This "quiet intro" talk is funny. Depending on how you look at it, songs like Brave New World, No More Lies, Starblind, Look for the Truth, The Red and the Black and Where the Wild Wind Blows all have quiet intros, but you'd have to be really dishonest to say they're all immediately comparable or sound "the same" (similar, maybe? But it is the same band...). The intro lengths are different, the musical ideas are different, the songs themselves are different... I dunno, it's not something that irks me at all.
In fact, some songs that already start "balls to the wall heavy" in The Book of Souls aren't necessarily my favorites, like Where the River Runs Deep and Tears of a Clown. The Great Unknown and The Book of Souls have "quiet intros", but I perceive them as very heavy and impactful songs.
Different strokes, everyone is free to have their tastes... but I for sure am excited for what the boys are cooking this time around, quiet intro or otherwise!