Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare
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CD Details
Artist: Avenged SevenfoldEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2010-07-27
Music Label: Warner Bros.
Product features:
- AVENGED SEVENFOLD NIGHTMARE
- Nightmare (Explicit Album Version)
- Welcome To The Family (Album Version)
- Danger Line (Album Version)
- Buried Alive (Explicit Album Version)
- Natural Born Killer (Explicit Album Version)
- So Far Away (Album Version)
- God Hates Us (Explicit Album Version)
- Victim (Album Version)
- Tonight The World Dies (Album Version)
- Fiction (Album Version)
- Save Me (Album Version)
Music reviews of Nightmare
Music Review: Be Careful What You Wish For
Rating: 4 Stars
This is a mini memoir of my listening experience with A7X and a track by track guide to their latest album, Nightmare. This is less of a Nightmare review and more of a review of A7X as a whole.
I think like most people, growing up my music tastes were heavily influenced by my father. He would have his Q 104.3 classic rock on every day in the car, not to mention the fact that he is the kind of guy who can listen to the same Ozzy CD for months at a time. So growing up I would love my ozzy, metallica, zeppelin, all that good stuff. But it also left me intolerant of anything that wasn't classic rock. I hated rap, which I still hate for the most part, I hated pop (but that's because its garbage anyway) and for the matter I basically couldn't stand any of the mainstream trash that came out. But I also had a hard time being able to handle any form of hardcore music. As soon as I heard screaming id tell my brother to shut that trash off. Then again he was also a slipknot fan so it wasn't as if he was listening to "good" hard music.
Then I heard something that changed my whole view on metalcore/heavy metal/punk etc. It was sensational guitar work and then the words "The wind of life and air from above smells of death/Angels sing of the end/There's nothing you say and nothing you try can change time/Human race prepares to die". What beauty.
So I knew from there that Avenged Sevenfold were something special. I listened to Sounding the Seventh Trumpet. It took me a little while to get used to the screaming but in the end I thought the album was very good, especially We Come out at Night, Lips of Deceit, Warmness on the Soul, Turn the Other Way, and obviously, To End the Rapture. However it wasn't perfect. I thought the arrangements were all over the place, the vocals were good but not great and the guitar work had something left to be desired. But I respected the fact the guys were still in high school when the album was made and I learned later that Syn Gates' only performance on the album was the song that changed my world; couldn't be a coincidence right? So I was excited to listen to Waking the Fallen.
I have always been able to form two words to describe Waking the Fallen: masterpiece and perfection. It was the perfect mixture of every genre of rock. Think Metallica gone Iron Maiden, gone Shadows Fall, gone AFI, gone Slayer, gone Dream Theatre (foreshadowing anyone?). With proper management and proper production in Andrew Murdock the band seemed to take the leap from talented visionaries to true musicians. On this album they produced songs that get your blood flowing like Unholy Confessions, Eternal Rest and Chapter Four, to songs that make you just say "Wow" like I Won't See You Tonight (especially Part 1), to what's possibly my favorite song ever Second Heartbeat, which to me is simply THE perfect song. I'd since expanded my music tastes but Waking the Fallen solidified my position as a genuine Avenged Sevenfold fan.
Being blown away by the greatness of Waking the Fallen I was obviously pumped to get my hands on City of Evil, and after listening to it from beginning to end, I expressed my jubilation with a GREAT BIG... ehh. The album was a huge disappointment. Maybe on its own it can stand as a quality record, and I understand Matt wanted a change, but I'm sorry: you cannot release an album like Waking the Fallen and then abandon everything. At the very least, ease into it; don't forget who you are completely in the matter of 1 album, and what was even worse than their in-studio changes was the fact they stopped performing their old songs (at least the way god intended) live. Changing your music after it was so great is bad enough, but do NOT perform Second Heartbeat without screaming; it's wrong and pathetic, and that's coming from a fan. The one positive that came out of the album was the addition of Johnny Christ, who over time has grown into an extremely talented bassist, and there were good songs including Bat Country, Seize the Day, and MIA.
Their self-titled album was still disappointing, but it wasn't as bad as City. It featured to-be-expected good work by Matt, Zacky, Brian, and Jimmy (and featuring a grand return for vocal performing for him) with Johnny Christ really coming into his own as a bassist. Critical Acclaim, Afterlife, Almost Easy, and A Little Piece of Heaven were very good songs. Beyond that, everything was experimental, and there is no reason for that talented a band to experiment, especially the way they did. Branching into other forms of rock is okay, but not hip hop, pop and country; what are you doing? It was still a step up.
Buying Live in the LBC/Diamond in the Rough improved my hope. Diamond in the Rough was a good EP, in fact there were a few songs like Crossroads and Demons that had no business not making the self-titled. But it was their live DVD that was fantastic. I always knew they were great live but... shadows screamed. YES! Hope! Real Hope! Although their version of Second Heartbeat was still a little bootlegged, it was a start.
So not long after Live in the LBC was released, details about an A7X concept album began circulating around. My one complaint about this is that like the previous 2 albums it seemed that this album would not be truly emotional, just an analysis of the world, because it's not like any band has done that before: besides the Resistance, a step down for Muse (a great band), oh and that disasterpiece 21st century Breakdown, AND Linkin Park's new "album" (aka my newest Frisbee/drink coaster) and basically every mainstream crap rock album on Earth. I mean, Waking the Fallen had some very emotional moments, especially with the I Won't See You Tonights. I hoped they would have some emotional influence for the record. But, as people say, be careful what you wish for.
On December 28 -my birthday of all days- the band lost its greatest musician, Jimmy Sullivan. There have been four times in my life that I have cried: when my dog died when I was like 5, 9-11, my grandmother's passing 6 years ago, and when I heard on the band's official site that Jimmy Sullivan passed. Although it was his own fault (and as human beings nobody, no matter how large or small an A7X fan, should deny that it was his fault) it was a very sad moment, very sad. Happy birthday indeed. Besides being a great musician, he seemed to be a fun and beloved guy, and I will always fondly remember "Grapes in the mouth", and the size of that F****** duck!
Despite the heartbreak that was the Rev's passing, it left me curious about where the band would go and how the Revs idol, the legendary Mike Portnoy would do in his place. Besides Nightmare and Buried Alive, I made the effort to keep myself in the dark about the album. So with a fresh and eager mind, I received the album on its release date and took a listen.
Nightmare Track by Track Review
Nightmare: 4/5
A nice hard hitting song to kick off the album. Eerie intro leads into some absolutely sensational drum work. Vocals are great, guitars awesome.
Welcome to the family: 3/5
This song has been met with a little criticism. It's catchy but hard hitting at the same time. It is basically a City of Evil paced, MIA-esque song, but it's better than basically better than anything you'll hear on city of evil. Very good song, and although it is pretty cliché, it will catch you chanting "YOU CANT WIN THIS FIGHT!" Not their best, not their worst. It is an unmemorable but good song.
Danger Line: 3/5
It's pretty generic but it's not bad. Most fans treat this as the worst song on the album, I agree. Its message is about the effects of the war on women and children, it's a definite remain from their concept album.
Buried Alive: 4/5
A great song, very similar to One by Metallica. Starts off slowly and emotionally and escalated big time. Its dark mysterious and it features lyrical screaming by shadows for the first time in a while, unless u count the two seconds of screaming in Crossroads, which I don't because it was an album reject they never perform live. This is definitely a remain of the concept album, but it can definitely be applied to Jimmy, the feeling of being trapped in an unforgiving world.
Natural Born Killer: 5/5
Fast paced, hard, and all kinds of awesome. It's basically City of Evil on steroids. MP in particular really shines on this. If these arrangements were written by Jimmy it means that he was set to really break through as an elite drummer, and it truly does sound like Jimmy, just Jimmy to the next level. If there is one thing I cannot stress enough, it is that MP was all kinds of perfect being respectful and true to Jimmy.
So Far Away: 5/5
No we're past what was left of the planned concept album, and we are in to the Jimmy section. It is kicked off with the first song lyrically written by Synyster Gates, who knew Rev longer than anybody else in the band. It starts out simply but powerfully, sort of one man, one guitar and escalates brilliantly at the end, with Shads whipping out one of his most beautiful vocal performances. Although on its own it may not stand as a truly elite song, the lyrics "Will you stay?/Will you stay away forever?/... I have so much to say but you're so far away." I could do nothing but wipe a tear and say "wow".
God Hates Us: 78/5
No typo, no exaggeration, it's a freaking 78/5! The best song they released in 7 long, grueling years. And it is not all about the screaming (although it has a heck of a lot to do with it). So Far Away puts you in a slow and somber mood and it flows perfectly into the soft intro of this song. Then suddenly you get hit with a wave of intense insanely paced brutal instrumentals. I caught myself thinking "how will they manage to blow this opportunity to make a great hard song?" but they never blew it. I heard Shadows in Sounding the Seventh Trumpet style scream "TOTAL NIGHTMARE", and I... well the Lonely Island has a song that explained what happened. Yes that's a lonely Island reference on an A7X review, a nearly impossible feat. It's hard, it's brutal, it never lets up. But it is also meaningful and flat out beautiful.
Victim: 5/5
Brian took his turn in So Far Away to write beautiful somber lyrics, here is Matt's turn. Matt is referring to Jimmy's passing as a crime that we have all fallen victim to. At the end of the song he repeats the line "I'm missing you" so emotionally that you begin to reflect on what the band must have gone through throughout this process. I mean this band is not the story of one man deciding he wanted a band and went out recruiting. These are childhood friends. Mat and Jimmy were linked through mutual friend Brian; Zacky was Matt's best friend and the two and Jimmy (briefly) were part of a band called Successful Failure before Avenged Sevenfold; Jimmy and Brian were both in Pinkly Smooth and another member of Pinkly Smooth's (and mutual friend of the band) drug habit was the influence for I Won't See You Tonight. This isn't only a music band, it's a band of brothers and they lost one of their own. It really puts things in perspective. Have you ever heard of a song that can make you think as much as I just did. Well in a few lines, this thing of beauty did just that.
Tonight the World Dies: 4/5
This is one of the sons that I can't place why I like so much. It's kind of like A Little Piece of Heaven in the sense that it is very different than their other songs yet still very good. Its difference to the rest of their work isn't as profound as A Little Piece of Heaven and it isn't as good as A Little Piece of Heaven, but it is a very good songin its own right. It is a nice mixture of blues and rock, a touching tune about how it is too late to change the things that have happened and how their lives are foREVer changed.
Fiction: 5/5
If this song was on the self-titled id probably give it a 2/5 but in light of the circumstances and the story behind it, it earns its 5 and then some. This song plays more like a suicide note than a song, boasting dark and beautiful vocals from beyond. "Now I think I understand how this world can overcome a man/Like a friend we saw it through/In the end I gave my life for you/... I hope it's worth it, what's left behind me/ I know you'll find your own way, when I'm not with you tonight". Coming from the mouth of the Rev himself, this song will likely be implanted in my mind foREVer. Perhaps most fitting of all, this song plays much more like a Pinkly Smooth song than an Avenged Sevenfold song, giving us the feeling that we made a full circle right to the end. This song was called the worst song on the album by multiple critics. Maybe quality wise, but anybody who truly believes this is the worst either doesn't understand the meaning behind it or they flat out don't have souls.
Save Me: 5/5
At the end of this epic 11 minute song, Matt repeatedly proclaims: "Tonight we all die young". Avenged Sevenfold was spiritually bound to Jimmy. Avenged sevenfold is a family and those who call themselves fans are part of that family. Part of them and part of us died with James Sullivan: tonight we all have died young. This song is a fantastic send off to Jimmy and a great proclamation of their moving forward without forgetting.
Overall (obviously counting God Hates us as 5/5, which doesn't do it justice): 49/55 = 4.45/5
A great album, their best by far since Waking the Fallen, which is still their masterpiece. The perfect tribute to Jimmy, and MP did a great job. I only have more respect for him now
As of now:
1) Waking the Fallen (5/5)
2) Nightmare (4/5)
3) Sounding the Seventh Trumpet (3.5/5)
4) Avenged Sevenfold (3/5)
5) City of Evil (2.5/5)
Description of Nightmare
Produced by Mike Elizondo (Dr. Dre, Eminem) and mixed by noted engineer Andy Wallace, the new Avenged Sevenfold album, 'Nightmare,' draws on everything from the earliest influences and inspirations that bonded the musicians in their youth to the vast spectrum of tastes these friends have developed over the years, reaching far outside the rock and punk universes one might expect.Hard Rock & Metal CDs
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