Iron Maiden.
John McMurtrie*“Remember that patience is no sin,” sings Bruce Dickinson a whole three minutes into Senjutsu’s “The Parchment” — and he’s not kidding, since the song, which is one of the album’s standouts, stretches on for another 10 minutes. Luckily, Iron Maiden are typically not ones to waste listeners’ time. In those 13 minutes, the band blends cinematic Lawrence of Arabia strings with military-march guitar riffing, Dickinson bellows an Olivier Award-worthy monologue about his “primal quest for fear,” and the band’s three(!) guitarists each take turns indulging themselves in solos at times when most conventional heavy-metal bands conclude their tunes (5:01, 6:15, 10:32). But Iron Maiden have never been conventional.
A little more than 40 years ago, Maiden established themselves as one of the most original metal bands to emerge in the wakes of Black Sabbath and Judas Priest. Where most of heavy metal’s forefathers consecrated the genre tag with footslogging doomsaying, Maiden played punkish, nimble cris de coeur declaring victory over nonbelievers or painting Hammer horror vignettes over galloping guitar assaults. About midway into the Eighties, they adopted a more progressive approach to their music — writing longer, more intricate songs with even more fantastical lyrics — without compromising an ounce of metal cred. They also invented the instantly recognizable “Maidenesque” riff — jagged, economical, almost Bach-like melodies that capture minutes of drama in just a few seconds — which have echoed in the music of bands from Metallica to Papa Roach.
In the years since, the band members have been conditioning themselves for their long-distance metal marathons, and now — improbably, when each band member is in his sixties — they’re performing their own impressive Homeric epics on Senjutsu, their 17th album in ways groups half their age only wish they could. The band claims its album title translates from Japanese to “strategy” (or “tactics”), and the fact that Maiden have the patience to strategize their intricate overtures is a privilege of their age.
In fact, Iron Maiden sound their best on Senjutsu when they rise to their burning ambitions — and those sometimes are quite lofty. They recount Belshazzar’s Feast from the Old Testament on “The Writing on the Wall,” reassess Churchill’s shortcomings on “Darkest Hour,” and ruminate on the end of the world on “Senjutsu” and “Days of Future Past.” And they employ all the musical trademarks they’re known for but never self-plagiarize, instead growing each musical idea in a unique way. But the most impressive songs are the most challenging ones.
Although they neither approach anything as grandiose as the 18-minute “Empire of the Clouds,” from their last album, 2015’s The Book of Souls, or the armchair academia of past epics like their interpretation of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” on 1984’s Powerslave, the meatiest songs here show the maturity that Iron Maiden have grown into. “The Time Machine” is a seven-minute ditty that fuses the band’s jig-like guitar motifs with a fist-pumping chorus that stands up to any of their Eighties anthems. “Death of the Celts” weaves lighter, hypnotic musical themes with lilting heavy riffs while Dickinson narrates a tale of Celtic warriors willing to sacrifice themselves for glory, hoping for immortality. And the album’s most stunning song, “Hell on Earth,” builds from a new-age ether into one of Dickinson’s most cutting vocal performances in years as he screams about feeling “lost in anger” around the eight-minute mark. It’s progressive in the most literal sense, as they transition masterfully from one Maidenesque idea to another, one guitar solo to the next and the next and the next, until the song explodes. It’s the victory moment they’ve been singing about for decades; it has just taken decades to get there. If listeners have the stamina — and the patience — Senjutsu is one of the most rewarding and vital albums in Maiden’s catalog.
NEWS
Placebo have kicked off their 30th anniversary tour by dusting off some tracks for the first time in over 20 years, and also playing new single ‘Helen Keller’ live for the first time.
The new dates come as the band are celebrating the 30 years since they dropped their 1996 debut album. To mark the occasion, they have announced a huge UK and European arena tour, where they have vowed to predominantly play material from their first album and their sophomore record ‘Without You I’m Nothing’.
At the opening night at Krakatoa in Mérignac, France, Brian Molko and co. delivered a stacked 19-song set, which began with ‘Pure Morning’, and immediately went into the first rendition of ‘Come Home’ in 20 years.
Another rarity came straight after, with the first live performance of ‘You Don’t Care About Us’ since 2001, as well as ‘Without You I’m Nothing’ and ‘Allergic (To Thoughts Of Mother Earth)’ which were played for the first time since 2018 and 2014 respectively.
‘Drowning by Numbers’, ‘Bruise Pristine’ and ‘My Sweet Prince’ were all introduced into the setlist for the first time since 2001, ‘Brick Shithouse’ was aired out for the first time since 2003, ‘Scared Of Girls’ was played for the first time since 2010, and both ‘Lady Of The Flowers’ and ‘36 Degrees’ were broken out for the first time in nine years.
The rest of the set was made up of ‘Teenage Angst’, ‘Bionic’, ‘I Know’ and ‘Every You Every Me’, and the band wrapped up the performance with two covers: Depeche Mode’s ‘I Feel You’, and Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’.
It wasn’t until a later show at the Super Bock Arena in Porto, Portugal, that Placebo broke out their new song ‘Helen Keller’ for the first time – playing it 13 songs into the setlist.
Check out more footage from the tour so far below, as well as the setlist from night one.
‘Pure Morning’
‘Come Home’ (First time since 2006)
‘You Don’t Care About Us'(First Time Since 2001)
‘Teenage Angst’
‘Bionic’
‘Without You I’m Nothing” (First Time Since 2018)
‘Allergic (to Thoughts of Mother Earth)” (First Time Since 2014)
‘Drowning by Numbers” (First Time Since 2001)
’36 Degrees” (Alternate Version – First Time Since 2017)
‘I Know’
‘Brick Shithouse’ (First Time Since 2003)
‘Scared of Girls’ (First Time Since 2010)
‘Bruise Pristine” (First Time Since 2001)
‘My Sweet Prince’ (First Time Since 2001)
‘Lady of the Flowers’ (First time since 2017)
‘Nancy Boy’
‘Every You Every Me’
‘I Feel You’ (Depeche Mode cover, live debut)
‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’ (Kate Bush cover)
Placebo dropped the single ‘Helen Keller’ on September 28, and it sees them reach back to ‘H.K. Farewell’, a hidden instrumental from the era of their self-titled 1996 debut. In the track, they retain the eerie keyboard melody from the original, and push it to new dimensions with a heavier, more anguished feeling.
The title refers to the American author, who was also a disability rights advocate and political activist, who became deafblind as a young child and went on to become an internationally renowned writer and campaigner.
As well as the tour, Placebo also celebrated the 30th anniversary of their debut by releasing a reimagined version of the record. For the LP, Molko and Stefan Olsdal returned to the original master tapes and reworked all 10 songs from the 1996 record – describing it as a “director’s cut” that helped them inject the original songs with three decades more experience.
The ongoing tour will reach the UK and Ireland in late November and early December, where they will play Nottingham, Glasgow, Dublin, Manchester, London and Cardiff. See all the dates here and find any remaining tickets here.
Dates will head to Latin America in 2027, beginning in São Paulo on February 20 and running through Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Colombia before wrapping up with shows in Guadalajara and Monterrey in March.
Placebo dropped their last album of new material in 2022, with ‘Never Let Me Go’. That record was given a four-star review by NME, which described it as “a renaissance rock record with an experimental edge”, adding that it found Placebo “inspired and ready for a new era”.
