Over 45 years into their career and Iron Maiden sharpen their blade with Senjutsu. Six long years after The Book Of Souls, the Maiden machine opt for a tactical approach lyrically steeped in a brooding, overarching darkness. The music takes a desperate tone as Bruce Dickinson is a man on fire, showing much power and clarity after his bout with tongue cancer and Steve Harris continues to tinker with long epics. They may not go as fast as they used to, but the legends do what they do best – create songs that leave a lasting impression whilst having a few surprises up their sleeves. Senjutsu cuts in all the right places and slices its way to place #23.

BraveWords spoke to the venerable Nicko McBrain in a feature story; an excerpt below:

Asked whether the concept of “senjutsu” permeates the album past the title track, Nicko figures, “Yes. I take it to mean inner strength and tactics, so it lends itself in various ways. There’s various different kinds of ways you can translate that word as well. But we do write songs about war and the futility of whatever. And not political, by the way—I don’t think we’ve ever been a political band and we never will be. But yeah, I think it sums up the album. My second favourite song on the album, funnily enough, is ‘Darkest Hour,’ and that’s still related to war. ‘The Time Machine’ to a certain degree; ‘Death Of The Celts.’ There’s all these kinds of flavours.”

“Oh, I gave him $30 before I left, to make sure I’m up in front,” cracks Nicko, responding to the assertion that the drums seem to be pretty high up in the mix on Senjutsu. “Yeah, he was a cheap night out that night. No, well, the one thing I love about the whole of this album is sonically, each track is different. It’s got a different EQ, it’s got a little bit different compression on the snare drum, it’s got different sounds to the bass. Some of the guitar solos are brighter; some are not. It’s mixed within the song. It’s not just everything goes up. To reiterate, there’s the mix for ‘Senjutsu.’ Right, let’s do ‘Stratego’ next and it’s not, ‘We’ll just leave everything there and maybe just pull the solo up and put Bruce’s vocal harmonies higher.’ It’s not like that. Every track had its own place, in terms of sonics. Kevin is a genius. He’s brilliant. There’s no question about it. A Matter of Life and Death—listen to that album.”

“And I think the performances from all my band mates are like, superb,” continues McBrain. “They’re just magic. Steve’s bass playing... I mean, I’m blessed to still be able to do what I do with this band and be their drummer. But they have all excelled themselves absolutely. And of course Kevin has put the old man up there nice in the mix and I love it. I think the drums sound fantastic. Certainly if I had a criticism, some of the cymbal sounds are a little bit too compressed. They don’t sing enough. They kind of fade a little bit quick. But that’s only my thing. And that’s not all the tracks; that’s just in a couple of places. So sonically, yeah, he’s done me an A+, without a doubt. He’s made me sound really good (laughs).

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