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| Avenged Sevenfold |
Even though this band was very beloved to me in the last decade, maybe I have been focused on many other genres of music lately. Maybe I have been so lost in a swoon of shoegaze that I have forgotten my metal roots. Maybe it's my lingering sense of loss at the death of drummer James "The Rev" Sullivan in December , 2009. He was a major contributor to the songwriting, and his influence was missed. 2013's "Hail to the King" was the first album without any contribution from him. It showed. The album sounded enough like Avenged Sevenfold to make me run to listen to earlier albums like "Waking the Fallen", "City of Evil", or "Avenged Sevenfold", but it didn't have enough gusto on its own to hold me. Maybe it was a change in their sound. There was a conscious shift away from screamo or metalcore to a more Black Sabbath-inspired true metal sound. I had one friend say, "I preferred them when they looked more like vampires than bikers." Maybe I viewed it as kind of a sellout, I don't know. There were a lot of things that had me feeling kind of sour towards the new album. Maybe it was that they switched labels with this record to retain the creative control of their new music. Now that I think about it, it was probably mostly that.
Whatever the case, I downloaded the new album a few months ago on the day it came out and gave it a few listens. It didn't really grab me. In fact, I had this ADD moment that I could scarcely sit still and get through an entire listen. The songs are very long. Discouraged, I put it aside. Sure, they are talented musicians, and each album is filled with rococo displays of skilled musicianship. But I just couldn't get into it.
Then I picked up the album last week again and started listening to it to prepare to write a dismal review. I couldn't believe it! This album is freaking amazing! How did I not see it before? I think I had to put aside my many prejudices, but Avenged Sevenfold is very much back on form!
First of all, the sound of the band has changed. They have honed their skills as songwriters has intensified without losing any of it's ferocity. In addition, one does need to admit that the band's sound is indeed changing, maturing. First and foremost, this is a prog rock album, and the sooner fans come to realize this, the better. It has more in common with acts like Dream Theater or even Muse. The music shifts from thrash metal to orchestral arrangements back to an Iron Maiden gallop and then to acoustic, classical guitars. The final song, "Exit", is fifteen minutes long and goes through all of these changes in one song, complete with spacey synthesizers set to a monologue read by scientist, Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Second, this is definitely a concept album. It is hard to separate this album into separate songs, because they all blend in with each other. "The Stage" is a metaphor for all of the world, and the songs deal with the often dismal state it is in - focusing on topics such as religion, science, nanotechnology, nuclear warfare, artificial intelligence, and how these are all contributing to our inevitable destruction. This album is smart and educated, showing that these guys are not, and never have been, just guys with mohawks, leather, and studs.
Third, I wanted to discuss the elusive task of finding a replacement drummer for The Rev. Sure, Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater was an obvious replacement. He's the choice that The Rev himself would have made. But Portnoy was only a temporary replacement. After all, he already belongs to several other legendary bands, and it was nice of him to help A7X through a rough patch. Arin Ilejay never seemed like he fit to me. He lacked The Rev's bravado. The band has added Brooks Wackerman, former drummer of The Vandals and Bad Religion, as a permanent member of the band, and he seems like the perfect fit. With his punk background, he pummels the drums like a hummingbird in a way that matches The Rev's tenacity. The rest of the band is on form here. Synyster Gates races all over his fretboard, just like he should, and Matt Shadows picks up his own game, trying to go more melodic, often emulating Geoff Tate from Queensryche or James LaBrie of Dream Theater. Each band member gets a chance to showcase their musical abilities, which are considerable.
The album starts out with the deep thrum of a keyboard that soon unlaces into scales from Gates' guitar with Wackerman's beats falling onto the kit like rain. This song is "The Stage", complete with a stunning acoustic bridge. "Paradigm" is about the infinite possibilities of medical nanotechnology, and you can imagine the nanobots pouring into your bloodstream to the breakneck pace of this speed metal piece. The song ends with a wistful piano accompaniment, and these are the moments where the band is most successful, throwing in unexpected musical twists that remind you that they are real musicians. For example, "Sunny Disposition", about nuclear war, throws in a horn section - completely out of character for heavy metal, and yet the band makes it work, with faint reminiscences of my favorite song from earlier years, "A Little Piece of Heaven", a cabaret selection that also had horns. "God Damn"is an aggressive yet sardonic look at religion with an almost samba-like acoustic bridge. "Creating God" is a soaring exploration of how our society is controlled by computers and artificial intelligence. The guitar lead glides over the music, and I wake up humming it in my sleep. "Angels" brings the music down to the level of a bar closing after house and addresses again the issue of religion in a very somber fashion. Shadows' haunting vocal melody at the end will put chills in your spine. "Simulation", which supposes that we are living within a false, Matrix-like word, is perhaps the most progressive of the songs, passing in and out of various moods as it recounts the narrative. "Higher" is perhaps my favorite song on the album, starting gently with an organ and faint electronic, ambient noises and then turning into a piano ballad for a while before building in crescendo to tell the story of a failed NASA experiment. The song disentangles in the most lovely fashion. The melancholy "Roman Sky" tells the story of execution of medieval astronomer, Giordano Bruno. "Fermi Paradox" speaks of space travel with head-banging alacrity, Wackerman leaning on the double-bass pedals with fervor, and the arrangement like a metal baroque piece, and the album finishes out with the ubiquitous "Exist".
It's odd how I didn't like this album at first, but now I think that it might just be the best Avenged Sevenfold album ever. Really, I am relieved. I hope they keep it up. It's good to know that, whenever I tire of shoegaze, I can come back to metal heaven.
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