Review Summary: Frustration leads to surprises; this album is one of them
Avenged Sevenfold is frustrating sometimes. From M. Shadows’ varying vocal quality from album to album, to all the “Deathbats Club” NFT/crypto pandering more recently, it’s unclear what people are going to get. Sure, you’ve got Synyster Gates continuing to be the guitar virtuoso he is, and Brooks Wackerman filling his role as the follow-up to The Rev, but the band has been going in so many different directions that nobody
knows what to expect. In a way, that’s admirable; most bands at this level (i.e: Metallica, Nickelback) are comfortable resting on their laurels and making the most safe-playing music to tour on. However, Shadows and co. are not one trick ponies, and they show it by switching things up every time they go into the studio, even if it makes for a frustrating cycle for fans that expect them to go on autopilot.
This frustration continued with the lead single here, “Nobody”; it opens with an electronic guitar motif, trap hi-hats, some of the weakest vocals from Shadows since he thought sounding like Axl Rose was a good idea on
City of Evil, and not much of a hook to grab onto compared to previous work. “We Love You” fixed the vocal problem, but introduced some bizarre glitch effects to the early vocal sections. On the flip-side, it had a verse that takes them back to their early metalcore days as best as they can at this stage. Surely, even if this album was to fall flat on its ass, it’s bound to at least be interesting.
Interesting, it is. “Game Over” and “Mattel” open up the album strong with some of the most traditionally palatable Sevenfold fare on the album; it’s as if they decided to begin it with the least out there stuff to express the message that “hey, no matter how crazy we get, at the end of the day, we’re still Avenged Sevenfold”. “Mattel” in particular feels like the “heavy” stuff from
The Stage and wouldn’t have felt out of place, while “Game Over” cycles between a “God Hates Us” type of drive and the Pink Floyd-esque acoustic guitars that show up all throughout. In the early goings, M. Shadows incorporates a bit of a System of a Down-esque vocal delivery, sounding sort of like a cross between himself and Serj Tankian.
The singles definitely fit better within the context of the album, as “Nobody” feels like the beginning of the complete mindfuck the band’s about to take you on. “We Love You” is an exercise in messing around with tempos and stylistic shifts, and almost feels like the biggest representative for this album. It doesn’t do every last thing Avenged has to offer here, but it does enough to give you a more broad idea of what you should expect. Whether it’s the metalcore break of “We Love You” or the trap influence on “Nobody”, it’s obvious they’re not comfortable playing it safe and becoming a washed up tribute act.
M. Shadows said in an interview that The Rev wrote some of the material on
Life Is But a Dream… prior to his passing, particularly the bridge in “Mattel” and some ideas off “Beautiful Morning”, which sounds somewhat like what would happen if The Beach Boys got corrupted by some sort of demon and turned them dark halfway through the song. It’s a creepy, ominous atmosphere and it works very well. The album’s biggest highlight for me would have to be “Cosmic”; it wears its Pink Floyd influence heavily on its sleeves, and the autotuned outro works surprisingly well, sounding a bit like the ending of “Lost” off their 2007
Avenged Sevenfold. It’s not the weirdest, but it’s easily the strongest, with beautiful soaring melodies everywhere.
The ending stretch is similarly surprising and out of left field; I did not expect them to bring out a 7-string guitar for a short riff during the “G/O/D” stretch of tracks (during “G”), and the cross between what feels like Daft Punk and Avenged’s usual brand of modern heavy metal in “Easier” is interesting, if not the most well-polished idea. “(O)rdinary” is even more Daft Punk-esque, with Shadows completely masked in a heavy coat of autotune, sounding like they were directly inspired by
Random Access Memories. “(D)eath” brings back the corrupted Beach Boys vibe from “Beautiful Morning” to bookend the trilogy. The piano ending with “Life Is But a Dream” caps everything off as well as it can be for an album as bizarro as this. I’m a sucker for piano breaks in music, and this one is among the more beautiful pieces.
Overall, I expected to hate this. As soon as “Nobody” dropped, I wasn’t sure what to think. It probably doesn’t need to be stated that, yes, this album is messy, but goddamnit, they’re trying. It’s one of the most weird and out there releases I’ve heard from a band of this caliber since Metallica and Lou Reed came together to drop
Lulu onto everyone, and thus starting the infamous “I am the table” meme. This fortunately sticks the landing quite a bit more than that Metallica/Reed collaboration. It was also said that Avenged Sevenfold took some inspiration from (of all people) Kanye West, and in a way I think that’s fitting. It kind of feels like almost a mainstream metal take on
Yeezus; it has elements befitting of their usual style, but is easily the most out there and “weird” release they’ve ever done. Just for that alone, it deserves props. One could argue that it's precisely the weirdness and messiness that makes it such a masterpiece.
