Album Rating: 2.0

It's still their weakest by far.

Album Rating: 3.0

Yeah a few great moments but that's it.

Album Rating: 3.0

Wait actually hail to the king is their worst. Almost unlistenable.

Album Rating: 3.5

i enjoy half of the songs here

Album Rating: 4.0

It seems as if the bands creativity sadly died with the Rev (as seen on Hail to the King).

Album Rating: 3.0

Diamonds in the Rough is basically the better version of this album. Demons especially is a pretty underrated song of theirs imo.



"It seems as if the bands creativity sadly died with the Rev (as seen on Hail to the King)."



Nightmare had a couple of interesting ideas, so far they said the new album is going to be "aggressive and melodic" so I imagine something like City of Evil. Going back to longer songs with unpredictable and somewhat proggy turns would be cool even though they rarely cut that out completely.

Album Rating: 4.0

The Rev was still alive when Nightmare was being written but died before recording started, he has a lot of writting credits on Nightmare. HTTK is the first project of theirs that the Rev had no part in, which is pretty much why it was easily their worst album. At least they were trying a bunch of weird shit on this album to make it interesting, even if those risks didn't pay off the majority of the time.

Album Rating: 3.0

I'd take an album like this over another hail to the king. At least this was creative (even though most of the ideas didn't work) and the instrumentation was beyond that of a beginners drumming book.

Album Rating: 4.0

Arin isn't a bad drummer at all though, they just restricted the fuck out of him so that when they played their black album rip offs he "fit the songs".

Album Rating: 3.5

Milked the cash cow and left shortly after.



Clever move

Album Rating: 2.0

I personally think Hail to the King is a better album than this, but I would rather them try to make more albums like this because, as you said, they weren't afraid to tip-toe outside of the safe zone. Hail to the King was incredibly restrained, and the end result was mediocrity. Something like City of Evil is the hypothetical end result if they bother to take risks, and that's much preferable to HTTK, even if it does mean that we might get another dud like this.



On The Rev's writing credits, I don't really find that, on Nightmare at least, there's a strong correlation to his having contributed to the better/worse songs. Like, he has credits on Save Me and Buried Alive, which are highlights there, but he also has credits on Welcome to the Family and Tonight the World Dies, which are weaker tracks. Inversely, he's not credited on the T/T, which is not a very good song, but he's also not credited on Danger Line, which is one of the best on that album.



He did have a part in all but three tracks on City of Evil though, and that album was very much their best overall effort, so I suppose the fact that the band is more reserved might be linked to him having died; he was a pretty strange dude, so I don't doubt that a lot of the more daring elements, for lack of a better word, may have come from him. The three that he didn't have a hand in (Beast and the Harlot, Burn it Down, Betrayed) were pretty straight-forward, by-the-numbers tracks as well, at least when compared to Sidewinder or The Wicked End, for example.



Note that when I say 'best album', I'm talking about after they stopped playing 'core stuff.

Album Rating: 4.0

Don't forget Fiction though, which was more or less his Blackstar.



After the release of HTTK it just kind of struck me that that was what Avenged Sevenfold was without him, a band with relatively no creativity. It just felt like on their first 4/5ish albums there was just something that set them apart from the rest of the acts they were/are associated with, even if some of those projects were duds.



Just from a drumming standpoint, he always kept things interesting, especially when he didn't have writing credits (Beast and the Harlot, Remenissions), and that double ride part on Almost Easy always gets me. Even though I'm not the A7X foREVer fanboy I was in the past, the Rev is still one of my favorite drummers, not to mention a very underrated drummer to most non fan boys of this band.



Btw if you haven't checked their core stuff you should check Waking the Fallen, their best imo.

Album Rating: 2.0

bowie references in an a7x thread cool

Album Rating: 2.0

sure.

band is for 12 year olds.

Album Rating: 2.5

this album really isnt THAT bad...until you hit the last three tracks. They are utterly horrible. Laughable really.

Album Rating: 2.5

auto tune???

Album Rating: 2.0

There's a few great songs and then the rest is trash, there's no in between imo tbh.

Album Rating: 3.0

yeah pretty much

agreed