Some fine Sputnik journalism

This is definitely one of the news articles of all time.

Sorry lol formatting got all wonky with the upload. The og is about all this news deserves though.

this is definitely one of the songs of all time

The song is ass

Huh. I don't hate it, but if this is the lead single then I'm nervous to see what the rest of the album is like.

Horrible song by a horrible band. Those vox lmao

The clean vocal equivalent to Chris Barnes in all honesty. The instrumentals aren't bad but the song is completely uninteresting. I agree with Plat that if this is the first single, the rest of the album must be quite a trip.

The same shitty mix on this as it is on the stage is probably the most disappointing thing about it, even if the rest of the album is really good (from a songwriting perspective) I'm not going to like it as it sounds ass.

would not have expected them to go this direction after the stage

shadows vocals are completely shot now... worst he has ever sounded.

this band has never been good but the vocalist has never this awful before. honestly impressed how bad he sounds.

This song is very fucking average to ok, wow what a snoozer

"The same shitty mix on this as it is on the stage is probably the most disappointing thing about it"

very glad I'm not the only one that thought the stage mix sucked

Yeah Matt’s vocals are completely shot.
Dudes been at it for almost 25 years tho and he’s had how many surgeries? Can’t say I blame him much but damn, he does not sound good

i don't think shadows/the band really help themselves by continuing to play in the same key they always have despite shadows's upper-register being non-existent at this point.

(or... that's how it seemed on first listen at least)

if this is how shadows sounds IN THE STUDIO i cannot even imagine how he would sound live

I really wanted this song to rule and the intro peaked my interest. But when the vocals came in...damn. How do you take half a decade off from touring and your voice is still this blown? I'll listen to the album when it comes out, but I'm not holding much hope.

The vocals came in and I literally burst out laughing

Worst song they've ever produced. And I'm an A7X fan. It's literally hurting your ears. This is sad.

How does Shadows continue to sound worse and worse, like I don't get it.

Was expecting worse from the vocals after reading these comments, but he still sounds like he just celebrated his 80th birthday

Like, homeboy sound older than Paul McCartney

The vocals came in and I literally burst out laughing [2]

I know his vocals being nasally was a common criticism plenty of times before but he literally sounds like he has a cold on this.

I wonder if all the fat and aviators in Shadows' face prevented him from singing into a microphone and he sang it a coffee grinder instead

"He still sounds like he just celebrated his 80th birthday"

LMAO

oof these vocals are rough. Thank god Synyster Gates is still in the band.

He forgot to give him some Mucinex before recording though so unfortunately we have to suffer for it.

2023: Bob Dylan's vocals are better than Shadows.

I would take the worst song from Hail to the King over this horrible excuse for a single. This song is atrocious, and shadows sounds absolutely horrible here. Serves him right for trying to push all of his NFT bullshit on us.

Ah right I forgot they jumped on the NFT train some time ago. Bet that worked out real well for them.

I just put this on for kicks and wasn't planning to say anything but WOW.

His voice sounds AWFUL.

THIS IS AWESOME

Wow, 30 seconds of this felt like an eternity.

I would say I can't believe they are going to release this album with their vocalist sounding this bad, but I guess because there's money involved, I can!

"The vocals came in and I literally burst out laughing"

After I picked my jaw up off the floor I started laughing too. The intro caught my attention and then just epic fail.

This band is totally incapable of releasing good albums consecutively. I liked The Stage, this is the worst song they've ever written hands down. It doesn't help that the production is incredibly flat and lifeless.

yeah even outside the vocals this is still pretty bad

anyone else find that (what i believe is an) unquantized electronic hi-hat that starts at :20 supremely annoying?? it doesn't even sound in line with the rest of the song

what even

the vocals sound awkward and the mix does them no favors (or to any other thing really?)

plus, this barely sounds like a band? Like, it feels like separated bits and the absence of rhythm guitar parts prevents any kind of glue

such a weird choice for a lead single... makes you wonder what's also in the album, though

I don't get it, it sounds like a bedroom project

... I need to relisten lol

The trombone farting at 1:45, the awful hi-hat dominating the mix, the random instrumentations...what is this shit?

It's like getting pummeled by a wall of sound but that sound is drenched in wet farts. Yuck.

Wish they promoted this more, it's been so long since they released anything and I had no idea this was coming.

I like it. I'm happy to hear more from these guys.

I’d rather they didn’t

Terrible production and Matt’s vocals are easily the worst they’ve ever been. I love The Stage but if this is representative of the rest of the album then I can’t say I’m looking forward to its follow up.

Their website has a web 2.0 experience and a web 3.0 experience, no idea what's happening on either of them the designs shyte.

The merch is somewhat dope though

ooft this is rough. wtf is this production lmao

Wild how much I disagree. This is the only song I’ve ever heard from this band that I would willingly listen to more than once. Dude’s voice has a cool weathered vibe, but idk what he’s actually supposed to sound like so that might be part of it

I thought the stage was a great boomer record. This though... it's just bad.
Sometimes it doesn't just work.

Everyone's an engineer nowadays huh

I thought the hi-hat was an 808 or something?

i dont think you need to be an engineer to hear how wack this sounds production-wise

"Everyone's an engineer nowadays huh"

You don't have to be an engineer to pick flaws out of a mix. There's a lot here that's just off and it doesn't take a professional mixer to hear it.

After looking at Andy Wallace catalog and all he's done, I think you're all just quick to hate per usual with this band.

At least the music video was cool.

Band always sucked tbh

I’m always one to defend this band. I love a lot of their stuff. City of Evil basically got me into music, and Nightmare and The Stage are both very good albums imo. This shit is just wack. Listened like 6 times and I’m still baffled.

That was terrible.

Shadows vocals are atrocious.

I was a huge A7x fan when I was a young lad... then I found Be'lakor and I grew the hell up.

The vocals are really tough, but as a Megadeth fan I am trying to cut him some slack.

Songwriting at points sounds interesting, but something about the mix pulls it back.

Definitely not what I was expecting, so some points there for shaking it up.

Despite never being much of a fan, I am enjoying the classic A7X guitar soloing

Be'lakor pffff mid

Still don't understand why they hired a grandpa to do the vox for this song

Lulu ass vocals

"Everyone's an engineer nowadays huh"

as someone with a music tech degree i can confirm this sounds awful

His voice is shot eh.

Like why do the vocals sound so mixed down?

Did the engineer realize how bad the vox performance on this one was and just dropped it several db to be safe?

A shadow of his former voice

Such a bizarre sounding song.

Yeah, I'm not even sure what to make of the song. The vocals are bad, sure, but the songwriting choices are just as misguided and weird. The incessant hi-hat in the background? The cheap-sounding trombone farts? The spacey atmosphere? I'm honestly trying to process whatever the hell I just listened to, lol

It's avant-garde, of course most people won't understand the brilliance of this incredible piece

As soon as you hear the double bass you know the production is bad.

they made the first single really bad as a joke, the rest of the album will be an instant classic, you'll see

it's almost easy

to put out drivel

These dudes have never been good, right?

city of evil is fun

Production/mix is really weak. The vocals... yeah...

God damn SUCKS

holy shit the vocals are insanely bad. it's actually kind of shocking how bad they are. sounds like someone attempting to sing for the first time. cool vid tho.

the solo was sweet

there is 0 chance I will pause spawn of possession for this band that hasn't been good since tom from myspace was a topic of discussion

doubt it

why down(y) when you can change your clothes?

I’m still so salty that brooks left Bad Religion for this shit.

OOF. Dude's vocals are totally shot, that's a tough listen.

Thought The Stage was going to be the great turning point for the band, but my fucking god if this isn't one of the shittiest songs I've heard in a while.

Spawn of Possession is great yeah

I'm also pretty sure that the singer shredded his vocals after recording Waking the Fallen because he hadn't been trained at that point on how to scream correctly. Everything after was just downhill.

To A7X's credit, they've stuck with him for 20+ years. They're either a very tight group or that contract is iron-fucking-clad.

Christ, this is bad. Wasn't crazy on the singles from The Stage either, but that album had a few gems so who knows!? Might be something salvageable on this new one...

"They're either a very tight group or that contract is iron-fucking-clad."

or he was simply only disliked by a vocal minority up to recent years (though certain low moments are famous for everybody I'd say)

anyway a good sleep did nothing to my opinion about this song. I too thought The Stage was the beginning of a super glow-up but this single is just bizarre

Yeah...this is pretty bad. Vocals feel phoned in and done for. Song is very uninteresting. Even with the interesting synth choices. The production just feels so off to me too...such a weird song. At least Synyster can still shred. He's misplaced here at this point tbh.

I appreciate that they are trying to structure their songs a bit differently, almost like prog metal at times, but man if the production and vocals are doing the entire song a disservice.

I mean they’re all high school friends aside from Brooks. I don’t see any of those four turning on each other.

> it sounds nothing like anything we’ve done

Kek, the single sounds right off of The Stage.

yeah pretty bad vocals

The instrumentation is surprisingly interesting but Shadows wheezing his way over it all is painful

"I'm also pretty sure that the singer shredded his vocals after recording Waking the Fallen because he hadn't been trained at that point on how to scream correctly. Everything after was just downhill."

vocals took a dip on city of evil for sure, but i think the s/t and especially nightmare was shadows's peak. he was legitimately awesome on those albums and could back it up live. httk you can hear a slight drop off but still sounds really good, the stage he falls off a cliff, and it seems he's fallen off yet another cliff in the years since.

AlexKzillion - you are spot on. s/t and nightmare were his strongest days as a vocalist. I guess the excessive touring during that time just caught up with him. You could definitely tell he was starting to suffer on The Stage and if this single is what we can expect from the new album, the band is in trouble. Luckily they've already made their money so it's not the end of the world.

I liked the video.

Worst song I heard all year

Same

"vocals took a dip on city of evil for sure, but i think the s/t and especially nightmare was shadows's peak. he was legitimately awesome on those albums and could back it up live. httk you can hear a slight drop off but still sounds really good, the stage he falls off a cliff, and it seems he's fallen off yet another cliff in the years since."

Yeah, I'll give you that. City of Evil and S/T were decent performances but he definitely dialed back the harsher vocals. But it's funny because he's always maintained this very raspy deep voice so, at times, his vocals would not necessarily be screams but just very rough raspy vocals that passed as aggressive. To his credit, his voice has always been appropriate for a band like A7X. I couldn't imagine a different vocalist nor could I see M. Shadows fronting a different band.

Crazy to say but the song is growing on me a bit. Can't deny the catchiness of it, but I still can't get past the horrendous vocals and the drums. I'm quite curious how the whole album will turn out

city of evil = m. shadows best vocal performance

lol

I mean yeah vocals aren't great, but the song itself is kinda good

yeah looks like I'm skipping the next installment in the wonderful genre of Sirius XM Octane-core

Song has is pretty neat, but it lacks a certain punch. Hopefully the other songs offer a little more

Andy Wallace is not a good producer lmfao… In Utero proves that. Sure being a mixer on a million albums will net anyone credit but he isn’t responsible for a band’s sound besides fucking it up.

His screams fucking sucked. Waking The Fallen is an awful album. Idc. So glad they ditched that shit

this andy wallace guy has mixed all their albums since city of evil, all of which sound great except the stage

i think we probably underrate how much the production on any given record is a product of what the artist themselves want, especially artists of a7x's stature who could have anyone they want produce for them

"His screams fucking sucked. Waking The Fallen is an awful album. Idc. So glad they ditched that shit"

This take is worse than the song

WtF isn’t awful, but the screams do fucking suck. Worst part of the album for sure

love waking the fallen but ngl i do kinda prefer the 2005-2010ish live performances of most of those songs where shadows isn't really screaming

Like try to tell me this isn't better than the original: https://youtu.be/-P4HCkngfiM

The screams never bothered me. They aren't great obvs but neither are much of his cleans so... And it has better riffs than most of their post-CoE material

Meh

...

Didn't like the song at all. Hard to believe they were pretty much my favorite band 18 years ago. Waking the Fallen had a huge impact on me when I was in 9th grade.

Credit where it's due though, the video itself is pretty cool.

“ This take is worse than the song”

Not really, WtF is a boring metalcore album with bad vocals. City of Evil dumps all over it

Both are kinda mid...

To everyone involved in making this video, congratulations, very tasteful and good quality production. I'm a Faith No More fan, more sprawled out disconnected so this song appeals to me quite a lot. Congrats team for making this.

"Not really, WtF is a boring metalcore album with bad vocals. City of Evil dumps all over it"

City of Evil is cool. Everything they did after though...

itt: people who don't know the difference between producing and mixing, zoomers who aren't familiar with Andy Wallace's legendary discography

song is still complete and utter shit though, I can't even call whatever Matthew Sanders is doing singing anymore.

semantics don't matter when it sounds this fucking bad

Singing is garb

Sounds like they're finally branching out their style. I agree shadows sounds like he's holding his nose whilst singing the verses. The guitars sound better here than they did anywhere on the stage. Song was okay, keen to hear the rest of the album.

Well if anything this thread reminded me The Stage exists. That's one of like two A7X songs I actually like

wow, genuinely surprised by how shot his voice is these days. i never liked his voice, or the band for that matter, but i feel sorry for the guy.

… I like the song now. Still don’t really care for the vocals but I dig the lyrics and pretty much everything else.

The orchestral parts are cool and add a lot imo

genuinely incredible how shit this is

Fanboys defending this and calling it "prog" or "avant-garde" is quite something

They are holding on for dear life.

I like it, but I also like this band, interested to hear what the rest of the album sounds like

“City of Evil is cool. Everything they did after though...” naw Nightmare and The Stage are good shit

Nightmare slaps. It as one of the albums that got me into metal and is probably the only one that aged decently for me too.

I never got much into this band overall, but I’d still throw on the self titled and City of Evil before anything else. Never heard Nightmare, though, so maybe i should give it a go

I would definitely put Nightmare way above Self Titled. I don’t think the band ever touched City of Evil though. That album is unironically fantastic, and I’ll fight anyone over that

"Fanboys defending this and calling it "prog" or "avant-garde" is quite something"

The new Pierce the Veil album was labeled as prog everywhere I looked so I'll give this the same label - regressive rock

This song just gets worse for every listen. Worst one I've heard in a very long time. Actually impressive. I've heard Machine gun kelly write better stuff

Holy hell I think it’s time for M Shadows to retire. City of Evil is a solid 7.5/10 album but this makes it sound like a masterpiece in comparison

keep trying to pull stuff out of this that I like but the farty brass section coming in and totally overpowering the other like twenty fuckin things going on in the song at 1:53 just completely derails any effort to do so

Lol yeah that section is trippy as hell. Literally feels like someone is farting in your ears. The solo is the only good thing about this song really.

I genuinely appreciate that they tried to do something different, but this is heinous. What is that hi-hat? What are those horns?

This song popped on my shuffle when I was at the gym and I couldn't figure out who it was, but assumed it was a friend's, low quality recording that I had added to listen through... then that dreadful singing came in.

I genuinely appreciate that they tried to do something different [2] this and I reallyt enjoy the guitars especially near the end. But... the horns, the hi-hat, the production/mixing in general, the SINGING. Yuck.

this has low key one of syn's craziest solos

lmfao this reminds me of when Three Days Grace tried to implement synths in their music. This sounds worse though honestly, and also the production is fucking terrible

this has low key one of syn's craziest solos [2]

Agreed, wild it cant even come close to saving the song

“City of Evil is a solid 7.5/10 album but this makes it sound like a masterpiece in comparison”

Naw stop pretending, it IS a masterpiece. The most entertaining metalcore album ever

Brabiz, I need you to put some respect on metalcore's name rn. Jane Doe and Jhazmyne's Lullaby exist.

But I'm trying to figure out if this band was ever actually good tbh. I mean I was jamming Bat Country and Afterlife on my Xbox 360 HARD back when I was a child I got into City of Evil when I still thought deathcore was a good and whatever, but like was this band ever GOOD?? Like beyond Syn's guitarwork. Like M. Shadows had one of the corniest singing styles even before a bomb apparently went off in his throat. And The Rev (R.I.P.) is an overrated ass drummer tbh.

"To everyone involved in making this video, congratulations, very tasteful and good quality production. I'm a Faith No More fan, more sprawled out disconnected so this song appeals to me quite a lot. Congrats team for making this."

me sending a work email

City of Evil is a mid expression of guitar wankery and nothing more. The vocals are shit, the songwriting is meh, it's not very good. I'd listen to Nightmare or Self-Titled over that record.

ok

you completely lost me when you called city of evil a metalcore album

a couple songs have breakdowns, that means the album is just metalcore

They were never good but this is a new low for them

"but like was this band ever GOOD?? Like beyond Syn's guitarwork. Like M. Shadows had one of the corniest singing styles even before a bomb apparently went off in his throat. And The Rev (R.I.P.) is an overrated ass drummer tbh."

nah shadows was a legit great vocalist circa 2007-13 and the rev runs circles around nearly every other drummer who plays/played in a7x's contemporaries. not to mention portnoy on nightmare and wackerman on the stage, these guys have always had top notch drummers.

think their biggest problem is it never all truly aligned on one album (besides waking the fallen i guess). city of evil and the stage had great writing and fun instrumentals but awful vocals. s/t was shadow's peak but the songwriting became really gimmicky. nightmare was probably where the stars would've aligned if not for the rev's death causing the album to become a bit too ballad heavy. hail to the king was just completely misguided. there's just always something with them. band still has a lot of great songs though.

yeah i second that, saw them live in like...08 and Shadows sounded amazing lol. Maybve he has just pushed the envelope too much + his screams have never sounded particularly healthy to me

I’d say the stars completely aligned on Nightmare. And it’s easy to think it’s “ballad heavy” because most of them are on the back half. There’s 11 tracks and only 4 of them are really ballads.

Though I do think it was a mistake putting Victim, Tonight the World Dies, and Fiction back to back to back.

And his screams were extremely unhealthy. Man was screaming straight from the throat for their first couple of records. His vocal chords have probably been fucked for 20 years.

I mean like it’s been said already, I’m pretty sure he’s had two throat surgeries already, and I wouldn’t be shocked to find out it’s because his technique was so bad early on.

@wildcard yeah i generally think nightmare is their best non-wtf album at this point, and i even quite like all those ballads (especially in comparison to the ones they've done since).

i do think those ballads all being in succession like that is what "holds it back" in a lot of people's eyes though. plus that four minute stretch from the second half of danger line to when buried alive really kicks in almost makes it feel like there's a fifth ballad.

M Shadows has absolutely been a technically talented singer with pipes before but I could say the same for many talented singers I don't like. Maria Carey isn't a perfect example because I really enjoy a lot of the stuff I've heard from her over my life, but her vocal talent doesn't make everything she does gold. She has some duds. Adele's a technically incredible singer and it doesn't translate to me caring much about her music. At this point in my life, I just think Shadow's style is wildly cheesy. Like a big, cheesy metal vocal that I wouldn't pick to be there if I had a choice. I would also extend the big and cheesy descriptor their whole sound.

I just don't think they're what I look for out of a metal or hard rock thing, but I'm also insufferably pretentious. So who really cares?

I’m just glad to see that there’s at least one or two people that don’t fuck with avenged sevenfold can admit that there was a point where Matt had some seriously great vocal performances.

And god city of evil would be so much better if he had that same vocal delivery as on Nightmare.

Yeah Nightmare's vocal delivery was peak Shadows.

Anyone else agree that the artwork is fire and by far their best?

I mean not a high bar to clear since half of them are just the deathbat, but I really love that album art

This song is for “nobody” I’m sure

It's for Progressive/avant-garde psychedelic DMT/NFTcore fans I'm sure

If you guys hate it so much why continue to pay so much attention it? Idk kinda seems like a miserable way to live

Purple I don’t even hate you but Kusajii or whatever the fuck your dumbass name is
Get fucked. You’re really giving gyro a run for his money for the most insufferable user on this site

“Anyone else agree that the artwork is fire and by far their best?”

Idk I think Nightmare’s artwork is unironically awesome. But yeah, this is a neat change up

kusojiji

Get fucked.

good god damn falling in reverse. I’m still gonna go but holy shit what a terrible band

lmao shoulda known when shadows was going to bat for radke last week

still haven't announced a dmv date yet holding out hope part 3 will be alexisonfire again

I’ve never even heard a single alexisonfire song and I know they’re better than Falling in Reverse.

and why Matt. Ronnie fucking sucks

Falling in Reverse is about as bad as their genre gets.

what are they even considered
Scene rap rock?
The only song I even remember is their newest cornball ass one where he’s jumping from an airplane