All The World is a Stage: Avenged Sevenfold's Smashing Seventh Album

Avenged Sevenfold

I don't know why it took me so long to finally "get into" Avenged Sevenfold's seventh studio album, "The Stage".

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.

Moroni's Review of Avenged Sevenfold's "Hail To The King"

I have already talked about here about how Avenged Sevenfold is one of my favorite bands.  I have greatly anticipated their sixth record, "Hail to the King".

In December of 2009, the tragic and untimely death of drummer James "The Rev" Sullivan was a huge blow to me.  There was a part of me that thought, "Man, this band is finished!"

The Rev was one of the principal songwriters.  His influence on the band was undeniable.  Arguably, he was the creative force that made it all work.  All of my favorite songs - like the dark and quirky "A Little Piece of Heaven" - were written by the Rev.  So I wondered how they were going to survive.  I have seen it with other bands - their songwriter dies, their creative muse dies, and the band withers, like with Gin Blossoms.

Avenged Sevenfold went into the studio without the Rev and finished their fifth album, "Nightmare", recruiting the Rev's favorite drummer, Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater, (also one of my favorite bands), as a session and touring drummer.  They have since added Arin Ilejay as their new drummer.  "Nightmare" was a great album, but it still was dominated with songs written by the Rev.  This included the final track, a eleven-minute opus called "Save Me", written just days before his death and containing an  uncanny prediction.  The last lyrics of the song contain the haunting refrain:

Tonight we all die young

So "Hail to the King" is the first album totally written and recorded without the input of the Rev.  I'm going to be honest - I miss his contribution.  I miss his background vocals and his distinct impression on the group.  Frankly, this album does not grab me as firmly as "Nightmare" or their eponymous record, or any of their other albums, for that matter.

There.  Now that I have said that, I can say - regardless, this album rawks!  They have shown that - without the Rev - they can still craft good rock songs.  At the moment I write this, this album is the #1 album on the USA Billboard charts, and there is a reason for it.  From the first song - "Shepherd of Fire" - you can immediately tell that this is a different sound for A7X.  On this record, the band has scrolled back from the screamo in favor of an old school metal grind - not quite Black Sabbath, maybe more like Dio.  Absent is the Iron Maiden "gallop" that usually pushes their music at a break-neck speed.  This one has a slow and heavy inevitability like a glacier sliding across the landscape, a more adult adult sound for a band that has been making us headbang for more than a decade.

James "The Rev" Sullivan - R.I.P.

Arguably, the best song is the title track, "Hail to the King", suspended effortlessly by Matt Shadows's growl and Synyster Gates flawless guitar-picking.  "Doing Time" and "This Is War" hit you hard and heavy.  "Requiem" and "Acid Rain" display the band's penchant for the dramatic.  The former starts with a chorale arrangement that would make Mozart proud before crunching down into a fist-pumping rhythm.  The latter is a progressive piece dominated by the piano.

Every heavy metal album needs a ballad, and "Crimson Day" fits the bill nicely.  "Heretic" and "Coming Day" are among my favorite songs.  If you are going to download this album, make sure you download the version that has the bonus track, "St. James", which is one of the best songs on the album.  It is the only track to feature the vocal harmonies that are prominent on their other records.

All in all, I am pleased with this album.  I am glad that they found a way to survive the tragedy of losing their friend.  It is a good way to honor his memory.  I hope that they will be around for a long time.

My Desert Island Top 10

There was a beautiful Tower Records store in Tempe right next to Arizona State University.  (Remember Tower Records??)  I sunk many a dollar there.  Every time you made a purchase, you were allowed to take a free issue of their in-store magazine - Pulse.  Every month, there was a section where readers picked their Desert Island Top 10.

The premise is this - if you were stuck on a desert island, but you had a chance to have with you ten albums, which albums would you pick?

This is always a tough one for me, because my top 10 invariably becomes my top 30.  I made a rule for myself that I could not list any band that I have previously reviewed on my blog.  So albums like Pixies' "Doolittle", anything by Cocteau Twins or Dead Can Dance will obviously not be on this list.

I also invite YOU to post your top 10.  You can know a lot about a person by the music that they like.  It is always interesting to see what music people like.

So here it goes, in no particular order:

1.  Avenged Sevenfold "Avenged Sevenfold" - This album represented to me a return to metal.  I belonged to a hotel renovation crew that worked all over the country, and, during our cross-country drives, we would always settled on Sirius's Octane station.  This was when I was first introduced to this band.  My daughter bought me this album for Christmas in 2007, and my next job took me to Albuquerque.  It was a cold January, and this album was on constant rotation on my mp3 player.  I have since acquired their entire catalog.  I think the thing that I have always liked about this band is that they remind me of one of my early favorites - Iron Maiden.  Just like Iron Maiden, this band has a flare for the theatrical - with their music ranging from Bible quotes to evoking Hunter S Thompson.  This album is no different.  From the Spaghetti Western "Gunslinger" (which reminds me of an episode of "Firefly") to the country twang of "Dear God".  My favorite track is the "A Little Piece of Heaven" which is obviously an homage to Danny Elfman.  It is a twisted piece complete with nightmarish orchestra that tells of a man who murders his woman.  Her corpse comes to life and exacts revenge, they forgive each other, and had a wedding in hell.  It was written by the Rev, the band's drummer who died tragically in 2009.  A7X is releasing a new album next month (which I will review).  It will be their first album written without the aid of the Rev.  It will be interesting to see how this album will emerge.

2.  The Church "Starfish" - The Church is one of several psychedelic, '60s-influenced jangle-pop bands that came out in the '80s.  But they are one of the bands that has had lasting influence on me.  This entire album is nostalgic, and, in particular, "Under the Milkyway", which is still a sort of personal theme to me.  The entire album is good, and the opening track, "Destination" is haunting, the lyrics having special meaning to me.  "Reptile" is an excellent guitar-driven song.  This whole album was written with nostalgia in mind.  Steve Kilbey wrote a poem that was included in the liner notes.  Here a part of it that sums up how I feel about this album:

Good, now and forever music reach and awakens

Swimming in the shallow end, down, down, remember

A need, a gnawing longing for what?

3.  Coldplay "X&Y" - Yes, I like Coldplay.  Thanks to "The 40 Year-Old Virgin", I must defend my heterosexuality every time I say that I like them.  Actually, I don't know how anyone could not like them.  Their songs are beautifully crafted and deliciously layered.  This is a band that I hope keeps putting out great albums, because every release has been spectacular.  I owned "Rush of Blood to the Head", but it was "X&Y" that sealed the proverbial deal, for me.  It was Father's Day in 2005, and my wives gifted me this album.  I took it with me to San Diego to do a particularly stressful hotel job.  This album was my only reprieve, parking at Ocean Beach, listening to this album over and over.  I love it all - the emotive ballads "What If" and "Fix You", the R.E.M.-inspired "The Hardest Part", and multi-faceted "Talk".  I can still listen to this album and not get sick of it.

4.  System of a Down "Mezmerize", "Hypnotize" -  Okay, this is cheating, because it's really two albums.  But they were released six months apart and are part of the same concept.  This is a band that I loved from the first time I heard them, and they have remained a favorite.  They are part Dead Kennedys, part Frank Zappa, and part Armenian folk music - and this is about the best and most accurate description I could give them.  Hard-driving guitars interspersed with the the quavering voices of Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian ("Killing Rock N Roll", "Stealing Society", and "Revenga") mixed with political satire (B.Y.O.B.", "Violent Pornography", "Sad Statue"), the absurd ("This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm On This Song", "Vicinity of Obscenity"), the obscene ("Cigarro"), the sad and contemplative ("Holy Mountain", "Lonely Day", "Soldier Side") as well as my favorites - "Radio/ Video" with its bridge of nothing but Armenian music, and the beautifully crafted "Lost in Hollywood".  This is not just a heavy metal band.  These are artists, and these two albums always stay on my phone in their entirety.

5.  Blue October "Foiled" - This is a band that will always be special to me.  They, also, will have a new release next month that I will review.  Temple, the mother of three of my boys, gave the best description of this band - soft violins combined with Justin Furstenfeld's growling vocals creates a pleasant effect, as in the plaintive "Let It Go".  This album is proof that beauty can indeed come from pain.  Furstenfeld has admitted to having mental illness, and this produces some starkly beautiful lyrics - the softly melodic "She's My Ride Home" about disposing of dead bodies on the way home, and "Drilled a Wire Through My Cheek" about torture.  My other favorites are "You Make Me Smile" with its Pixies-like tune and beautiful poetry, the hard-rocking "What If We Could", the Depeche Mode-ish "X Amount of Words", and the romantic "Sound of Pulling Heaven Down".  I accidentally stumbled upon this band in 2006, and they have become one of my favorites.  I have made some online friends who love this band just as much as I do, if not more.  (Hi, Becca!)

6:  Heather Nova "Oyster" - My brother, Tony, introduced me to this album around 1996.  I had just moved to my ranch.  I had no electricity, no power - the only way I could listen to this was in the car.  I gravitated to it.  It represented, in my twenties, a hope of things to come as my life unfolded in front of me - in contrast to now, where I have a sense that my life is essentially over.  Heather Nova wasn't just a beautiful hippie chick with a guitar - although I really like beautiful hippie chicks with guitars.  Her songs were wistful, sung in a deliciously breathy voice, sad, plaintive, and sometimes angry.  "Walk the World" could be an anthem to me - not in the sense of its sexual metaphors, but my true desire to walk this world again.  "Light Years" and "Verona" show that this hippie chick can rock.  "Heal", "Walking Higher", and "Doubled Up" demonstrate how much she can do with just a guitar and her voice.  My favorite song is "Island", which is about escaping your problems to a remote island.  It has a trudging pace, offset by her haunting melody and a cello.  There was a time in the '90s where this album was mostly what I listened to.  It still stands the test of time.

7.  The Hush Sound "Like Vines" - What do you get when you combine a rock guitarist (Bob Morris) with a classical pianist (Greta Salpeter)?  You get an awesome band like the Hush Sound, who were probably ahead of their time.  With their ragtime piano, vocal styles (both his and hers) that sound like they come from the Prohibition Era, they would fit right in with today's steampunk motif, taking a note from the Dresden Dolls.  Produced by Patrick Stump (of Fallout Boy) this album also has a Danny Elfman feel, like in the circus-themes "Lion's Roar".  Many of the songs are just dulcid - "Sweet Tangerine" and "Magnolia".  Some are haunting like the piano melody, "Lighthouse".  My favorite is "Wine Red" which is a funky piece driven by the piano and vivid lyrics:

The sea is wine red

This is the death of beauty

The doves have died

The lovers have lied

The Hush Sound broke up in 2008, but they recently reformed with talks of a new album.  I am excited.

8.  Dream Theater "Metropolis Pt 2: Scenes From a Memory" -   When I was in high school, all of the and geeks were into Rush, who admired their technical precision.  Dream Theater - one of the last surviving hair metal bands - are one of those precise bands who seem more like jazz than metal.  What I mean by this -  long, extended jam sessions where each musician in the band gets some time to showcase their unique ability.  "Metropolis Pt. 1" was a part of a previous album, and the second part encompasses an entire concept album.  On the surface, this album could seem pretentious - written and divided into scenes and overtures and movements.  But it works.  The album tells the story of a man obsessed with a love triangle in the 1920s that ended in a murder.  This is progressive music at its best - ranging from hard and heavy to sounding like a Broadway musical.  As it should.  This album needs to go onto Broadway.  James LaBrie sings all of the roles, but this is definitely a theatrical piece.  Almost fifteen years later, I break out this album and still enjoy it.  It is such a concept that one song does not sit well by itself.  You have to listen to whole album.

9.  Modest Mouse "Good News For People Who Love Bad News" -   Around 2004, I was hearing a lot about Modest Mouse in magazines, and such.  So I decided to see what the big deal was, so I bought their album "The Moon & Antarctica".  I hated it.  Over the next couple of years, I would periodically pull it out and listen to it, only to have the same low opinion of it.  Then, I remember, it suddenly made sense.  I finally "got" it, and I loved it.  By then, "Good News For People Who Love Bad News" had come out, and it was much more palatable than their previous releases.  The catchy "Float On" and "Ocean Breathes Salty" reminded me so much of Wolfgang Press, but it is nice to see bands that are influenced by the same music I grew up listening to.  This band has a delightful penchant for the discordant as in "Bury Me With It" and "Dance Hall".  "The Devil's Workday" is a jazz song from hell played on brass.  My favorites are the songs that feature the stand-up bass and banjo - "Bukowski" and "Satin in a Cofin".  The album ends with a guest appearance from Wayne Coyne (from the Flaming Lips).  I have loved everything this band has done since, but this album is the one that stands out to me.

10.  Tears For Fears "The Hurting" - For my last album, I have to say - I am not a Tears For Fears fan.  In fact, they kind of annoy me.  No "Songs from the Big Chair" for me, no "Shout, shout let it all out", no "Sowing the seeds of love"...  I only like this album, and that's it.  This album is enough to establish them as musical geniuses in my book.  It is dark.  It is moody.  And that was enough for me when I was a teen.  This album encapsulated every heartache I experienced back then.  But it really is an original album.  "Mad World", with its infectious rhythm, has been covered ad nauseum.  But the original version is really the best.  Of course, everyone recognizes the early MTV staple, "Change".  "Pale Shelter" and "Watch Me Bleed" are unique, because in the days when electronica was new, they combined acoustic guitars with keyboards, something that other dark wave bands like Clan of Xymox later imitated.  "Memories Fade" and "Start of the Breakdown"are just dripping with angst, just what I needed as a surly 15 year-old.  I think this album stands the test of time.  It is an ingenious arrangement of piano, keyboards, and percussion.

So that's my list.  Now tell me yours...