Nightmare
Welcome To The Family
Danger Line
Buried Alive
Natural Born Killer
So Far Away
God Hates Us
Victim
Tonight The World Dies
Fiction
Save Me
M. Shadows - vocals
Synyster Gates - guitar, backing vocals
Zacky Vengeance - guitar, backing vocals
Johnny Christ - bass
The Rev - vocals on 'Fiction' and 'Save Me', piano on 'Save Me', drum arrangements
Mike Portnoy - drums
Brian Haner, Sr. - guitar
Sharlotte Gibson - backing vocals
Jessi Collins - backing vocals
David Palmer - piano, keyboards
Stevie Blacke - strings, string arrangements
Stewart Cole - trumpet
Mike Elizondo - keyboards
The Whistler - whistling
Produced by Mike Elizondo
Well well well... how they've grown. The release of Avenged Sevenfold's second album, 'Waking The Fallen' in 2003 put them firmly on rock/metal fans' to watch list. People could hear that they had a lot of potential, even if they did rely too much on screaming. The track, 'I Won't See You Tonight Part One' showed a band that was capable of something truly great. Then 2005's 'City Of Evil' came along, with the band maturing their sound, pushing their ambition, and securing their place in rock n' roll's big leagues. Unfortunately, when they released their self-titled album in 2007 it seemed their reach had exceeded their grasp, with a few missteps - not least of which M. Shadows sounding like Cher in her robot incarnation on one track.
Tragedy however can sometimes inspire the greatest art, and at the end of 2009 tragedy hit with the death of the band's drummer, Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan. All of the songs were written and in their demo stages at the time, but I can't help but feel the pain that the band felt when they entered the studio with Dream Theatre's Mike Portnoy behind the drums at the beginning of 2010 was transferred into the music granting them emotion and power that would not have been evident otherwise. Nowhere is this emotion more evident than 'Fiction', a song about dying that would have been spookily relevant to their situation on its own, but made even moreso thanks to the fact that The Rev himself sings half of the lead vocals (the last thing he ever recorded just days before his death).
Other than that song, tracks such as 'Buried Alive', 'Tonight The World Dies' and 'Save Me' rank as the greatest things ever recorded by Avenged Sevenfold (and some of the best metal music I've heard in some time). And whereas tracks such as 'Nightmare', 'Welcome To The Family' and 'Danger Line' fall down a little in the lyrical department, they are still recorded with a passion that makes them irresistable. Of the entire album, only 'God Hates Us' falls flat, but with the other ten tracks being so great it hardly detracts from the overall experience at all. So far, this decade without a doubt belongs to them... the only negative thing is that they had to lose one of their own before they could achieve it.
I'm still laughing about your take on the self-titled. I shall never listen to the album with quite the same ear.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy the "God Hates Us," (in no small measure because it's just heavy)--partially because I know what storm he was referencing (and that was an odd feeling in an of itself). Also, makes for a damn fine song to box to.
I completely agree, however, about "Buried Alive," which is just brilliant both on the album and live (I can't say the same for "Save Me," which left something to be desired live, but Matt did have the good graces to crack a joke about it's length both before and after, as I recall).
Thank you for sharing your musical ramblings--I've heartily enjoyed them.
Glad you enjoyed. I kind of screwed up at the midway point, but got it done eventually.
ReplyDeleteHave since been a bunch of albums released that I would have included if I'd heard them before I started doing this. Thinking of acknowledging them in a later edition.
Maybe I'll find something new to write about at some point, too. ;-)
Well, this reader is ALWAYS up for more music suggestions :)
ReplyDeleteAxl, i really like the way you wrote this review. I run a website for emerging artists where we do album reviews and interviews to help promote them. We are seeking new writers, would you be interested at all in writing some reviews for us? We supply all the music you can handle.
ReplyDeleteIf so: mike@emurg.com
Thanks