Avenged Sevenfold
Hail to the King


1.5
very poor

Review

by Benjamin Kuettel EMERITUS
December 11th, 2019 | 34 replies


Release Date: 2013 | Tracklist

Review Summary: The sound of a band with nothing to say.

Avenged Sevenfold have been jumping trends in rock and metal music for over a decade, accumulating new fans with each album while simultaneously losing artistic credibility. They further alienate their fan base by releasing a shameless rip-off of classic hard rock and heavy metal bands with Hail to the King. The band have always been pretty unoriginal, but it’s taken to a whole new level here. From “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC to multiple songs by Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath, no hard rock or heavy metal band appear to be safe from Avenged Sevenfold’s lack of ideas. New band member Arin Ilejay's talent with the sticks is squandered for a disappointingly bland and monotonous drumming performance throughout. The music itself isn't terrible, other than the pervading stagnation and blandness from beginning to end.

This is the definition of background music, stunningly unengaging if at the very base level of being listenable. Bands that evolve and change over time are usually something special, but Avenged Sevenfold have remarkably harnessed that quality and used it in the hackiest ways possible. For positives, “Heretic” and “Coming Home” are two tracks that offer a glimmer of the talent and energy the group possessed in their earlier days. The singing is also the least annoying of any of their albums. Listen to this to play the fun guessing game of “What band wrote this riff/melody?” within each song, but otherwise you may as well go see an inspired cover band accurately recreate the classics in a dive bar somewhere. It would be a more respectful way of consuming that music than giving Avenged Sevenfold any more attention.



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user ratings (1656)
2.4
average
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Comments:Add a Comment 
Space Jester
December 11th 2019


10994 Comments


Omg I’ve been waiting for this review for forever

IAmScott
December 11th 2019


438 Comments


lol are you drunk

Space Jester
December 11th 2019


10994 Comments


Dude you gotta brush up on your sput history if you don’t know about the long-awaited Talons Hail to the King 1.5 review, it’s top 5 Sputnik lore prophecies now fulfilled

IAmScott
December 11th 2019


438 Comments


I mean IK i'm new and all, but like actually?

Source
December 11th 2019


19917 Comments


I have only come across two albums in my lifetime that embody this ambition in full.

Ikarus14
December 11th 2019


1454 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

It's pretty short but to the point. I would have liked to see this beefed up a tad just to expand more but not a bad review at all.



I couldn't agree more, though. First it's Black Sabbath mashed with Megadeath, then Motorhead covering AC/DC, then Guns N' Roses, then Metallica, and so on. They might as well have done a cover album if they were going to be this obvious.

kalkwiese
December 11th 2019


10404 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

Hail to the queef

maximomckinnon
December 11th 2019


88 Comments

Album Rating: 1.5

easily the worst A7X project, everything here is just so unremarkable and phoned in

JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
December 11th 2019


60285 Comments


What's the lore behind this unexpected pleasure?

SteakByrnes
December 11th 2019


29741 Comments

Album Rating: 1.5

Album truly does not slap

Aerisavion
December 11th 2019


3145 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

I consistently forget about this album.

veninblazer
December 11th 2019


16837 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

c'mon guys it ain't THAT bad, it's just kinda unmemorable

SteakByrnes
December 11th 2019


29741 Comments

Album Rating: 1.5

Terrible album yea

Wildcardbitchesss
December 11th 2019


11752 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

“c'mon guys it ain't THAT bad, it's just kinda unmemorable”

Ya, there’s nothing here that’s extremely offensive. I’d say the self titled is easily worse than this.



72haha72
December 12th 2019


497 Comments

Album Rating: 1.5

Oh, it is THAT bad. It is.

SymbolicInTime
December 12th 2019


7380 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

I dont remember if anything here is as offensively terrible as Dear God or Gunslinger but that's not saying much of anything

TalonsOfFire
Emeritus
December 12th 2019


20969 Comments

Album Rating: 1.5 | Sound Off

I've wanted to do a negative review for a while, cause I've been mostly all positive the past 2-3 years. I couldn't find the motivation to sit through a terrible new album just for that reason, but I noticed I had a long soundoff for this that I decided to lengthen for a review. I want to get to 100 reviews by the end of year. My next two will be for albums that no one on the site has covered.

Wildcardbitchesss
December 12th 2019


11752 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

I honestly don’t mind Gunslinger. Mainly referring to Dear God, Unbound, and Lost.

SteakByrnes
December 12th 2019


29741 Comments

Album Rating: 1.5

Lost slaps

Ocean of Noise
December 12th 2019


10970 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

s/t has some of their best songs and some of their worst



overall it's bad because it's such an uneven listen



but Afterlife, Gunslinger and Brompton Cocktail kick ass



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