Although this review has been done before...many times...I wanted to put my view forward, as this is one of my favourite albums ever. Also, I'm bored, and this gives me something other to do than Spanish courseword :)
M Shadows - Vocals
Matt had not burst the blood vessel in his throat at this point, his clean singing was much more powerful and he could scream. He had a superb clean voice and a powerful scream, quite high pitched. He can hit high notes superbly on this album.
Synester Gates - Lead Guitar
Synester, at this point had not settled into his role quite so much as on 'City Of Evil'. However, as 'Second Heartbeat' demonstrates, his talent is clear. He sweep picks a lot in his solos, something that pleases me immensly :D.
Johnny Christ - Bass
Johnny isn't heard too clearly hear. You can hear him play the odd fill now and again, and what you can hear is good, fits well with the twin guitar assault.
Zacky Vengeance - Zacky plays much of the same riffs as Synester, ofter harmonised, as shown in 'Chapter 4'. Zacky didn't show off his talent by harmonising solos as in 'City Of Evil', but he is still a superb guitarist. He also does the backing vocals, as well as Synester.
The Rev - The Rev is a good drummer, playing nice beats, such as the 'Chapter 4' intro and pretty much all of 'Second Heartbeat'. He keeps time like he is suppossed to, and breaks out well without going totally over the top.
Again, I won't do a track by track of the whole album as that'll take a while as I like to go into detail.
The album kicks off with intro track 'Waking The Fallen'. Clean singing, drop D guitars playing single notes, occasional screams and a simple beat add together for a fairly atmospheric introduction. The song leads straight into lead single 'Unholy Confessions', probably their best know song aside from 'Bat County'. Kicks off with THAT riff, before heading off into a harmonised version of it. Nice double pedaling from The Rev at points, Matts blend of screaming and singing is perfect. Has a nice breakdown, it's easy to see why this was the first single. The bass pretty much follows the guitar here, which is no bad thing. Has a false ending, sounds pretty cool, good live too.
'Chapter 4' opens up with powerchords on guitar and a great drum intro by The Rev, my favourite piece of drumming by him ever. Soon cuts into a very catchy harmonised riff, before going into Matt sceaming over Synester and Zacky singing, sounds very swish. The guitars really steal the show after The Rev has had his moment, they are constantly harmonising. This song is written about Cain and Abel from the bible, so the lyrics follow the story. The chorus here is very catchy, quite punkish, showing A7X's other influences. There is a solo here, performed by Synester, not as audible as I would like as Matt sings over it, however I'm fairly sure that its sweep picking. It sounds great anyway. Fades out on Matt singing cleanly.
'Eternal Rest' heads straight into a face melting solo by Synester, totally taking away any doubt that he 'isnt great'. The rest of the intro is quick, fast and heavy, with Matt screaming. Soon heads into a heavy but catchy riff, nice simple beat by The Rev with the occasional bit of double pedaling here and there. All the riffs on offer here ae very nice, the backing vocals fit in well with Matts screaming. Johnny Christ is heard briefly harmonising with the guitarists, showing that he can keep up with such talented players. The outro here is very nice and soft, makes a nice change from the heaviness. One guitarist plays in clean, sounds very nice. Clean singing of "eternal rest, in time". An excellent song.
'Second Heartbeat' has a great lead line, pretty damn catchy. The bass adds some nice fills throughout, the drumming stays very solid the whole way through. The backing vocals are very punk-ish, in a good way. Very catchy. Again, the guitars steal the show with Synesters closing solo, as it is totally insane. Sweep picking across 6 strings a good solo does make :D. I'm easily pleased...
'I Wont See You Tonight Part 1' is a brilliant song. Clean singing, powerful solos, piano breaks, good lyrics. It's 9 minutes long, and so is fairly epic. The outro is metal poignancy at its best :)
'Part 2' carries straight on, a very heavy song. Another excellent solo.
'And All Things Will End' begins with a clean intro that kicks off into a nice heavy riff, but surprisingly not screaming. It sounds very nice anyway. The chorus has some nice lead guitar work, good lead vocals and backing vocals similar to 'Second Heartbeat'. It goes back into a clean break, with some nice bass playing and some very good singing. After a while it gets heavy again, with The Rev getting back on his double kick pedal. The song ends with a glorious 2 minute long solo over some epic sounding backing, the song stops with the sounds of the drums slowed down and fading out. A wonderful way to end a wonderful album.
Pros
+Superb guitar work from Synester and Zacky
+Excellent vocals
+Well written songs
Cons
-Bass very quiet
-'Radient Eclipse' not up to standards of other songs
-...thats about it
4.5 / 5
