Avenged Sevenfold - Life Is But A Dream. (Review)
Thick And Thin
Right, so let’s get this out of the way first: I’ve been a LONG time Avenged fan, since at least 2005. I’ve loved every direction they’ve gone, whether it be the old metalcore style, straight forward metal, or even the more prog-centric approach of the last album The Stage. Taken A LOT of flak for liking them over the years, for whatever reason or another. Honestly, they’re my favorite band of all time. Been that way since first hearing Waking the Fallen and City Of Evil. More recently, the band have gotten into fads that i don’t necessarily agree with(NFT bros), but that never got in the way of the music.
Having said all that, this album tested me.
Art by: Dream
Unbound (The Wild Ride)
I wasn’t sure how I’d do reviews here on the blog. Track by track, or a general feeling overall. I usually like track by track and breakdown each song to it’s core and gush about the nitty gritty or complain about the guitar tone. This time I’ll do the latter for this one, general feels.
When Nobody was dropping on stream, I kind of just sat there feeling two ways. I like how different it is, but it’s not grabbing me like prior first singles like Nightmare or The Stage. If this is the direction, I’m cool with it, but cautiously optimistic. They haven’t let me down yet in almost 20 years.
Fast forward to the album listening party in Vegas and the MANY different Reddit posts on the impressions of the album. Generally was liked but did stress just how different this was going to be. Ok, sounds good.
We Love You drops. I like this…well, most of it.
Many more snippets of songs and album impressions later…
I end up going through the entire discog’ so when the new album drops, I will have that fresh in my brain while I ingest all the new stuff.
Album finally drops. And?
I don’t know how I feel.
Crossroads
On one hand? The sheer creativity of it is astounding, every minute it seemed like a new idea would drop in and add more flavor to whats going on. A new song would play and would be completely different than the last. Shadows has lost his mind, going from odd auto tune vocalizers to straight up Seventh Trumpet era screams. The trio of G.O.D stood out to me as nothing I’ve ever heard them play, or think they would ever play. It’s nuts.
The other hand? This isn’t the same Avenged I grew up with. Now it IS still them. M. Shadows can still go, Syn Gates is still an absolute monster of a guitar player and Brooks is by far the best drummer they’ve had since The Rev. But what I come to expect when I listen to them is all of the above, and still, at its core, be a metal record.
This kinda isn’t a metal record. It’s an artist with a blank canvas, using every single color on the palette to create something completely new, never before seen. It’s also a bunch of random ideas carefully constructed together to somehow sound coherent by the end of it.
Now, in my 30’s I’ve delved into more experimental metal music. Whether it be jazzy progressive metal like Plini, the Synthy dance-core of Electric Callboy or R&B-laden metalcore in Bad Omens. I’m no stranger to different, strange or out there kind of music.
But I don’t know if i like THIS.
Sunny Disposition
Maybe with more listens I’ll “get it”. Hell, it may even make album of the year, but for right now, I’m a little bummed. I love these guys, will always support them ‘til they hang it up and I always have the older records to go back to. The heaviness of the first 2 records, the sheer earworm attack of the middle 4 and the epic adventure of The Stage.
Who knows, Life Is But A Dream might end up among the greats, but if i had to score it now…