Avenged Sevenfold - The Stage (FULL ALBUM THOUGHTS!)

Here we go, a brand new Avenged Sevenfold album that has hit us out of nowhere like an RKO!

The stage has been set up straight after my list was released.....strange coincidence right? ;) 

MY TOP 10 AVENGED SEVENFOLD SONGS LIST IS HERE!

Now read on to see what i thought when i listened to the album for the first time! 

LET ME KNOW IF YOU THINK IT NEEDS TO BE LISTENED TO AGAIN!

The Stage

The opening is so promising then the vocals kick in and i'm standing still to me it comes across as lazy, yes i find this quite a boring opener to a album and a new album from a7x of all people. Maybe it's one of those tracks and maybe this is one of those albums that is one that you need to listen to more and more to appreciate it? We will see. Pretty neat solo. I feel this song is missing something and that this song could and should be much better but it's not. It's pretty boring. They could do and can do so much better. The acoustic spanish sounds of the guitars are pretty nice to end the track on. 

Paradigm

A slightly better track than the stage but it's not much to do better than the stage to be honest. I kinda liked this. 

Sunny Disposition

Some quality trumpets and a good solo in this one. Not too bad. I still feel there's something missing but it was quite an adventurous one. 

God Damn

God damn indeed heck of an intro. Quite liked this. God damn do they like that spanish guitar sound haha sorry i am not very technical with music but that's what i am calling it because that's what it sounds like. Yeah pretty good track. 

Creating God

I don't find this impressive or anything just an ok track i suppose. Nothing mind or ear blowing, trust me i am sat here expressionless and yawn yep i just yawned. Nothing special there. 

Angels

A slow and soft one here. It's ok but it maybe 3:30am at the time of writing and listening to this song so i maybe yawning because i am tired or it's due to me being bored. I let you decide. 

Simulation

Slow soft start here again this has quite a tranquil vibe of sounds to it aswell to start anyway. It then get's stupidly distorted with M.Shadows talking and get's heavier as the chorus i believe it is at this moments suddenly turns very similar to their not ready to die track. Am i the only one who heard it? Yes not ready to die and simulation are by the same band but jesus christ it does sound almost the same song. If i was drunk i would be like "weeyyy this dat zombiez cod song!" and everyone would be looking at me like...."What?" Anyway. 

Higher

This is ok, not too bad it's another soft one for the most part but has a variety of sounds and a bunch of vocalists to also give off catchy "oh's". 

Roman Sky

Another slow soft one yet again, i feel a lot of this album would be loved by stoners with it's laid back guitar and orchestral sounds to boost it. Even though this track goes on for 5 mins i felt it was a much shorter track somehow, no idea why, quite odd. This was once again an alright track for the most part. 

Fermi Paradox

Another quite laid back one and i have no idea what else to say other than to echo earlier thoughts on other tracks. 

Exist

Ooh synth! 3 mins in and no vocals yet this is pretty kick ass, lets hope it keeps up kicking ass! 8mins in and the vocals have kicked off. Yeah i liked this one. Neil deGrasse Tyson ends the song with some of his fine philosophy nice touch. This one could well have been a song all about the universe and it's creation and to the future. Nice very nice.

Final Thoughts

The concept of this album is set around science with artificial intelligence and space, wondering how i know? M.Shadow's revealed it in a recent interview with rolling stone magazine and the space theme is from it's cover too. I know the band has switched with Capitol Records after a decade with Warner Bro's due to some disagreement about a contract renewal i believe but i could be hearing a different story there. Joe Barresi produced this album with the band you may know Joe for working with other bands like TOOL and Queens of the stone age. This album was mostly all experimental various sounds in there and different instruments. I would have loved this album to be heavy as fuck with great immense epic orchestral sounds to boost and back it up too but i was left just on the ground waiting around rather than running into battle engaging in a all out insane war or taking flight from the ground. This album has a lot of room for improvement i feel. Yes it's a new step with a new record company and these changes normally involve some experimentation so does being in the music business over time artist's and bands opt for a new sounds to gain more and more new fans and to create new music as a whole but i don't have to explain that. 

Overall: The Stage is an alright experimental concept album that i expected more from the band in terms of heavy quality sound and i think there's much room for improvement but nice one for experimenting. 

IF I HAD TO RATE IT, IT WOULD BE A FIVE OUT OF TEN!

Thanks for reading, let me know your thoughts on this album. 

Do you think i need to listen to the album again?

Agree with me?

Disagree with me?

Let me know, let's chat about it :) 

Love hearing from everyone :) 

See you again soon with something new i blog about. 

Top 10 Avenged Sevenfold Songs!

Remember when i said i was done with list's?

Yeah i am not, as my good friend Annika suggested for me to do this list so shout out to her!

Now this list is all about A7X as you can gather from the gifs and title of this post. I'll name my 10 fave tracks and we'll rock out cool bro? Cool!

I used to be a big Avenged Fan when i was a teenager i have come off them a bit since their work after Nightmare album has so far not been too good but we will see if they pick up again. Before we begin their self titled album is my fave album followed by Nightmare so expect to see a bunch of those songs wind up here. No idea what else to say other than READ ON!

10: Beast & The Harlot

Great song to kick off my list and one of the most played songs by them aswell. It's the story of the fall of Babylon. The Harlot signed a deal with the devil to being as many to his side as she could, and demons were always with her. The devil and the harlot were the key to the fall of Babylon. When she finished her job, though, and returned to the devil, he then took her soul because everyone loses when they side with him over God. The end part is a quote "serve above or be a king below with us" Is loosely based on Paradise Lost, where they discuss the fall of Satan from heaven. He believed it better to be a king in hell than a servant in Heaven. Though once you're in hell, you're soul is forgotten and gone forever and you can never be redeemed.

9: Afterlife

Beautifully structured song in my opinion right from the start and i utterly love the bass track to this song it's killer! Straight from M.Shadows mouth. Afterlife is about a man who died but as he gets into his afterlife, he realises that there's too much stuff back on earth for him to do so he tries to escape from his afterlife.

8: Unbound (The Wild Ride)

What a song! It's about how when we go through life, we have to face many challenges, but here the person speaking says that he is willing to face them and live on. Also , time passes and we don't have a lot of time to full fill our goals.

7: Dangerline

When a7x wrote this song, they very well could have been writing from the perspective of a soldier (i tend to think so because of the drumline), but it can easily be taken as a metaphor for depression, suicide, or be related to by everyone who has fought their own war in life and coming home after it. A beautiful, well written song. The entire Nightmare album is a masterpiece.

6: Not Ready To Die

This is a wicked song it's sound is quite incredible i find and how they blended in with the cod zombies sounds also was wicked! The song appears to be written from the viewpoint of Dr. Richtofen. It's been confirmed by M. Shadows in an interview with Revolver that he did write the song about the Call of Duty Zombies storyline. The "evil" is the results of research on Element 115 which caused humans to be zombified. This research used to belong to Doctor Maxis. Richtofen killed Maxis and essentially stole his research (the "evil").

5: Bat Country

It is directly related to Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The Music video is actually made to resemble the movie. The phrase " Too Weird to Live but to Rare to Die was actually said about Hunter's long friend Oscar Zeta Acosta. If I remember properly this song was released after Hunter S. Thompson killed himself with a single bullet to the skull, hence the "My Hand is on the trigger, I'm ready to ignite". The Phrase at the beginning and closer towards the end "I'll make a beast out of myself, helps get rid of the pain of being a man" comes from Dr.Johnson's quote "He who makes a beast out of himself, gets rid of the pain of being a man". This same quote is at the beginning of both the Book and the Movie. EXTENSIVE RESEARCH FOR THE WIN! I have also never seen the movie but i have heard this song quite a lot!

4: Shepherd Of Fire

The lyrics are based on the devil's intent to turn a person's life around for the better, and to prove he's better than the divine. These few lines give it away. See, I have pity in watching you suffer. I know the feeling of being damned alone. Well I can promise you paradise, no need to serve on your knees. Immerse yourself into the kingdom of redemption. Pardon your mind from the chains of the divine. It was said in an interview that this song was supposed to be "Like a roller coaster through Hell" by Shadows himself.

3: A Little Piece Of Heaven

Ah a loving tale of boy meets girl boy kills girl eats her heart commits necrophilia, girl comes back to life kills boy, two go to hell get married, hell breaks out on earth and everyone lives happily ever after naww sweet romance right? What else can i say for this song, it's fucked up, fun, funny, catchy and a good song quite frankly.

2: Nightmare

This is my most listened to song by the band and for it's overplayedness (it's now a word) on radio or tv music stations in the past it is not number 1 i know it's a bit odd but hey i utterly love all the songs i have wrote out here and assembling them was pretty tough but hey that's where i will leave off because i forgot where i was going to follow up with but anyway what's this song about? Drugs/Alcohol abuse? Nightmares? Bad trips? Depression? Suicide? Mental Health? Yeah it's about them all and i'm not quite sure again with what to follow up with but it's a great track you know despite me not liking the fact it was massively overplayed.

1: Carry On

What a song! One of my most listened to by the band, i know it's a surprise right to pick a song not on their albums but this is a fantastic song. Quite addicted to it and how catchy it is and how metal as fuck it is also and how it's message plays off. Shadows said himself; this song is obviously about carrying on through bad times, but he also said that the lyrics had a very special meaning directed towards the band and how no matter what they'll carry on as a team. The music video is also one hell of a creative video.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS - Critical Acclaim,Hail To The King,Requiem,4AM,Dear God,Unholy Confessions, Seize The Day, Scream,Gunslinger,Dancing Dead,Brompton Cocktail,Lost,Welcome To The Family,Heretic, This Means War and So Far Away.

Well that's it once again, yes more lists will be here. I got holiday themed lists in progress. Halloween,Christmas,Valentines, St Pat's Drinking Anthems, St david's day will have a special welsh themed list featuring my fave songs from my fave famous and local artist's.

If you have a list do leave me a comment and i will have a gander at it.

So yeah busy busy busy as ever i am.

Thanks for reading,take care.