June 2nd, 2023
Warner Music
Progressive Metal
Line Up:
M. Shadows
Zacky Vengeance
Synyster Gates
Johnny Christ
Brooks Wackerman
Tracklist:
1. Game Over
2. Mattel
3. Nobody
4. We Love You
5. Cosmic
6. Beautiful Morning
7. Easier
8. G
9. (O)rdinary
10. (D)eath
Avenged Sevenfold has always been a band that was never afraid to roll the dice. Their past works have delved into the genres of pop, heavy metal, metalcore, and many progressive elements.
It’s been 7 years since their last studio offering and here we have arrived with “Life Is But A Dream” which is quite a daring record to be had. The music is fascinating from an abstract and out-of-phase point of view as these 53 minutes show it in 11 songs, where this time the band moves away from the more traditional concept and adheres to a more avant-garde sound that you may have read or heard when listening to its new product.
The instrumental that gives the album its name, “Life Is But a Dream,” opens the album and ends it. Bony parts with choruses, verses, and sequences that they used to occasionally write to be played on mainstream Rock radio and enjoy madly, have disappeared as the band steps outside of their comfort zone and focuses on being a band without even a hint of rationality. So that’s a plus for them because they dared to stray from what they do best while simultaneously entering a world where experiments, out-of-touch viewpoints, and abstract sides are commonplace if you know where to lift the stone. A few of the highlights for me come via “Mattel” and “We Love You” and “Game Over” which both have its moments. The core of the tunes provide some crunchy groove and ragyiness and the concepts lean heavy on life and death.
As a result, Avenged Sevenfold lays its Avant-Garde seed in a similar vein as bands of the past, a nod to the Swedes of Avatar, who have been working with this disorganized concept for a while, know how to do it better with hooks and rhythms that intertwine American influences.
Look is an interesting album and risky and different from a band you normally probably wouldn’t have expected this… but it works; and even though these bands try to incorporate crazy or weird things, some things work an some not so well; I commend them for moving in this direction. My biggest gripe is that to me it doesn’t flow well and structure overall is all over the place, or lacking. I don’t know but to me is something about balance I enjoy on a record, maybe this was what the creative direction it took them, and that’s fine, but for casual fans you will have a hard time digesting full the magnitude of the kitchen sink being thrown at you.
Written by: Shadow Editor
Ratings: 6/10
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