I was a spritely 15-year-old on my merry way home from school the first time I heard the Orange County five-piece. My portable CD player, somehow wedged into my trouser pocket, proudly displayed my copy of Kerrang!’s 2005 Awards album I got free with an issue that week. Among the tracks featured included Green Day’s ‘She’s a Rebel,’ Trivium’s ‘Pull Harder...’ and old school Lordi - before they were Eurovision champions, of course.
'Trashed and Scattered' was track 14, so it was almost an entire journey home before I heard it. Admittedly, seeing as this golden snippet featured on their third album City of Evil, I became a fan late. Having got hold of their sublime sophomore Waking the Fallen weeks later it soon became more of a dark infatuation than your average fanhood. A love for unpredictable double bass drums, raw growly vocals and sinister Bible-inspired lyrics that led me to the likes of Atreyu and Still Remains. I sat through countless free periods with my friends mimicking Shadows’ slur with unrelenting teen angst. I have done the same on an EasyJet flight to France and an open top boat on Lake Titicaca in South America. In the wake of the ‘indefinite hiatus’ of Blink 182 in 2005, these two albums saved my tears and changed my life. Well, diverted me from my inevitable plunge into pre-Blink depression and a devotion to +44 and, God forbid, Angels and Airwaves.
Waking the Fallen still remains my favourite album of all time. But on first hearing Avenged Sevenfold’s latest effort, ‘Nightmare’, it could be robbed of its title of my favourite Sevenfold moment. Can an album be judged on the strength of its first track? It’s been four weeks since I first heard ‘Nightmare’ and it’s likely I’ve given it a listen at least once a day since. Naturally, you would expect to tire but with each listen it seems to – somehow – grow on me even more.The news of sticksman Jimmy Sullivan’s death at the end of 2009 had left me believing that was it for them as a band. It was my birthday and I was devastated. Childhood friends that they are, they’ve always raved about Avenged Sevenfold being more of a brotherhood than a band and were undoubtedly shaken by his sudden death. But, with the help of Dream Theatre’s Mike Portnoy, the boys found the willpower to lay down the drums and finish the album Jimmy had written in the months before. The album art says it all. It is Jimmy’s skull and the finished work will no doubt become his legacy. Whether they will continue as a band after a summer touring with Portnoy is uncertain.
So, the new song. It begins with what sounds like a music box. It could be a serenade, a sleep aid before the ‘Nightmare’ begins and develops smoothly with an orchestral backing. After a classic Gates into and rolling drums – perfected by The Rev’s hero, the Dream Theatre legend himself – Shadows screams “Nightmare! Now your nightmare comes to life...” which leads an unexpected groove laden verse. The frontman opens it with a sneer of “Dragged ya down below, down to the devil’s show to be his guest forever...” and I count three different vocal tones within the first minute, with fine examples of question and answer and mind blowing speed into the chorus. Seriously, they do what they do very, very well.
It takes a few listens to hone into the smooth piano through the chorus which houses another example of a crafted melody which fits Shadows voice perfectly. The midsection is a song itself. At just over six minutes it has everything Sevenfold have made their own – the classic riffs, the aggressive imaginative lyrics and the unpredictability. It ends with “Your tragic fate is looking so clear. It’s your fuckin’ nightmare” and the hint of it leading into something explosive.Whatever the thought process behind it, the suggestions made through the single, the album art and the album’s content show A7X have clearly dabbled with the idea of a concept album on their fifth outing. They say it’s the darkest record yet, both lyrically and musically, and deals with the pain of losing their best friend.
The bottom line is it’s one of those songs you wish you’d written. It may be under the hardest circumstances but if the rest of the album follows in suit this could be their greatest achievement yet, their sound still developing and improving at every turn. I, for one, cannot wait.
Avenged Sevenfold’s ‘Nightmare’ is out on July 27th 2010. The single of the same name is out now. If you are at all intrigued I suggest checking it out.
'Nightmare' (Single)
'Trashed and Scattered' (from City of Evil)
'Second Heartbeat' (from Waking the Fallen)
soooooo excited XD
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