Review Summary: An amalgam of metal and sprinkles of every other music genre imaginable that comes together for a commendable, but sometimes gimmicky collection of songs.
When many fans saw the clip on Avenged Sevenfold's myspace of frontman M. Shadows letting out a screeching yell, they thought this album would be much more akin to their metalcore roots rather than the departure that the over-the-top technical powerhouse
City of Evil was. I hate to disappoint, but this is not a metalcore album, not at all. Actually, Avenged's eponymous self-titled album even manages to distance its sound a good deal from its predecessor even though it still retains the same more melodic vocal delivery of it.
Experimentation seems to be what Avenged Sevenfold has prided themselves on this time around, with some sort of underlying theme (or rather gimmick in some cases) fueling each of the album's 10 tracks. The amount of different sounds and textures is immense, with some of the album's 10 experiments ranging from hip-hop inspired groove metal tracks to
Danny Elfman-like compositions to twangy country ballads complete with pedal steel guitar and banjo, so you can't help but admire the bravery it took to try some of these unorthodox ideas, especially when you're in a band that already catches a lot of flak from the metal community as it is.
A lot of the musical ideas backing these songs are very genuine and strengthens the quality of the songs, but as i stated earlier, a lot of songs rely on cheap and sometimes completely unnecessary gimmicks to help mask how shallow certain aspects of the song are. Take the bridge of the good but very by-the-numbers Avenged Sevenfold track "Afterlife." Before coming back for the song's final chorus, there is roughly 5 seconds of sinister laughing. It's completely out of places and to me just screams to me that the band couldn't write a transitional part with any kind of substance, so they tracked their drummer laughing like a hyena for a few seconds instead. There's a lot of parts like this scattered all throughout
Avenged Sevenfold whether it be the ho-hum chorus of the opening track "Critical Acclaim" seemingly made more interesting by the fact that drummer, The Rev, sings it or the auto-tuner used on the vocals on the ridiculously catchy chorus of "Lost" for an effect that pans out to sound like some
Daft Punk/Avenged Sevenfold collaboration.
Other departures for Avenged Sevenfold this time around are that the boys seemed to want to take a more short and concise approach to their songwriting with most of the tracks being significantly shorter than what you've come accustomed to hearing from the black-clad metal quintet. But honestly, the songs here are not as focused as the short time lengths seem to imply. In fact, a lot of the songs sound like the band were given a track length and were asked to squeeze all of their ideas into the allotted time which certainly seems to be the case on "Scream" for example. The song has what seems like two separate choruses which really confused me, and also has a catchy, although extremely tacked on, dual guitar solo which really contributes nothing to the song in my opinion. One of the aforementioned groove metal tracks I allured to earlier, "Brompton Cocktail," suffers from a similar case. Brompton is full of atmosphere with abstract percussion and haunting strings that compliment the main vocal line of the verse, but the song is so short, clocking in at about only 3:00 if you exclude the lengthy tool-like percussion intro that leads into the main song, that there's very little room in between the predictably placed verses, choruses, and bridge for these more atmospheric music ideas to come full circle. A song like that could have had so much potential for some kind of interesting guitar work rather than the simple chords that make up the few parts of the song.
The other key difference between this album and that of their last effort is the level of technicality of the musicianship on display.
City of Evil was incredibly technical with dual guitars, soaring leads, and solos around every turn, but
Avenged Sevenfold is driven much more by memorable riffs than soloing, so much in fact that a few songs are void of any of the band's signature maiden-esque twin guitar solos. Lead guitarist Synyster Gates hasn't gotten completely lazy on us though, since there is still a solo in every song on the album, some of which being some of the better solos on any Avenged album to date. His chops on display in the final stretch of "Lost" and "Afterlife" are sure to stand out in particular. There are also still a few pieces on the album that fancy some quite intricate guitar work, most notably a song from the latter section of the album titled "Unbound (The Wild Ride)" which sports some tremolo-picked arpeggios guiding the chorus along before bursting into the song's ethereal bridge boasting some impressive harmonized arpeggios which are sure to tighten its hold on your attention to that of a vice grip.
So you know the differences between that of
Avenged Sevenfold and the band's past efforts, but how do the songs fare in general? Honestly it's a mixed batch of material that ranges from great and inventive all the way to, at times, mediocre and downright awful, but thankfully the latter of which is rare to find. Most of the songs here are a lot slower and more groove-oriented than the frenetically-paced songs of the band's back catalog of material, which is a nice change of pace especially on the lyrically-atrocious song "Scream" which stays at a beat rarely faster than your heartbeat. More often then not you'll find yourself nodding your head right along with these groove tracks thanks to some very infective vocal melodies. The more fast-paced offerings of "Lost" and "Unbound (The Wild Ride)" are also just as visceral as anything you'd expect from this band.
Unfortunately not all of the songs (or at least parts of some) fair so well. Avenged have been known for their Dimebag style riffage and maiden-esque dual guitars, but some parts of songs sound just so by-the-numbers that it's hard to excuse the excessive recycling of material at times. Other songs are plagued by the short time length and poor arrangements that I pointed out earlier with one song in particular standing above any song I've heard on past Avenged Sevenfold albums as the most disastrous piece of musical filth the band has ever had the misfortune of excreting upon a disc - "Gunslinger." The song gets off to a good start with some very bluesy guitar work but takes a sharp turn in the completely wrong direction and bursts into damn near alternative rock, sounding like something not completely unlike
Audioslave. If the yawn-inspiring forgettable alternative rock musical dribble and downright awful song structuring doesn't ruin this song for you, M. Shadows' frustratingly pompous vocal delivery is sure to kill it for you. The only redeeming factors are a mild solo and the crooning of guest female vocalist Shana Crooks. Luckily, once the song ends the remarkable "Unbound (The Wild Ride)" follows it up to practically
sweep you off your feet with it's extensive use arpeggios and ever-changing moods and textures.
The vocals in general are just a weak point of the album. M. Shadows is actually a very commendable singer and has a fairly exceptional range, but the tone of voice he takes and his vocal delivery of the album's infectious melodies can be at times so stomach churning it dampens the overall experience of many of the songs throughout the album. I personally didn't mind the nasally tone of his clean vocals on
City of Evil. But Shadows' gritty yelling and low-pitched, at times frog-like sounding, moaning he likes to call singing is so sour sounding that it's hard for it not to turn your stomach listening to him. His constant arrogant tone he takes in every song makes the vocals that much more unpleasant to listen to especially in the verse of "Afterlife" and a few lines of the 8 minute long ode to Danny Elfman "A Little Piece of Heaven."
Lyrically, the album also a bit of a mixed bag, but most of the time remaining fairly solid. The albums
Waking the Fallen and
City of Evil I found both to be great from a lyrical perspective, but a few pieces on this self-titled effort is much less than stellar. There are a few great pieces, my favorite being the roller coaster ride of a song that I've gone on to praise multiple times throughout this review already "Unbound (The Wild Ride)" which basically just talks about our journey through life and the band even brings in a few kids to sing the outro of the song. This part has been the subject of controversy among fans, but honestly I think that anyone who dismisses this song's worth because it's "unmetal" to have kids sing in a song is just plain ignorant. The final stretch of the song deals with the end and rebirth of life so it's actually both innovative and very appropriate to have something like that in the song. "Brompton Cocktail" and "Dear God" are other lyrical highlights for the album. "Scream" like I've stated earlier will pretty much have you shaking your head in disapproval after digesting its lyrics which can be interpreted as what seems like the story of a vampire or werewolf's rape and murder of a girl. One of the better songs on
City of Evil titled "Sidewinder" also sported a bit of a weird concept for its lyrics but I just can't take "Scream" seriously at all. There's also a slight repetition in subject matter in some of the lyrics, and even though the lyrics of "Lost" hold up well, the subject in no way compliments the mood of the song.
One song that I mentioned earlier, the 8 minute long theatric metal embodiment of a Tim Burton film "A Little Piece of Heaven," I still haven't touched on as much as I would have liked to. It too has been one of the most controversial songs the band has written because of it's Danny Elfman-like orchestral arrangements compliments of Steve Barteck and the same team that does all of Danny Elfman's music, as well as its lyrics telling a tale of one twisted love story. In a nutshell the song is about a man who kills his girlfriend to preserve her body for his own sick pleasures. Things get even weirder when she comes back to life, kills him, marry one another complete with a wedding ceremony acted out in the song, and proceed to go on a murder rampage together. So I can understand how some people would be torn between liking the song or not. There's actually very minimal guitar work with mainly the orchestra, choir, drums, and vocals driving the song forward. Vocally the song is quite unique from anything else on the album. The song's several characters are acted out by four different people, three of which being the band members and also guest vocalist Juliette Commagere. Aside from the occasional sour vocal line once in a while which I can actually excuse given the abstract nature of the song, I find it incredibly hard to find reason to hate it which so many people do. It's quirky, over-the-top, theatric, haunting, and unlike anything I've ever heard a band do and I love the song for it. Easily the pinnacle of the entire album.
After several months of listening to it I can finally wrap my head around Avenged Sevenfold's self-titled album and deliver an opinion hopefully without any type of fanboy bias. I think if you never liked A7X before...well, I don't think this album will convert you especially with its sometimes most off the wall and also most straightforward mainstream material yet. I do however think fans will be satisfied, but the album lacks the depth of past releases to keep fans engaged for more than a few months. Judging from all of the interviews and magazine articles I've seen, it seems like the band really thinks it's their best work they've ever done. I hate to break it to them but it's not. They've tried comparing this album to
Metallica's black album in terms of its relevance and the role it's plaid in their career , but if i had to compare it like that, this would be Avenged Sevenfold's equivalent of
Iron Maiden's "No Prayer For the Dying."
Avenged Sevenfold self-produced this album and I think for the most part they did a good job, but sometimes it does show with some very poor song arrangements particularly in "Gunslinger."
Avenged Sevenfold is a really good solid offering though. Despite the sometimes almost boring song structuring and short length of the songs, this is an album that fans will enjoy and really shows off everything the band has ever wanted to try to implement in their music. Even though the material for show isn't the strongest, it's at least the most diverse collection of tunes the band has put out and at the very least is worth listening to just to hear some of the unique music ideas on display.
Notable Tracks:
"Lost"
"Unbound (The Wild Ride)"
"A Little Piece of Heaven"
