have not spent any time with the album yet.

I love Senjutsu. I want more and longer Maiden songs, not less. 21st-century Maiden doesn't have to be like 80s Maiden. 80s Maiden is great and will always be there for us to listen to. 21st-century Maiden is different, but still great. My favorite songs on Senjutsu are Lost in a Lost World and Days of Future Past.

Finally someone who can discuss Music intelligently

Harmonies always sound cooler to me... plus it's their bloody trademark..I want harmoniiiies

As long as Maiden have been around, and as many shows as they have played, and as old as they are, people should be impressed just by the fact they are still making these albums, let alone that the tracks are solid. Good breakdown Nico!

It's not that Senjutsu is a bad album, it is not. It's their choices to write songs this way. I will always prefer the first 7 albums than any others. Because of the music but also because of Martin Birch who was an absolute genius. The main problem is Kevin Shirley

Your comments on the long songs are right on the money. Not only do they need the length to set the mood and the story, but my thing about it is, they have three guitarists that each have their own style and distinct sound that have to be showcased as equally as possible.

Great review Nicko. People think that saying they don't like something will make them smarter than others. It's a problem of our days. In order to have a good understanding of a work like Senjutsu it is necessary to listen to the album many many times. Cheers

I really like this album. It is different than the earlier maiden, but change, progression, it’s still the same old guys doing good work.

I've been a fan of Maiden for years, but I've only ever been listening to them online, so Senjutsu was the first album release where I genuinely didn't know what I was going to get. I bought the red and black marbled vinyl, lay back and listened to it through, and couldn't have been happier with the way it ended with Hell on Earth. There are songs on there that feel like classics already, so I really hope I get to see them live one day.

The folky mood in TWOTW; war drums ambiance in Senjutsu; triplets in Stratego; intro-outro in Lost in a Lost World; Bruce-solo vibe in Days of Future Past; acoustic guitar in Time Machine's chorus; and very particular song arrangements in the three last epics (Celts, Parchment, and Hell on Earth). I mean, nearly all songs in the album have creative and new elements on them. It is not repetitive nor a self-rip-of at any means. The recycling of some previous ideas is the most natural thing for a 40-year band.

The Parchment is outstanding. Granted it builds slowly, but feels like an entire journey on its own. It also pairs well with Hell on Earth, somehow.

I believe everyone should sit and listen to the album several more times; it’s an immersive journey that needs to take time for the stories and feel to unfold. I find most of the negative takes came after people only giving the album a couple of listens. This is a period in our culture where everyone’s attention span is being assaulted minuet by minute. Give yourself and IM time to absorb; if you love Maiden, it’ll come to you. I needed to tell myself this same advice with The Final Frontier….. now I love that album. Great stuff LOTB 👍🏻

Art is subjective. There is no right or wrong. It's "does this appeal to you or not?", then finding reasons to articulate why. Case in point: when you explained point 2 and harmonized the riffs in 3rds, I immediately got a smile on my face and thought "damn this is what I want to hear from Maiden!"

Love your content, and love Senjutsu too! I've listened through it countless times since it came out, and it inspired me to take a deep dive through the rest of the band's less celebrated albums. There's stuff to love on all of them, imo

Being a follower of the Irons since the Riskin Arms days..I am 64..we have grown together..I am amazed that the guys can still come up with new ideas after sooo long in the music business.. Senjutsu just rocks throughout..🤘😎🎸🎸

Senjutsu is a very , very great album. I like it a lot. Makes me feel good.

"Songs too long" When I study or when I work, I don't care if a song is 18 minutes long. The length builds a mood and pumps you up for what is to come. Hell on Earth, Lost in a Lost World, The Parchment, Empire of the clouds are not meant for radio

I'm surprised people didn't complain about the synths (like many did on Somewhere In Time), but I just love the texture the keyboards give to the songs on this album and probably why I like SIT and Senjutsu equally.

Very well said, Nico. Your idea to play the riffs as harmony was illuminating. My quick thoughts on Senjutsu is that it didn't wow me at first but it has turned into a real grower of an album.

I love Senjutsu. It's one of the albums you have to listen to from start to finish to really enjoy it and it's refreshing!

Agree or disagree, a HUGE effort was put in this video.

Music is 100% subjective. To me Senjutsu is a great album, but it's one of their deeper and more mature albums. If I were to pick 1 song that represents the feel of the album, I would suggest Hell on Earth. Sure it's long. And it's one of those songs that when you first hear it, it takes a minute to wrap your head around it. But then you find yourself humming the tune in your head later on that day. And suddenly the song feels like it's not long enough and needs another chorus.

It’s not that the songs are long, they start to feel tiering and repetitive. I don’t mind if the song is repetitive if it’s short. Don’t get me wrong, I love Maiden and go to see them live whenever they come to town, but I’ve been feeling this way about Maiden albums since Dance of Death, maybe even before. It was awesome when they had a couple of long songs per album, but also great shorter songs that might have been repetitive, but had a faster tempo. I know there’s a ton of people who love all the long song albums and kudos to them, I’m not criticizing anyone’s musical preferences nor saying mine are better than anybody’s. Up the Irons!

Bottom line: some people love it, some don't. I do, and that's that.

Thanks for putting together a balanced view and backing it up with a few guitar parts. Fantastic. The more I listen to Senjutsu, the more I enjoy it.

Brilliant album, start to finish. My favorite since AMOLAD.

Really cool getting to hear Stratego and The Time Machine with the added guitar harmonies… and your explanation as to why they omitted a harmony makes total sense!

As someone else said below, the "problem" I have with some of the longest songs is that they are just the same pattern from previous albums. It's like if Steve Harris was following a "song recipe" (understandable when you've been writiting songs for 45 years) in a comfort zone and that makes me not connect that much to those songs. However, regarding the album there are many fresh sounds that I just love, like WOTW, I love it cause they've never wrote anything like that. Adrian took a great approach to try new sounds but maintaining the classic recognizable Maiden sound. And on the other hand, long songs like Empire of the Clouds are awesome and since it wasn't written by Steve it doesn't feel like the other long songs that follow similar patterns. Bottom line is, Steven should let the others write more so Maiden can have more variety of sounds and don't fall into a pattern of 10-minute-withcalmintroandoutro kinda songs in each album

Overindulgence is my biggest issue with this album and Book of Souls. A few long song are fine, but a tighter 6 minute song is always stronger than an 18 minute track that doesn't know when to end. I have a simular issue with Tool. A good songwriter also knows when to edit/cut things that don't add to but take away from a song. I always thought even Rime of the Anchient Mariner was too long, where To Tame a Land is long but doesn't overstay it's welcome and builds to a great ending.

Great video Nico! I have been a Maiden fan since 1986 thanks to my older brother! I never imagined that in 2021 Maiden would release such a masterpiece. Senjutsu is my favorite album ever...it is like a culmination of their musical career just for the hard-core fans. I love it! UP THE IRONS 🤘

What about a lead guitar playing the same melody as the voice? I kind of liked the effect of that, but I feel like they overdid it. It also happens only on songs by Steve Harris, so maybe he is infatuated with that thing.

60 year old Priest fan and while I get the Maiden v Priest rivalry I am so proud that they are both still playing live. (Get well soon Richie)

I actually like this new album, I've been listening to Maiden since Iron Maiden with Paul Diano , killers, then I heard number of the beast , piece of mind, and everything forward since then, I'm an Iron Maiden fan since I was 13 years old, I understand how they've evolved and truly like playing their music and creating unique music, I have to understand and come to the realization that number of the beast, piece of mind, power slave, somewhere in time will never be re- created ever again, I always wanna hear the old Iron Maiden when new albums come out but this isn't the case, they have a long history of immensely deep innovative and creative music but they've evolved and are truly masters of their craft and forever will be. Thank you so much for explaining all of this, you're a master of your craft as well.. sincerely Lorenzo gig harbor WA. .

You made perfect analysis of the album and you use music theory to back it up. I am really impressed and inspired from your videos as an Iron Maiden fan and a new guitar player. I can't get enough of your quality content. Thank you ❤🤘.

Great insight Nico, Too many are quick to judge on a single listen. Good work man, Gav.

As much as I enjoy Book of Souls, I feel like Senjutsu is a more consistent record. I listen to it straight through quite often (I do a lot of long drives for work). The beginning of The Parchment gave me vibes of Revel's Bolero, to the point where I feel they could have made that intro a bit longer.

Love the album. Just happy they are still making new music. There are a lot of bands that I like (e.g. Rush and Budgie) who won't be able to make any more.

Senjutsu is an amazing album !!! It’s very varied and versatile!!! I dare say that the parchment and hell on earth are one of the best maiden songs ever written

My main criticism of this amazing album: the tracks are too slow. So I’ve sped mine up, re-speeding the tracks in a sound editor whilst maintaining the pitch / key. The Result: much peppier tunes, much more engaging, much more ‘maiden’ (imho), much more respectful and celebratory of the music. Example: writing on the wall. Way too slow and plodding for me in the original recording. Re-speed it to be 10% faster, though, and it’s much more fun, hooky, and the music just has a youthful exuberance to it, the track doesn’t stagnate, the verses are energetic and the solos literally fly. Have done the same with several other tracks. Darkest Hour 13% faster, Lost in a Lost World 7%, Senjutsu 5%, etc. They all improve immeasurably - in my humble opinion of course. Partly this gets over the ‘songs are too long’ criticism, which I think is somewhat true, mainly because it gets too plodding (a criticism which I feel comes up a lot on maiden’s more ‘epic’ songs). Consider that when maiden play songs live, they sometimes are played faster and much more up-beat and more animated than as recorded on the album. So, go ahead and try it: in RU-vid set the video playback speed to 1.25 for a quick idea as to how this affects the songs. Try it on Writing on the Wall. Waaay better. You’ll see. It’ll be massively more energetic and engaging and the music just shines. It may feel odd at first but listen to it objectively and it should feel like it’s spread its wings and flies. 1.25 faster actually too fast, hence mine is actually around 1.1 times to be ‘perfect’ I love this album so much for the unique song arrangements of tracks like Hell on Earth and Stratego (which do not require speed up! This is 100% speed). So when I listen to this album, it’s my Senjutsu ‘edit’ variant. All in all: it’s a brilliant, brilliant album musically, so much depth, creativity and textures and threads that make other recent albums feel a little more ‘simplistic’ musically. Final note : Hell on Earth in my opinion is simply incredible, easily one of their all time greatest tunes. Simply Majestic with one of the best choruses, it speaks to my soul. I sang at the top of my voice at the concert. And I am a fan since the tail end of the ‘classic’ 80s. This songwriting is insanely good.

The biggest problem with this album, and the last, is all the songs where they have a guitar following Bruce's vocal melody. Not only does it not make sense to hide one of the greatest voices in metal that way, but the fact that they're in the same register creates a grating phasing dissonance. It's headache-inducing and they need to knock it off. It literally ruins the last 2 songs.

My major gripe is that a lot of the songs on the album sound better when played at 1.25 speed.

You are amazing! Already a fan here! I think Iron Maiden is not about music just by the music (I don't know If it makes sense in english but in portuguese it does!)... Iron Maiden is about atmosphere, cinematics, greatness, muiscal intelligence, behaviour... To say Iron Maiden is "just music" is just not enough. Greetings from Brazil, keep rockin and Up The Irons!

I wish you would have addressed the production. I will never be able to get enough Maiden, I listen to them every day, old albums and new, but man, the production has me VERY frustrated. I absolutely love most of the songs, and there is some phenomenal guitar playing on this album, but I just wish we could get proper production. If the entire album was produced to sound like The Writing On The Wall, it would be great, but it's the only song that really "pops" with presence to me. Listen to the acoustic intro, and then immediately skip ahead to Lost In A Lost World's intro. The difference is dramatic to me. It's like someone turned the presence knob on a Marshall amp from about an 8 down to a 2. Just my feeling. Love the songs, disappointed in the production.

Iron maiden produce music that you have to listen to multiple times to appreciate.

Not a long time fan here and I recently stumbled across this album on RU-vid and haven't been able to stop listening to it! I'm completely blown away by how great it is!! Its making me check out their other material now! Consider me a new fan!

That video game harmony from 1987 was perfect! 😁😅

God I miss Martin Birch and his methods Love your channel man.

My main problem is the mixing. From what I've heard from the album (the first three or four songs) they brought everything up except the vocals, so they have Bruce singing like he's five feet away or so from the mic, when it really shouldn't be that way. It can just make Bruce really hard to hear, which sucks, because he sounds really good on the few songs I've heard.

Their best album since Brave New World IMO. Subcribed! Excellent analysis, you really know your Maiden.

Their best album since brave new world , they are legends

Excellent video! My first listen to Senjutsu, I was very underwhelmed. Repeated listens, and I really like it now. So much so, that when they do perform it in its entirety next year, I will fly to wherever to see it.

Senjutsu is a masterpiece, I really like it better than the book of souls. My only objective critical opinion is that I would place the album songs in a different order because the intro in consecutive songs felt similar.

Great video. I appreciate the in depth analysis and the fact that you're responding to criticism in such a measured way.

I love the album but as Bruno Sutter said, I really don't dig the "karaoke guitars" matching Bruce's lines in some verses, and also one thing that bothers me on Hell On Earth is that they antecipate the whole melody in the intro, no surprises, just predictable. And again, this song has the guitar matching vocals wich for me is a bit annoying

You are right for the harmonisations, they are not needed everywhere. And what is not needed at all is Janick "karaoke" guitar on Stratego ! lol. Do the test, remove the karaoke guitar in the verses of Stratego and you ll see how much more the vocals would shine. They did the album quickly and without too much preparation,,, they went in studio and kind of" improvised " on the spot. I think that Adrian had some material already prepared but Steve had to isolate himself in a corner to write his songs. For me, when i m writing songs, to be able to write a good long progressive song, , it takes me time. I need to put my song aside for a few weeks, listen back to it and do revisions,... that was not the case on this Maiden album. Maiden are able to do good stuff under a short time frame because they are gifted musicians,,, but a bit more time to retrospec would have helped on this album. Maybe if you take each songs on their own, they re good, but back to back on the album, it s too much !! The tracklist, imho, should have been a bit more varied ( like on DOD or BNW) Short songs, long songs, slow songs, fast songs.... I also think that what is missing on the long songs on this album is the "surprise" factor,,, we already know what to expect... Remember Rime, or 7th , or Sign of The Cross,,, we were taken by surprise at some points... but on this album not very much. And, one big question I have is : Why Dave did not write any songs on this album? I cant figure out how come in 4 years ( 2015-2019) you re not able to write at least 1 song when you re as talented as Dave Murray. Maybe he had some other things going on in his personal life, idk... But I wished he could at least bring one song... I really like TMWWBK on Final Frontier.

I've been a Maiden fan since the first album in 1980 and I have no doubt at all that this is their best ever album. My reaction to Senjutsu has been very similar to my reaction to Seventh Son, except that I actually think Senjutsu is even better. This is songwriting and musicianship of the very highest order and something they certainly couldn't have done back in the day.

Thoughtful, Insightful and as always backing up your point of view with examples. You are an inspiration to budding guitarist and young fans of this great band. I have been listening to the album and I am still trying to wrap my head around its cinematic scope. For old and young fans of Maiden my advice is listen without prejudice and give the band its due, UP THE IRONS!

This album could have used a slight speed bump and it would have been perfect. When played at 1.25x or 1.5x it sounds so much better

I agree with every single thing you have said in this video Nico, you are a true Maiden fan mate unlike alot of these clowns who have listened to the album no more than a couple of time and then passed judgment on it, keep doing what you do mate and thank you, cheers, Stephen👍🙂🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Great review. I really liked how you approached this video. Maiden have always been criticize by people who barely could put 10 people in a bar..

Great album and something different.... Some people don't like it because they are stuck in the 80s. Let them cause they are stuck under a rock

When i first listen to Senjutsu, i felt kinda weird... "Cause you know that you've heard it before And you feel that this moment in time is surreal 'Cause you know when you feel deja-vu"

i would not mind if the parchment had 2 more extra min of solos...is a masterpiece cheers from greece nicko

I like how it takes repeated listening. I’ve loved that about Maiden since Final Frontier. And I’m a Maiden fan old enough to have bought Piece of Mind on cassette for my Walkman when it came out

Ace video Nico! You said early on that this album asks a lot of the listener but gives so much more in return. I couldn’t agree more. I will say this, that after my first listening I wasn’t feeling overwhelmed, I was feeling excited about the “getting to know each other” period that I knew was about to follow! A few weeks later I can tell you it’s been a fun journey and I’m more excited about the album than ever!

Thank you. I really enjoyed this video and I’ve been looking for someone to have this perspective about the album without arguing with people individually. Been a maiden fan for 40 years now and although I do enjoy their older stuff, feel the music from the revival era has much more depth to it and it deserves more credit than it gets. I believe Senjutsu and even Book of Souls are absolute masterpieces. The complaint about the songs being too long? I agree. They need to be what they are to tell the stories they are trying to tell. Thank you for this video

One "interesting" choice they made on this album is to double Bruce's vocals with a guitar. This happens on many songs and becomes a bit cliché after a while.

About the song length, for me it's about the fact that I love Maiden for their classic 80s songs, which were often shorter, faster and got to the point much quicker

Nico, I totally agree with you man! You got a point, specially when you recall the old songs to compare with new ones. Maiden has been making music for more than 40 years basically with the same chord progressions and I love it :o)! Best!

This is great!. Love the analysis. Senjutsu is an epic album IMO

Who said that. Daves solo in wontw is bad??? There is some great bluesy stuff in There

I am reminded of the scene in the film, "Amadeus", one of my top favorites, where the director and the Emperor state that there are "too many notes" in Mozart's composition. Great analysis and your point of view given in this video. I enjoy the storytelling this album presents. The band is aging like a fine wine.

I love the album. For me is top 5 Maiden álbuns. Cheers

I liked the comments, but there are some things I haven't liked about that album that are still not covered, like the fact that I can't listen to that album because it sounds really weird, can't hear the vocals clearliy, guitars are really low on some parts, drums are weird...and for me, its the slowest and less heavy Maiden album to date, and that bothers me as well.

Cool content, but I feel you dodged the elephant in the room: Yet another album with clunky sounding production. A/B Senjutsu to Powerslave or Fear of the Dark for example, and almost no one would prefer the sound of what was just released. A ton of us Maiden fans feel the songs are still really good, but they are constantly having to fight the super awkward production choices. It's like no one has the guts to tell them how strange these albums really do sound. And meanwhile, the Bruce Dickinson solo albums all sounds great 🤷‍♂️

The problem with the long songs is that they’ll have to compromise playing some of their older “classic” material to play them live in concert.

Interesting video. Here are my thoughts: I didn't necessarily feel that the songs were too long, but rather I didn't find them interesting in their progression. I love long songs like "Where the Wild Wind Blows" or "Empire of the Clouds" because they have a good build, a variety in Bruce Dickinson's vocal delivery, and feel like they're progressing a story. Most of the songs on Senjutsu just didn't click with me at all. This is a very subjective criticism, and since I'm not a full-fledged musician, I can't really come at it from that POV. But even as a fan of modern Maiden, I can't really pick out any song that sounds distinct enough to enjoy on its own. I think what the album needed was a better mixture of longer and shorter songs, as with Book of Souls. Speed of Light, Death or Glory, Tears of a Clown, those are the songs which accent the longer songs like Empire of the Clouds, and stick out to me the most.

Nico, my only complaint is that there's a guy that thinks the chorus on Hell on Earth briefly being played on its own for a couple of measures in the big intro, detracts from the actual chorus when it's sung later, once( I wish I could go back, will never be the same again...). How can I convince him that having that part played on its own, then later being sung, is the best part about it? Maiden gives you a small taste of it, you fall in love with it, then its gone, but then BAM! There it is again, but with vocals singing the same melody. It's like seeing a hot chick for a moment at a store, then going home, when suddenly she's in bed with you! LoL. All joking aside, you nailed all the horrible complaints certain people keep repeating. I've gotten into some heated arguments over the new album, regardless, I think it's a masterpiece. I love long songs, I call them epics, and that's what the whole album is, it is epic! You're channel has been a blessing, man. I really love your breakdowns and your playing. Never stop.

This is one of the best albums of the Beast

Speaking of cluttered and messy, the idea of guitar lines following the vocals might have been cool once but way over used throughout the album. It's almost like the guys lost creativeness to add layers and just said, "well, lets just follow Bruce's vocal melody". Not a fan of that aspect reused in multiple songs.

Excellent video. For me, it's not so much criticism of lack of harmonies, it's seeing a few places where they would have fit beautifully which made me want to hear a throwback to older Maiden. There are many places quick harmonized licks would have fit seamlessly into the melody, and not all of them would have to be higher 3rds like you demonstrated.

Thanks for this insightful video. I was a big Maiden fan back in the 80’s, but my musical journey led me down many mysterious paths. Haven’t really listened in years, but I think I’ll have to check out this new album. Everyone loves to be a critic, and the power of the internet lets them be - I just wish they would put a little more thought into it.

It is not the length of the album that bothers me. It is bloated because it is boring. A Matter of Life and Death was 10 songs that was over 70 minutes. It had several long drawn out songs as well but the music was just better. Senjutsu just seems to go on and on. I figured after Priest released the masterpiece Firepower that Maiden would be motivated to take note but I was wrong.

Big maiden fan but no one should have to really try to like an album, if after a few listens it doesn't spark my interest then no point in listening to it. Some might like it but i much prefer most of their other albums so why listen to something not as good. I listened to book of souls many times but never really liked it , this one is better but not by much.

I really like these counterarguments. I have no idea how to write music or its process, so to hear some of these ideas in a way that I get is really cool. I have heard many of these arguments for just about everyband and your take makes sense to me.

I only have to say: AMEN, Senjutsu is packed with great compositions. i might add that i've heard the same precise criticism to every other "reunion" album. Surely, it's a matter of taste, but i personaly know a lot of people which claim to dislike "modern" Maiden without being able to name a single song.

i love this album , never really been into iron maiden but going to be buying some of there back catalog

As much as i loved the record, one of my favorites after Seventh Son, for sure, one thing anoys me a LOT. The Keyboards... its sounds like a one note playing (and some HIGH NOTES) not full chords. For example at the end of Stratego. This pissed me off hahaha. And not trying to be nostalgic, but they should have done something similar to what they did in SIT or SSOSS in therms of keyboard playing, IMO.

It's a great pleasure to listen to your video. I agree some song are too long by too repetitive sections or intros (take hell on earth: bass intro+outro is 4 minutes out of 11! Totally skipable). The only thing you miss are the synths!

Nice stuff, I agree with your thoughts. I'm a modest guitarist, and a long life fan (since 1983). To me it's their most mature album, and their better record since Seventh Son. At the end we just need to enjoy those guys while they are still around .. Up the Irons! keep your amazing work here! Cheers from Brazil 🤘🏻🎸

For me, this is more of an argument for why many other Iron Maiden albums aren't good versus why criticism of this one isn't valid. I started listening to Maiden well after their heyday, not intentionally hearing a song until the late 2010s. I don't have any nostalgia or long time love influencing me. In my opinion, as Maiden has got older, they have distilled their formula down to elements which I personally have always found the most objectional about all their material. So I guess I agree it isn't completely different from their prior work, but I would say it takes the elements that are the least interesting from their prior work and only does those things for 2 discs of material.

Iv already loved deep this album, its one of the best they have done for years! People just dont realise that Maiden arent 25 years old. They are 6 old friends rocking together, and playing music from their hurt, experimenting them selves trying not to pattering the same music they did 30 years back... They grow up and got matured and wise by the years, and i believe they still have great ideas to give. Imagine playing like they are 20 but Bruce trying to sing like he was young and the band speeding like hell? It would be a disaster and funny on the stage. Its simple... you are in or out! No reasson to critisize the biggest Heavy band at their last years of their carreer. Im 40 and i cant get up from the bed to go to work, imagine been 65! Art has no age... Love from Greece

Nice summary here. I’m really enjoying the new album. You make it look so easy to play this stuff.

Really interesting. I enjoyed this guys points of view. I can see both sides of the argument, personally I can live with all the points and love the new album, but I do get why some people can't be bothered with it. I do feel Dave's solos are eclipsed these days by Adrian's much more innovative and thought through solos.

I follow you on Instagram and I enjoy your content. This in depth commentary or opinion is really insightful. Subbed !

I don't care what other people think of the album, I love it! I think it's the best they've done since piece of mind!

Great stuff man. Really well presented. I like how you explain why you disagree with the criticisms and also give examples musically of why you disagree and when you present it the way you do it's hard to disagree. It's refreshing to see a genuine fan back up their argument with some basic theory that even non musicians can understand, rather than just making an argument based on personal taste. Personally I like how some of the later albums are growers. I like how some of those albums are an investment and at this stage in their career with longer periods between albums, I think it makes sense to release material that demands that investment of time. It's a weird album for me because while it did grow on me, I also instantly enjoyed the album. I really do think this one will have a more lasting impression on me than TBOS did.

The biggest problems for me of recent albums (still love them) are: 1) Production: steve harris and kevin shirley has not been a good production team recently. They always sound great live, but the studio album should be way more polished and carefully produced, not have the feeling of the band just jamming in a studio. It doesn't feel like the album is from 2021. By far the biggest critique from me as an audiophile who likes to listen on really nice headphones or speakers, the production and sound quality is worse than pretty much any modern album u listen to from metal or rock or pop or whatever. 2) Editing: Some songs feel overly long, repetitive. I dont think this is a problem of the band being overindulgent and overconfident, i just think the songs need more edits and time to perfect. I wish they would take a couple more months on the re-recording really perfecting the songs rather than just wrapping up the recordingly quickly. Cutting down parts that dont add much and producing a proper final product rather than what feels like a 3rd draft.