Cries from the Quiet World: Iron Maiden "Senjutsu"

sábado, 6 de agosto de 2022

Iron Maiden "Senjutsu"

Senjutsu (Japanese: 戦術, loosely translated as "tactics and strategy") is the seventeenth studio album by British heavy metal band Iron Maiden, released on 3 September 2021. Their first album in almost six years, it was a critical and commercial success, praised for its ambitious epic scope. Two singles, "The Writing on the Wall" and "Stratego", were released to promote the album.

Senjutsu is the band's first studio album in nearly six years (although having been put on hold for well over two years), following The Book of Souls (2015), marking the longest gap between two Iron Maiden studio albums. This is also their second studio double album, and their first studio album since Powerslave (1984) to have no songwriting contributions from guitarist Dave Murray in any way, as well as the first since Virtual XI (1998) to feature multiple songs written by bassist Steve Harris alone.

The name of the album is rendered on the right side of the cover art by the actual vertical Japanese spelling of "senjutsu" (戦術), and on the left side by a font reminiscent of Japanese characters. Although it is not a concept album, doom is a recurring theme throughout.

Senjutsu is one of Iron Maiden's most successful albums, chart-wise, eventually peaking at number one in 24 countries, and marked their first album not to peak that position in the UK charts since A Matter of Life and Death (2006), which peaked at number two. It did, however, top the UK Rock & Metal Singles and Albums Charts. The album also gave the band its highest chart position in the US at number three on Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart and number one on Billboard's Physical Albums Chart.

The album Senjutsu marks the second use of the band's original logotype (with the extended letters R, M and N) on a studio album cover since The X Factor (1995), the previous one being for The Book of Souls (2015). The album cover by Mark Wilkinson presents Eddie dressed up as a samurai and holding a katana. An English illustrator told UK's Metal Hammer magazine: "I knew I would have difficulty just plonking Eddie into samurai costume. The higher caste warriors usually had many layers of highly ornate, dense fabric both to project and pad them out on the battlefield – I couldn't see such a costume working for the skeletal figure of Eddie. Besides, he would look far too flamboyant. I also resisted putting the traditional samurai helmet on his head. It would cover too much detail of the early kabuki-style 'mask' of red warpaint I had sketched out for him. The helmet 'cowl' and 'fukigaeshi' earpieces were like skin and bone attachments. Eddie's head was like a cyborg – part creature, part machine – especially with all the bashed in metal and torn rustic leather of the rest of his costume".

The animated video for "The Writing on the Wall" was nominated for the 2021 UK Music Video Awards in the category "Best Animation in a Video". The song was listed among "The 35 Best Metal Songs of 2021" by American online magazine Loudwire, reaching #14. "The Writing on the Wall" reached the 13th position on "Top 40 Rock Songs of 2021" published by Ultimate Classic Rock. Consequence of Sound put the song on "Top Hard Rock and Metal Songs of 2021" list, it's reached the 2nd position. "The Writing on the Wall" made Italian Radio Freccia Top 20 Hits of the Year list to reach the 2nd position. Another Italian portal Inside Music put the composition among the "Top 5 Best Songs of 2021" on the 2nd position. "The Writing on the Wall" was listed among "Best Songs of 2021" by Polish music magazine Teraz Rock, reaching the 2nd position. The song was chosen as "The Song of the Year" by the journalists of Metal Hammer (Greek Edition) and Finnish Tuonela Magazine.

The band and the Senjutsu album were nominated in the categories "Band of the Year", "Album of the Year", "Vocalist of the Year" and "Video of the Year" for the prestigious Czech Žebřík Music Awards. Eventually the double studio album was the "Album of the Year" category winner and animated video for "The Writing on the Wall" achieved the third position, so same as Bruce Dickinson as "Vocalist of the Year". Senjutsu was also nominated in the "International Album of the Year" category for the Spanish Grammy's Premios Odeón Award. Band's seventeenth album was honored with the Top.HR Music Awards by The Croatian Discography Association and the Croatian branch of RTL in the "Bestselling International Album" category. The Top.HR Music Awards has been presented since 2020 and is the local equivalent of the Grammy. Both the band and their latest studio effort were the winners of annual readers' poll announced by German edition of Rock Hard magazine. Senjutsu album was honoured with Polish Antyradio Award in category "Album of the Year - World". The album, "The Writing on the Wall" single and the band were nominated for the Planet Rock Awards (The Rocks 2022) in the categories: "Best Album", "Best Single" and "Best British Band". The British formation's won in the last category, Senjutsu took second place among the best albums, the single reached third place and Iron Maiden were named "The Greatest Metal Band of All Time". In 2022, the band turned out to be the most awarded artist in the history of The Rocks.

"Darkest Hour" was listed among "Best 50 Rock and Metal Songs of 2021" by Audio Ink Radio. The second single called "Stratego" made the "Top 10 Best Guitar Riffs of 2021" list published by Guitar World. "Hell on Earth" was voted the fourth best song of 2021 in Ultimate Guitars' awards poll. The song was ranked as the sixth best song of 2021 by Toru Sugaya of the Japanese website Gekirock. "The Parchment" was listed among "Best Hard Rock Songs of 2021" published by Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, the album's longest composition reached the 4th position. Promo videos for album’s songs "Stratego" and "The Writing on the Wall" were listed among "Best Music Videos of 2021 (Rock and Alternative)" by Promonews TV.

In the summary of the Japanese magazine Burrn! the Senjutsu album was recognized as the second most important album of 2021, the illustration adorning it was also appreciated (2nd position), the single "The Writing on the Wall" was selected as the fourth best song in 2021. Steve Harris as bassist and composer was recognized as the best musician in these categories and Iron Maiden maintained the title of "Best Foreign Group". Adrian Smith was recognized as the fourth best guitarist in the world. The album was nominated for Fonogram - Magyar Zenei Díj, the Hungarian equivalent of the Grammy, in the category "Best Hard Rock / Metal Album". Senjutsu was awarded with Sklizen Award established by Czech Spark Magazine. Band's seventeenth album was the winner in "Best Album of the Year" category.

Track listing

Disc one