Album Rating: 5.0

Variant C: the band is on a winning streak but by perfecting their formula and not reinventing the wheel.

Which, however, mostly applies to groups way less popular than A7x (like Trivium). Of the most mainstream bands, only A7x could have pulled this off.



Currently in the process of converting a friend to A7x, he's a huge avant-garde/Daft Punk guy so at least some of this material should work for him.

Album Rating: 5.0

Mr Bungle is opening for them in South America… what the fuck did the US do to deserve such dogshit opening bands for these guys.



I mean come on

Album Rating: 2.0

in no sane universe should Mr. Bungle be opening for Avenged Sevenfold

Album Rating: 5.0

It does feel a little strange but I mean cmon man, one is way more popular than the other.



Deftones opened for them the first time I saw them and that felt very weird too

Album Rating: 1.0

These guys are really bigger than Deftones?

Album Rating: 5.0

wild

Album Rating: 5.0

they were in 2013



I think it’s more debatable now… they both did that co headliner thing with SOAD

Album Rating: 1.0

I really thought Deftones was one of the biggest metal bands of all time. It's a name I heard very early in my metal journey and White Pony has a huge reputation. But then again these guys are also extremely successful, and that 2013 album might have changed things

Album Rating: 5.0

"Creating God is prob the worst song on The Stage so whatever there,"



oh hell nah

Album Rating: 5.0

hmmmm i feel semi-comftorable saying deftones is bigger than a7x in 2026... but deftones rn is def not bigger than a7x was at their peak i don't think.



a7x hasn't done anything of real significance in over a decade from the perspective of a lot of metal normies and the band just doesn't seem at all interested in writing anything remotely mainstream anymore. they're prob at their lowest level of popularity since the pre-bat country days

Album Rating: 3.5

Finally gonna jam this.

Album Rating: 5.0

@kusangii



Deftones fell off HARD after White Pony and harder around the SNW/Diamond Eyes days, I vividly remember they played a 2500 cap room with Dillinger Escape Plan around then and they couldn’t sell it out… I saw them when Gore came out and it was basically the same story. Some shithole in Wichita with Code Orange opening… don’t get me wrong, great show, but it was literally the size of like a high school gym minus the bleachers. They really owe their popularity to the zoomer kids on tik tok, that’s where they blew tf up. I remember going to shows then and being the youngest person by 20 years, now I got fuckin 19 year olds at work asking me if I fuck with Deftones because they know I like metal. So many kids love them now. And honestly? Good for them. They deserve it.



@alex

lol u saw that. Creating God is fine it’s just the least interesting song on The Stage. And honestly you might be right… mostly. They’ll never fall to pre Bat Country popularity. Hail to the King and Nightmare were popular enough to make sure that they can just play ampitheaters and arenas for the rest of the career. At this point I don’t really think there’s anything they can do that will cause a drastic fall off, I mean shit they dropped this fucking record and still manage to play huge venues.

Album Rating: 5.0

@hawks

Honestly this record is so scattershot that I don’t know if you’ll *love* it but I definitely feel like you’ll at least be in the camp that can respect a big band trying something weird.

Album Rating: 3.5

I love everything they've done except the s/t and this is starting out promising. First track kinda reminds me of SOAD lol.

Album Rating: 5.0

I know right? I’ve been saying the SOAD thing since I first heard it.



Look, this is also something I’ve fucking championed since this record dropped… this is if the self titled actually had some balls. That record was like them kinda bitchly dipping their toes into doing something “out there”, before chickening out and making some basic shit.



They actually went “out there” with this. Lemme know what you think man forreal. As someone that doesn’t like the self titled either, I fucking love this

Album Rating: 3.5

It's better than the s/t already. I'm not loving it super hard, but I definitely like it a fair amount.

Album Rating: 5.0

Cosmic is where it all comes together chief



Legitimately their best song ever.

Album Rating: 5.0

Good point about the scattershot craziness. This one has been impossible for me to tell if a friend will love it or not

Album Rating: 5.0

Cosmic and the G O D tracks were what sold me on this on the first listen

Album Rating: 5.0

I think the deal is this: if it’s someone that just likes avenged sevenfold and maybe 3 or 4 other extremely mainstream metal bands, or someone that got into the band with HttK? they probably won’t like it.



But people that are actually into music? Yeah this shit is great. Obv not everyone will love it, Matt is sounding kinda rough here, but instrumentally, songwriting etc, this is the most inspired the band has ever been imo