For several days now, I’ve been trying to digest Nightmare, the latest from Avenged Sevenfold. Much of the pre-release hype for the album revolves around the album’s relationship to drummer James “The Rev” Sullivan, who passed away in late 2009 but also contributed mightily to the cause. Nightmare is both reflective, concerning the life and times of their fallen comrade, and imaginative as A7X continues their evolution into modern melodic heavy metal band of singular distinction.
Discarding current modern trends of hardcore and death vocals from the mammoth City of Evil onwards, A7X remains heavy, progressive, and melodic on Nightmare. Basically, A7X have become the voice of nonconformity in modern metal. Damn! That’s a very good thing. I’m quite entertained.
Nightmare rocks. Whether it’s the modern raucous metal of the title track, the post-grunge turning to modern metal of Buried Alive, the heavy and abrasive Natural Born Killers, or the modern melodic hard rock of Danger Line, Avenged Sevenfold is at their alarming and unconventional best. I dare any current band to keep pace with them.
While wholly A7X, listening to Nightmare makes me wonder what would happen if Metallica, circa the ‘black’ album, conspired with Iron Maiden, circa Powerslave. Comparisons are futile, but Nightmare is intriguing and entertaining. Listening to So Far Away or Victim reminds of why traditional metal still informs its modern generation. Again, flying in this face modern conventions, A7X gets it right and delivers.
Pardon my praise, but I dig this album. Nightmare will probably be the album by which they will be judged in the future. But how is that a bad thing? This is a band in its prime, and we are better for it.
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{ 4 comments }
Its A7X not AX7
Thanks to everybody who caught my misspelling of the Avenged Sevenfold abbreviation. I caught it, too. But only 18 hours after I originally wrote the article! Guess I’m just getting dyslexic in my old age. Ha!
I totally agree with your review. The reason Avenged Sevenfold is a love/hate band is because there are so many “metal” fans that are disappointed in where this band’s sound is headed, but there are so many other people that love their style. So while they lose fans, they probably gain 100x more. Personally, I love this album (my favorite of all 5) and it’s so damn melodic and emotional that I can’t stop listening to it over and over again. Ever since I was a fan (since 2001), I am just so pleased that they have taken this direction on creating their own type of genre. Screw those haters. My brother says that people will develop an acquired taste when listening to this album and I 100% agree. He hates the “screaming, metal, heavy beats and riffs” kind of music (more into classic rock), but he’s growing to love their melodic aggressiveness every time I make him listen haha. You WILL get hooked on A7X, just maybe not the first time.
It’s all good we all make mistakes and I’ve been known to switch things around too
Great article!
~Hales
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