AVENGED SEVENFOLD - 'The Stage' (2016)

For A7X the sky went black on December 28, 2009 when their drummer Jimmy ‘The Rev’ Sullivan was found dead at his home. A mere 28 years of age Jimmy had passed away only a few weeks before he was to join his bandmates to begin work on their fifth record.

They were one of the most popular and controversial bands of their generation and whatever they chose to do would inevitably make waves, polarize opinion and further cement their reputation as a great band with grand ambitions.

Since then everything has changed for AVENGED SEVENFOLD. They hired Mike Portnoy who quit DREAM THEATER in the meanwhile, recorded an awful sellout stadium album, which sounded like half-assed AC/DC were playing the Black Album by Metallica on steroids and finally quit their record label (Warner) in a Bam-Wham-Thank-You-Ma’am style that caused massive erections among journalists across the globe.

And yes, AVENGED SEVENFOLD have a brand new album this autumn, called ‘The Stage’. Is it any good? Well… The short answer for that is “No” and that’s why I started this review with Jimmy’s death.

It is pretty clear now that he was the mastermind behind it all, the songwriting genius, the man with the creative vision. And while in ‘Nightmare’ (2010) he still had a massive input from the leftovers the band used in the studio, it was ‘Hail To The King’ (2013) when his artistic and creative persona was greatly missed for the first time.

‘The Stage’ is the longest A7X album clocking 74 minutes with an epic ending ‘Exist’ which length is almost 16 minutes and although the most people I know are sick and tired of overblown albums, that’s not the main problem here. It’s the effort to bring back what’s once been lost that makes things worse.

Most of the songs sound patchy and inconsistent, as they have been sewn up from two or three different other songs and the bridges are just weak despite the whole virtuoso playing and multilayered songwriting. It’s just not the same, guys. It’s feels uninspired and sadly, to be honest, I think their time has gone.

What other writers call progressive (‘Creating God’,‘Paradigm’), I would call useless and pointless. What others call dramatic (‘Simulation’) I would call semi-repetitive and banal.

It’s always been clear that M.Shadows is not the greatest among singers, but with all these extra long and uninteresting tunes piling up one after another, his limitations often sound as someone is trying to strangle Axl Rose.

To say that AVENGED SEVENFOLD are back in a big way would be a sheer lie. It’s fair to say though that any other band would have killed to have a tune as massive as most music, recorded for this album in their outings, but it’s also true that despite sounding big, this music is missing heart and soul, the heart and soul of The Rev.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD – ‘The Stage’ (2016)