Review Summary: This is by far the best album in Avenged Sevenfold's repertoire, and will never ever get old to me. I actually used this very same review as a piece this year for my senior writing portfolio.
“Wake the ones and rise tonight/Fallen souls we shine so bright/Rise now and ever/Forgotten memories/No one can touch us” are the lyrics from “Waking The Fallen” track number one on the sophomore album of the same name from Southern California metalcore newcomers Avenged Sevenfold. The lyrics and melody of the song set up an atmosphere that is part Gothic operetta, part metal shred-fest: a haunting foreshadowing of what’s to come.
The album was released on August 26, 2003, via Hopeless Records. It was produced by noted rock and metal producer “Mudrock” (Andrew Murdock) and co-produced by Fred Archambault. This record is considered by many of the band’s fans to be the best of their career. I couldn’t agree more.
The band consists of five members. Matt Sanders (vocals), Brian Haner, Jr. (lead guitar), Zach Baker (rhythm guitar), Jonathan Seward (bass), and Jimmy Sullivan (drums). They have adapted stage names as well. The band is perhaps more commonly known as M. Shadows, Synyster Gates, Zacky Vengeance, Johnny Christ, and The Rev. (respectively).
Clocking in at just over 66 minutes, Avenged Sevenfold’s second effort is definitely not lacking ambition. M. Shadows’s powerful voice screeches and croons throughout the album’s 12 tracks with feverish intensity and resounding emotional feeling. The style incorporates so many different elements from Avenged’s seemingly endless library of influences--everything from classic rock and metal to Gothic rock, modern metalcore and old school punk.
My favorite track on this seemingly perfect album is by far “Second Heartbeat.” The song showcases every band member’s flawless technique; The Rev.’s drumbeats and Synyster Gates’s guitar work are especially mind-blowing. The lyrics are very personal; they talk about how much pain someone goes through when they lose a loved one and how they spend every waking moment thinking about them and wishing them back. The vocal harmonizing by Zacky and Synyster throughout the chorus can bring tears to the listener’s eyes, and the solo played by Gates at the end is still considered by many to be his best effort.
“Unholy Confessions” is perhaps the band’s best-known song from this album, as it was their only single. It is the second track, and the opening riff serves to introduce the listener to the rest of the album. In those few chords, the entire album can be summed up: heavy yet melodic, innovative, and catchier than Madonna. Shadows’s voice ranges from a guttural growl throughout the verses to an almost poppy crescendo during the chorus. The video for this song garnered a lot of play on MTV2’s
Headbangers Ball, and many people attribute it as the start to their slow rise into the spotlight of the heavy music scene.
The album’s third track, ironically titled “Chapter Four,” is about the biblical story of Cain and Abel, from which the band also takes its name. The chant-along lyric “From the soil his blood cries out to me/Murder! Liar! Vengeance! Deceit!” is in my opinion one of the most adrenaline-fueled lines in the entire album. This song was featured on the video games
NHL 2004,
Madden 2004, and
Nascar Thunder 2004, and was widely praised as being a perfect fit for the games’ soundtracks. This garnered Avenged Sevenfold even more exposure.
“Desecrate Through Reverence” track number five, is another highlight. Considered by many to be one of the heaviest songs on the album, the lyrics tell a bitter tale about the misfortunes of false friends, and how they discard you one minute, and the next expect you to be there for them. Perhaps one of the most angry and angst-ridden songs on the album, (Darkened eyes you’ll see/There is no hope/No savior in me) it is also a very strong track.
What hits you next is a sonic assault. The intro guitar on “Eternal Rest” is positively head-spinning. The song sounds quite like a chorus of demons would sound on their way back from stealing a soul as it finally winds down into a southern-rock style riff with the lyrics “Dark in their hearts/I can feel it burn inside of me/Tormented young with no souls/Haunting me” echoing in the background. This song showcases the superb guitar talents of Gates and Vengeance and has some tight bass work from Johnny Christ as well. Good ear-splitting fun.
After the half-ballad, half-brutal “I Won’t See You Tonight” parts one and two, the album closes in style with the epic “And All Things Will End.” It is perhaps the song that is closest to Avenged Sevenfold’s style now, sounding akin to popular eighties metal bands like Metallica and Guns N’ Roses. The lyrics talk about how life is short and unpredictable and that you just have to make what you can out of it. It is more on the melodic side; the screaming is sparse, but placed in the right areas. It serves as the perfect closer to
Waking The Fallen.
Although I have highlighted but a few of the tracks on this album, overall it is nearly flawless in my eyes. The production is polished, and all five members shine brightly in a music scene that is nowadays too often dulled by a lack of creativity.
Waking The Fallen is epic, ambitious, and an amalgamation of everything I enjoy in music. Avenged Sevenfold have created a work of art.
