The Avenged Sevenfold Thread (merged)

[LordCost]

HTTK is by far my least favourite album of them too, but Doing Time and Planets (and Requiem) are the ones I still listen to. I don't even remember much the other songs, I found the album completely unoriginal the first time I listened to it

[Kotowboy]

Trivium is great but nowhere near Sevenfold's level.

AX7 Make The Crusade with every album.

[RuRoRul]

It's not necessarily great news to be changing members, but I am not bothered by their drummer leaving. I haven't seen them live but have heard many times that Arin was a perfectly capable drummer, and read in interviews that the drums on Hail To The King were as they were because that's how the band wanted them to be. But Hail To The King was pretty boring and I think the drums were quite a big factor in that. Coming Home and Heretic are great songs, but most of the songs were mediocre and it left a pretty dull impression overall. Even songs I like a lot feel like they could use some more interesting drum parts to take them to the next level, and some of the weaker songs probably wouldn't have felt so monotonous with better drums. The band claimed they intentionally went for very simple drums, and I would probably believe that since they seem to have very deliberately have went in a certain direction for the whole album, so even if the drums are weak maybe Arin wasn't the main one that should be blamed for it. But maybe a different more established or confident drummer wouldn't have let them instruct him to play such simple stuff to the detriment of the album and would have brought more of their own contribution to the songs. It seems like that's exactly what the band didn't want after the Rev though.

Trivium > > > > > Avenged Sevenfold.

AX7 Make The Crusade with every album.

Thanks for these relevant and insightful contributions to the thread.

[ErHaO]

The drumming on HTTK prevented me from enjoying the album after a few listens. I have no qualms with them being "simple" (hell, Lars never really bothered me in Metallica. Save for the bad albums, where the whole band bothered me), but on HTTK there is no sense of groove, a general lack of punch, lack of speed, and the drums were incredibly monotonous. I frequently listen to CoE-AS-N, but HTTK's drums stick out like a sore thumb to me.

Reading that the guy leaving can actually drum, has me worried actually. Because those creative differences could also mean they actually want the drums to be this shitty for future records. As for Portnoy, I know people are joking and that it is not likely at all, but I for one would love it if that means he can do his thing.

[PuffyPat]

honestly, they probably should have just called it quits after nightmare. the rev was the heart and soul of the band, and without him they're nowhere near as good.

[OpenYourEyes311]

honestly, they probably should have just called it quits after nightmare. the rev was the heart and soul of the band, and without him they're nowhere near as good.

Interesting thought. Jason Newsted said himself that he always thought (before he joined) that Metallica should stop after Cliff died. I think both bands would be thought of today as top-tier metal bands whose careers were cut off too short if they had stopped.

[TheCountOfNYC]

honestly, they probably should have just called it quits after nightmare. the rev was the heart and soul of the band, and without him they're nowhere near as good.

Interesting thought. Jason Newsted said himself that he always thought (before he joined) that Metallica should stop after Cliff died. I think both bands would be thought of today as top-tier metal bands whose careers were cut off too short if they had stopped.

Probably not in the case of Sevenfold. They are an extremely polarizing band in my experience. The people I know who listen to them absolutely love them but everyone else hates them. Nightmare got some people interested but Hail to the King is the album that started to convince people for some reason.

[Heretic]

I mean, they've topped the Billboard charts twice in a row, and were close a few other times. They're definitely regarded as popular and one of the most important mainstream metal bands around, regardless of whether or not HTTK was any good.

[PuffyPat]

also, something i just realized, i wonder how much a record contract was part of the decision to keep going. whether or not they wanted to continue, they could have been contractually obligated to do some more albums. as one of the more popular 'metal' bands today, a label would be foolish to let them just go.

[RuRoRul]

Well they are definitely popular, as in a lot of people listen to them and go to their shows. There's a bit of a difference though between that sort of popularity and "internet popularity" - one is about having more people that are fans of something, the other is about having less people that hate something.

[Ben_Jamin]

Hell yeah they're popular. Look at their stage props. A big skeleton on a kings chair, pyro, all that fun stuff.  What's funny is the last time I saw them for uproar, they seemed like they weren't into it, kinda like going through the motions.

[TheCountOfNYC]

Hell yeah they're popular. Look at their stage props. A big skeleton on a kings chair, pyro, all that fun stuff.  What's funny is the last time I saw them for uproar, they seemed like they weren't into it, kinda like going through the motions.

Well when they played Uproar, it was still pretty soon after The Rev's passing. They were still getting used to playing without their brother. I saw them twice last year and they put on an incredible show both times.

[Kotowboy]

Thanks for these relevant and insightful contributions to the thread.

  I thought I was in the AMob thread.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

So Jr. is a big A7X fan and in the couple years he's been playing guitar, he's picked up a number of tunes and plays them a good bit.  He doesn't have solos and such down, but has all the basic song frameworks together and such.

So he has me play along to some of them and I pick them up as we're playing, but I'm going to try to get myself a little more on board, so I can really get into it when we do these songs.  I read some of the early commentary in this thread and have a general idea of what people appear to like and not like, but I'm not going to let that influence me.  I listened to City of Evil this morning and while it's mostly good, the last couple of tracks kinda lost me.  Maybe I just need to listen again or something.  Not sure.  I think I will move chronologically through the discography though and see how things strike me.

[Train of Naught]

Has been my favorite band for over two years (around the release of Nightmare), and I think I'm in the vast minority when I say Hail to the King has brought me back to the band a bit, I went to see them live on the HttK tour and they were amazing, playing songs from pretty much their whole discography, two best openers I could've wished for (Shepherd of Fire -> Critical Acclaim), and on top of that, a new drummer who is full of energy, does everything he has to perform perfectly, with a great drum solo on top of that. Have they become a bit generic with their new album? Maybe, but I thought it is a nice change, besides, they seem to charish their old stuff just as much as their fans do, judging from the live shows.

[Anguyen92]

Looks likes they do have a new drummer in place.  Will eventually be announced.

https://loudwire.com/avenged-sevenfold-confirm-new-drummer-in-place/

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

A7X?
Love them! Next to DT, of course.
Fav album would be Waking the Fallen, City, Self titled, then the rest. Absolutely love Shadows' scream though it spooked me out at first. Imagine listening to second heartbeat for the first time. *shudders*
I love it now, though.

[TheCountOfNYC]

So apparently they're gonna announce their new drummer tomorrow on the Talk is Jericho podcast.

[Kotowboy]

Mike Portnoy

[Train of Naught]

Mike Portnoy

I'm pretty stoked for the new drummer announcement, maybe we finally get to see Lars Ulrich on two different bands at the same festival next summer!


Oh and anyone interested, I'm holding an A7X survivor (probably starting somewhere next week) over at the Poll/Survivors subthread, starting from Waking the Fallen as there probably isn't enough of a fanbase for Trumpet.

[MirrorMask]

A Little Piece of Heaven > The rest of AX7 discography combined 

But seriously, I love that crazy insane song, the video also was a wicked threat. The self titled is their best album for me, with Nightmare they kept the level high but Hail to the King already seems one of those albums that while being good, lacks that "whoa" factor... wouldn't mind to hear another truly kickass album from them.

Don't care for their looks but the singer has one hell of a voice, saw them live at a festival before Iron Maiden back in 2008, damn if he's good.

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

 
That reminds me, have you seen the a7x vs dt youtube video by the saiyan vevo? Hilarious!

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

A Little Piece of Heaven > The rest of AX7 discography combined 

But seriously, I love that crazy insane song, the video also was a wicked threat. The self titled is their best album for me, with Nightmare they kept the level high but Hail to the King already seems one of those albums that while being good, lacks that "whoa" factor... wouldn't mind to hear another truly kickass album from them.

Don't care for their looks but the singer has one hell of a voice, saw them live at a festival before Iron Maiden back in 2008, damn if he's good.

Must have stabbed her fifty fucking times! Ripped her heat out right before her eyes, eyes over easy! Eat it, eat it, eat it!!!

[ariich]

A Little Piece of Heaven > The rest of AX7 discography combined 

But seriously, I love that crazy insane song, the video also was a wicked threat. The self titled is their best album for me, with Nightmare they kept the level high but Hail to the King already seems one of those albums that while being good, lacks that "whoa" factor... wouldn't mind to hear another truly kickass album from them.

Don't care for their looks but the singer has one hell of a voice, saw them live at a festival before Iron Maiden back in 2008, damn if he's good.

Agree with basically all of this, though City of Evil isn't mentioned and that's also great. First couple of albums are pretty meh.

[Kotowboy]

I liked one of their albums but then HTTK wtf was that ?!

[ErHaO]

For me it is something like this: City is fantastic, Nightmare is great, self titled is good. HTTK is dissapointing, but solid. The older albums are hit or miss for me on song by song basis. 

Hail to the Kind is frustrating to me as I really love the vocals and overall song structures, but the music feels like it misses something (that something mostly being the drums). Instrumentally no groove or standout moments there, but not really bad either.

[Train of Naught]

Hail to the King were all songs that I very much enjoyed in the beginning but had no relisten value or something, I rarely listen to any of the songs anymore.

City of Evil, self-titled, Nightmare and Waking the Fallen are my faves, Hail to the King is miles below those, but still alright.

Revisited STST a month ago or so and it wasn't too bad, but still not for me, it's like what WTF would have been if they stitched it together in a week.

[cramx3]

Without having listened to Seventh Trumpet, I can say that I enjoy all of their albums, obviously some more than others.  My rankings:

City of Evil
Self Titled
Waken the Fallen
Nightmare
Hail to the King (which I enjoy, its just their worst release)

I also think the Diamonds in the Rough disc is really good, those b-sides are awesome. If I had to include this it would be above Waken the Fallen.

[Train of Naught]

Diamonds in the Rough is great, The Fight is one of my favorite songs of the 2007-2008 A7X, but it has too many forgettable tracks on it for me to stand out as a full release.

[cramx3]

Diamonds in the Rough is great, The Fight is one of my favorite songs of the 2007-2008 A7X, but it has too many forgettable tracks on it for me to stand out as a full release.

Yea, I mean it only has a hand full of original tracks that weren't on the albums.  Those songs are what I am talking about (and I assume you are too).

[ZKX-2099]

https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/avenged-sevenfold-recruits-ex-bad-religion-drummer-brooks-wackerman/

Gonna have to check out some Bad Religion now. But the last quote from Shadows has me optimistic.

"The idea of the last record was a very stripped-down sound and the idea of the next is a not very stripped-down sound."

HYPED

[Kotowboy]

https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/avenged-sevenfold-recruits-ex-bad-religion-drummer-brooks-wackerman/

Gonna have to check out some Bad Religion now. But the last quote from Shadows has me optimistic.

"The idea of the last record was a very stripped-down sound and the idea of the next is a not very stripped-down sound."

HYPED

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0RL6023q1g

[Train of Naught]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0RL6023q1g

Can't stand the song, love the drums, so I guess it's a win? 

[ariich]

Interesting choice. Bad Religion are absolutely nothing like A7X whatsoever, though they are pretty great.

Not sure Sorrow is a particularly great choice of song from that album, Kotow. Personally I much prefer Epiphany: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQFqXDCN80E

EDIT: Or The Defense: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-dBscbqy60

[me7]

I like the stripped-down sound of the last album. Most metal albums are overproduced nowadays IMO.

What I didn't like was the stripped-down songwriting. The idea of another album with sich songs only with a brickwallwd sound doesn't excite me.