Avenged Sevenfold
Avenged Sevenfold


1.0
awful

Review

by Dave de Sylvia EMERITUS
October 25th, 2007 | 2579 replies


Release Date: 2007 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Avenged Sevenfold resemble a poor man's Hardcore Superstar

Aside from maintaining a constant flow of clever witticisms and humouring the odd rock band when they decide to give themed titles to each of the songs on a CD (or group of CDs) and pass it off as a concept, musical journalism is a pretty simple occupation. You listen to the record, identify the artist’s strengths and weaknesses and, based on how well they play to their own strengths, you give them a rating. And then you double it. It’s pretty much the same story on the artist’s end- their ability to play to their strengths at any given time (and to develop more in between) largely determines their success as musicians. Ryan Adams is notoriously bad at this; he has no concept of quality control. Butch Walker is notoriously exempt; he has no weaknesses, and he’s a wonderful, wonderful man. Avenged Sevenfold have played this game quite well to date; one gets the impression had they played the cock rock card a couple of years earlier, they’d have fallen flat on their collective face. City of Evil was well-timed and well-executed. Their latest foray into Axl Rose-itude, on the other hand, is bad, bad form.

Just as the lack of restraint of Rose’s artist ego led to some of rock’s most spectacularly unironic Spinal Tap moments in Use Your Illusion II, and the calamitous ‘My World,’ the eight-minute Mike Patton-raping-Danny Elfman-at-the-bus-stop circus opera ‘A Little Piece of Heaven’ is what you get from Synyster Gates when he no longer has a critical audience to justify himself to. Which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it! Avenged Sevenfold suffers two-fold from a dearth of genuinely good musical ideas- the infectious vocal melodies which underpin ‘Bat Country’ and ‘Sidewinder’ or the dynamic interlocking guitar lines of the latter and ‘Beast of the Harlot’- and a total absence of the critical faculties which should have allowed a small orchestral ensemble go hungry rather than become party to the madness of ‘A Little Piece of Heaven.’ There are good ideas buried within the track and the musicianship is superb, albeit with the exception of the band members, but vocalist M. Shadows possesses none of the authority or basic ability to make a track of this magnitude work. It’s great that people are paying monks to sing, but in this case transcribing manuscripts by hand really is the more productive chore.

The one check in ‘A Little Piece of Heaven’’s plus column is the fact that it’s set the bar so high that nothing else on the album can quite live up to it. ‘Dear God’- or ‘Seize The Day (Nashville Remix)’ to you and me- makes its case with lazy slide guitar. Not even Shadows’ triumphant exclamation that he showers “every day” can save ‘Unbound The Wild Ride’ from Muse-inspired mediocrity, while the lengthy passages of agonised moaning and mournful quartet strings hammer home the apparent tedium of the ‘Afterlife’ all too effectively. On the positive side, the group’s pop instincts are still partly intact. ‘Critical Acclaim’ runs longer than it needs to (like many of the album’s ten tracks) but at least the group sound like they know what they’re doing. Gates and Zacky Vengeance are comfortable enough to recycle the chunky, Dimebag-style guitar riff for the entire song and for a few brief moments, alongside the frenetically paced ‘Almost Easy,’ the pair actually approach consistency and- dare I say it?- good taste. Such moments are few and far between beyond the nine-minute mark. Thank goodness for good graces, though, the two tracks are neatly positioned at the front of the record for ease of stopability.



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user ratings (3540)
2.9
good
other reviews of this album
1 of
  • A.R.O. STAFF (5)
    Yup. You read that right....

    BenjoJames (4)
    This eponymous record captures the Huntington Beach quintet at their creative peak....

    Outlaw_Torn (3.5)
    It's like drinking a 40 of Jack Daniels. Starts off pretty hard and painful, then you begi...

    thesystemisdown (2)
    Avenged Sevenfold's new album is choppy, inconsistent and misguided. When compared to the...

  • 72haha72 (2.5)
    They could have done a lot better, but it could have been worse...

    Aftermath (2)
    Avenged Sevenfold follow up a classic album with a hurriedly written, unfinished, boring, ...

    DyingAtheist (4)
    Avenged Sevenfold write a catchy as fuck album, much to the derision of everybody....

    The_RabidMonkey (4)
    Avenged Sevenfold's self titled release contains a plethora of musical styles with an A7X ...

  • TheMoonchild (2)
    This shit is all over the place....

    MetallicmanD1 (3.5)
    Avenged Sevenfold at their most debatable time. Sellouts? Musicians? Terrible musicians? W...

    MoonlightBleeding (2.5)
    A few good tracks can't save Avenged Sevenfold's self-titled album from being a self-indul...

    foultzyyy (2)
    Avenged Sevenfold creates an album so confusing they can't even name it....

  • Seabhac14 (3.5)
    As madly inconsistent and inferior to City of Evil as it is, Avenged Sevenfold is still a ...

    A7XEric (3.5)
    An amalgam of metal and sprinkles of every other music genre imaginable that comes togethe...

    Exile29 (3.5)
    If the glaring weaknesses of this album had have been fixed beforehand, A7X could've made ...

    MattRTS (2.5)
    Avenged Sevenfold is the kind of downfall album that happens to many a band. It's not nece...

  • trtrzgunners (4)
    A good fun album, although quite inconsistent, but the album has made up for strong songs ...

    EmperorPikachu1 (3.5)
    Focused, A7X have set their goals and hit the marker on great self-titled release....

    Vice94 (3.5)
    ...

    xmusicbydawn (1.5)
    This album is a horrific let-down....

  • ForgetTheFallen (4)
    All in all, I say its an awesome album. Believe me, dont believe me. I happen to find that...

    PowerOfEquality (2)
    One step forward, 2 steps back....

    Iluvatar (1.5)
    Man, this album seriously sucks. What happened to Avenged Sevenfold?...

    Locrian (2)
    An overabundance of new ideas along with average musicianship take a lot away from what is...



Comments:Add a Comment 
Tyler
Emeritus
October 25th 2007


7927 Comments


Butch Walker is notoriously exempt; he has no weaknesses, and he’s a wonderful, wonderful man.

Awesome.
‘A Little Piece of Heaven’’s

typo

Great review. Not too much bias because you highlight their former perks, and it's concise and witty.

McP3000
October 25th 2007


4121 Comments


I liked it, but it was too short.

Bash A7X good!

Abaddon2005
October 25th 2007


684 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

I've listened to this today and lowered my rating somewhat, but I don't think this is even close to a 1. Pretty good review, witty as usual. Disagree about 'Almost Easy' though, definitely one of the weaker songs on the album, just has a bad chorus.

Monticello
October 25th 2007


805 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

Awesome review. I have no interest in this at all now.

clairvoyant
October 25th 2007


765 Comments


Which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it!


clever...



Electric City
October 25th 2007


15756 Comments


Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy lol


lol

sixner
October 25th 2007


18 Comments


i just got the album... its honestly not as bad as i thought it would be. I've been an a7x fan for a long time (mostly during the Waking The Fallen era) The patton remark is dead on, and i dont like it... hah.

Brompton Cocktail is interesting, i kind of like it actually. I had very little hope for this album (as when i first heard the single i wasn't a fan of it).. I'd say this album is worth a listen though.. wont be your favorite, and wont be in your CD player (or playlist, whatever) for long.. but its not terrible.

btw - the Ryan Adams remark, i actually like him alot dispite his ever changing quality control. I might see him in concert tonight.This Message Edited On 10.25.07

Mikesn
Emeritus
October 25th 2007


3707 Comments

Album Rating: 1.0

‘Seize Today (Nashville Remix)’
I lol'd. It's Seize the Day though.

thesystemisdown
October 25th 2007


416 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

This is the second review on this site to call A Little Piece of Heaven a cross between D. Elfman and Mike Patton. Which baffles me because it would be much simpler, more accurate and less accidentally complimentary to just call it D. Elfman. This record is Hot Topic bait, plain and simple.

duckies
October 25th 2007


143 Comments


Nice review. I've only heard 2 AS songs, one from this and one from an earlier album, they both sounded pretty poor.

ToWhatEnd
October 25th 2007


3173 Comments


Yeah the Nashville Remix was a good line. Wouldn't have minded a little more in the review but good work nevertheless.

Abaddon2005
October 25th 2007


684 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

wikipedia!

Abaddon2005
October 25th 2007


684 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

citation needed!

rasputin
October 26th 2007


14968 Comments


I enjoyed the first two albums, but City of Evil just sounded horrible to me. You make it sound like this is City of Evil except much, much worse, therefore I'll steer clear.
Really well written review.

Bfhurricane
October 26th 2007


6284 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

Listening to Scream now, I like it better than Critical Acclaim and Almost Easy. Cool solo and vocals around 3:20, but not impressed with the album otherwise

Tyler
Emeritus
October 26th 2007


7927 Comments


This is how M Night Shadolamalan's vocals sound to me on the last two albums:

HRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. There's an implied "u" sound too. Kind of like a mix between a fire alarm and a donkey. And Axl RoseThis Message Edited On 10.26.07

MoonlitKnight
October 26th 2007


19 Comments


It's so funny to watch fans' "crises of faith" when albums like this come out.

liebherk
October 26th 2007


164 Comments


[quote=cocaine]This is how M Night Shadolamalan's vocals sound to me on the last two albums:

HRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRR. There's an implied "u" sound too. Kind of like a mix between a fire alarm and a donkey. And Axl Rose[/quote]

XDDDD

Storm In A Teacup
October 26th 2007


46369 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

I wanted to kick the t.v. in when I heard the single off of this.

Altmer
October 26th 2007


5711 Comments


hey guys it is a good thing I haven't checked this band out right



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