Guitar World has published a track-by-track overview if the new Iron Maiden album, Senjutsu, broken down by guitarists Adrian Smith and Janick Gers. Following is an excerpt.

"Senjutsu"

Adrian: "The title track was inspired by Japanese drums. We put my demo up on Pro Tools and Nicko (McBrain / drums) played along to it. Then we took the digital drums out and added guitars. We got the drum and guitar track ready to go first. I had a couple of melodies and because of the Eastern nature of it, Steve (Harris / bass) suggested a battle scene – an army trying to scale the walls of a city. Full-on drama!" 

"Death Of The Celts"

Adrian: "It’s funny – Steve will have these ideas and then look at me, Dave or Janick. The ideas are usually quite complicated, so sometimes you might see guitarists hiding away behind their amps, waiting for the others to take up the gauntlet and learn these super-complicated parts! But we all do our bit. It takes a lot of concentration to play Steve’s stuff. Honestly, it can be quite a challenge." 

Janick: "We made this album very differently. Normally, we get a studio to rehearse in and then get seven or eight songs ready as a live band first before we record. But this time it was all done in the studio. We went in and actually learned things there, putting them down soon after and then moving on to the next. So it got quite confusing, especially with the longer songs. 

There were so many melodies and riffs floating around in the studio. Songs like 'Death Of The Celts' were done in parts. Sometimes we’d be playing three-part harmonies together. And there were a lot of tempo changes. Steve would have a riff and melody for us to memorise, then there would be a tempo change, then we’d be back to the melody but a different tempo! It wasn’t an easy album to make."

  
Check out the complete breakdown here.