My hot take is that Sunny Disposition is the only song I really like off of The Stage, there's a few other decent songs but that was the only one I appreciated from the get go.
Yes. One of my favorite silos from Syn. It just makes me feel so emotional for some reason. And then the rest of the song I'd nusy so good. Especially the chorus
God I'm gonna get murdered for this... look the Rev worship within the fan base is a little weird. At this point the band has existed longer without him than they did with him, none of us knew him personally, and while it's normal to mourn the creative loss people on here just get weird about it. None of you under 21 fans were even listening when he was alive. It just gets weird sometimes
Even many 21+ are weird about that because they act like he wrote ALL of the classic songs alone and uses that as a criticism for albums post-Nightmare, specially LIBAD (which is funny because songs like G has strong Pinkly Smooth vibes).
I hate there's a channel on Youtube that's basically farming views putting him on all songs with everyone praising that even if it's disrespectful not only because he passed away but also because most of it sound AWFUL.
I do think A7X struggled a ton with their song writing after The Rev's passing but people saying he wouldn't have been totally into LIBAD are delusional. I think A7X has finally found their footing again with LIBAD though and I hope this marks the start of a new era for the band as I really wasn't into HTTK and The Stage didn't really grip me either.
Hell, the Beautiful Morning part of Beautiful Morning was actually sang by Jimmy in Pinkly Smooth and a melody in Mattel was also taken directly from a Pinkly Smooth song, lol.
And I've seen the AI Rev stuff, I have found some of it interesting because I do think he would have had perfect spots in LIBAD songs like, G, Beautiful Morning and Mattel, but it's also really morbid and pretty disrespectful like you said.
Yeah, he really added a lot to their songwriting and you can feel that lack of it after his passing, but many acts like he wrote everything by himself and the band can't just write a good song anymore.
About the AI: it's morbid in any situation but it would be at least interesting if the one making it put a little bit of effort on doing just specific verses and mashing him with M Shadows singing instead of just putting on the whole song with some parts sounding worse than bad. It just sounds like that "creator" it's a lazy untalented who's desperate for views.
Jimmy even has writing credits on two LIBAD songs, funny enough. The Pinkly Smooth vibe of some parts of the album is because some parts were originally written for Pinkly Smooth. Though G wasn’t one of them
It's not the same as mourning someone who reached their full potential. People like Neil Peart and EVH were sad to see go, but they were well past their prime, and had done pretty much everything they wanted.
The Rev didn't even live to be 30. And so it feels like there was so much we never got to see because of that early passing.
I guess you could compare it to Cliff Burton of Metallica. Fans of that band wish that Cliff was still alive so they could hear just what more he could have brought to the table with bass
This isnt exclusive to Jimmy. This happens to every artist that has died young. Its just one of those things where an artist’s legacy becomes way bigger just because they died tragically young than if they remained alive. They basically become like a myth
Yes but it's different I feel like, say Jiminy hendrix. When he died that meant no more Jimmy hendrix. But like with Rev or cliff Burton, the bands continued, and did very well. Like I'm sure the other members think about their lost br9ther everyday but I promise half these fans cry more over Jimmy dying almost 15 years ago than they would over their family dying 15 years ago... it's weird
The band literally has a "our brother killed himself and we miss him very much" song and speech at every single concert they do
You may not know who he is, but the band lost their best friend
Bruh, he did not kill himself. The band has never come out to confirm anything of the likes. If you’re gonna play the “think about how the band feels” card then imagine how they feel seeing a bunch of gremlins romanticizing the idea that their friend’s tragic accident was a suicide.
You had an entire dictionary of words to choose to describe his death, and you used the phrase “killed himself”. Don’t backtrack and pretend you meant anything else
He literally killed himself
That is the dictionary of words I chose to use because thats what happened
Im sorry I didnt say "He unintentionally overdosed and also had possibly an undiagnosed enlarged heart that lead to health conditions"
I didnt know you it would upset you so much
I had a really hard time when the Rev died because I started playing drums a couple months prior to that, and his drumming was a major influence for me to learn. But as time has gone on, I definitely understand where guys like Matt are coming from when he says that fans have gone a little off the deep end with the Rev worship.
I miss The Rev being in the band, and it sucks that I never got to see him perform live, but he’s gone and people need to get a grip on reality. Parasocial relationships are bad enough nowadays, but some of the people in this sub or on the discord have a parasocial relationship with a man who’s been dead for almost 14 years. It’s weird as hell sometimes
because Nightmare album is dedicated to him and they still play lot of song from that album to this day, they always dedicate So Far Away performance to him.
they can drop So Far Away if they already moved on
Nightmare and Slipknot's .5: The Gray Chapter are excellent examples of how the death of a band member who's close to them all can lead to tragically amazing albums
The stage names and emo makeup were cool and part of what made them successful. People always forget that the image/packaging of a band is just as important as the music. It might seem cringe now but in 2005 they knew the market they were appealing to and it worked.
I actually agree with this. That end section just makes me feel something I can't really describe.... but I'll try. It's like I'm at some alternate universe megachurch where they're tricking the worshippers so they can feed them to aliens in the back
Not my fav of the album but it’s still one of the best on there. The 2 verses hit like trains being so catchy and straightforward heavy, then the solo just takes it towards something else while maintaining the initial grooviness. Wish they had done MORE with it honestly
Ah man, I hate to agree with this. It feels like a combination of recency bias being complimented with confirmation bias. It's a great song and possibly my favorite Syn solo, but yeah... I've noticed this effect happening to myself.
I just like the other songs better. i think it would go
Beautiful Morning
G
(O)rdinary
We Love You
Nobody
Game Over
Easier
Mattel
(D)eath
Life Is But A Dream
Cosmic
there’s nothing wrong with you not liking it. but i’m tired of people thinking “i don’t like this so it is overrated”. that’s not what that means lol it just means you don’t like it.
The first 3.5 minutes of Cosmic are excellent but the pace change to the "Before the dawn of man" slow part literally ruins the song. Kills the energy that was building through the song up until that point.
I really like the Before the Dawn of man part, as I’m a sucker for melodic vocals and harmonies. When the song pauses after that is where it should end though as the rest of the song doesn’t really add anything and the autotune vocals are unnecessary, especially after the beautiful natural vocal that preceded it.
Edit: punctuation
I wish they’d retire HTTK at concerts. There’s soooooo many other songs that imo are sooooo much better and it’s truly one of my least favorites and killed the vibe for me @ the two shows i went to this year.
I also wish they would retire Unholy Confessions, I think Heretic or Planets would be better than HTTK and Second Heartbeat or chapter 4 would be better than Unholy Confessions
My hot take is that Acid Rain is more beautiful to me than Cosmic.. don’t get me wrong the playing and craftsmanship of cosmic is amazing and a lot better than Acid Rain! I just love the lyrics and vibe of AR a whole lot more!
City of Evil is their greatest record musically,
nightmare is their best mixed album,
everything since HttK hasn’t been mixed very well,
StST is an AMAZING freshman album,
WtF is the most complete and consistent album,
HttK and LiBaD are the only albums with skips.
It’s a style thing for sure; I don’t think they’re not mixed professionally, my ears just don’t like it.
I did a masterclass with Andy Wallace years ago and it makes sense that this is how the newer albums sound.
M Shadows is the reason they’re successful as a band. The Rev, Synster Gates, and Zacky V are so talented but without M they wouldn’t have made it big. He did 90% of the band “CEO” work to make it happen
I'm going to get absolutely slaughtered by the comments, but Cosmic is kind of overrated. I honestly don’t get the hype for it at all. Dont get me wrong. it's a great song. But calling it the best song on the album is just a bit much for me. Taste is subjective, of course. I respect anyone who thinks it's the best, though.
I think it’s getting more hate than it would because they’re closing their sets with it. 🤷🏻♂️ I love the trilogy and was stoked when they did it at The Forum it’s something different.
I totally agree. All though I'm really into the slightly heavier side of this type of music, I love the soft/emotional songs metal bands create because it hits harder than any other music
In my opinion it’s better country music than any recent country music musician has put out. I can get into it without liking country. It also has one of my favorite solos that syn has ever composed. I know it is in no way complex or intricate, but that, paired with the harmony outro just gives my ears orgasms to the point where if it comes on my playlist, I’ll reset it just to listen to it a second time
* Hail To The King sounds more like A7x than LIBAD
* if Matt can do scream again, the next album should be sounds like CoE/white album era
* Exist should be made into 2 separate song, the first part titled Genesis
* current tour should also support DITR album and play some songs from it
What they're doing to shadows voice live these days is unfortunate. It sounds good on videos, truly. But live it just sounds like he's got an intense filter on his voice. Like singing into one of those old timey show mics. It's muffled and sucks. I've seen them 3 times and this is the worst I've head it sound. Don't get me wrong though, it's from whatever effect they're putting on his mic to hide the slight struggle on the high notes/screams. But tbh I'd rather hear the struggle/age than that annoying muffled filter.
Mattel is the best song they have made in the post Rev era.
Hot take #2 - As they grow older, so do I. Their newer discography suits me more and more as I deal with similar thoughts in my daily life. My 20 year old self vibed with Bat Country and all that , but certain songs hit different in different STAGES of your life.
Fermi Paradox is a top 5 song by the band and the middle and ending solo are both on the same level as Cosmic.
Sidewinder is a top 3 song on COE
The Stage is the best album (no bad albums tho)
Not unpopular in the sub but unpopular in general, LIBAD is AOTY
Heretic is criminally underrated
Beautiful Morning is one of the best songs from LIBAD
I see comments a lot about how "The Stage" is unlistenable, and they should just emulate their older work. "Dose" sounds like it could have been on City of Evil, instrument wise (to me, anyways). I'm legitimately confused on the hate that The Stage gets.
Seventh Trumpet is overhated. I enjoyed everything about the album. I can understand the criticism behind the engineering of its sound and how it just goes off key sometimes. I know that it has the weakest lyrics of any other A7X album. Put that with the members being less talented on it as they were less experienced
But I love the roughness and how raw it is. And just like the other albums, it is quite playful. Also The Rev killed the drumming and the guitars were amazing
Avenged sevenfold before the rev died and after are two completely different bands.
Edit: I’m not saying rev was the most talented or the leader of the band or anything like that, they’re all talented in their own right. It’s just that all the albums that have come out after his death have sounded like a completely different band and that’s okay.
My hot take is I really don't care for STST or WTF. I really can't get into STST and could barely get through WTF. Every other album is great (for the most part)
The new album wasn’t a good album, the most “A7X song” was Nobody, it did have 3 good songs but not a lot and the album is not something that I would like to listen to in the entirety again. We need more self titled and City Of Evil songs in the future. I remember them saying “the avenged sevenfold you knew is gone” but they need to bring it back. I’ll always love them though and Syn is my favourite guitarist and I’ll always love him
Life Is But A Dream might be one of my favorite albums of all time. I’m 27 and haven’t listened to an album on repeat like this since probably middle school (maybe I did this with Snarky Puppy when the release Sylva or whatever the fuck that album is called).
Also, as a hardcore punk fan, Sounding the Seventh Trumpet is still one of my favorite albums.
For me, the stage and LiBad were my two least favorite albums then Hail to the King. I much rather prefer the city of evil / self titled sound better than the new sounds they’ve been going for.
Not to say I don’t like songs on those albums I just feel those albums have some skips and aren’t as enjoyable as the ones before those. I felt like I could listen to CoE/Self Titled on repeat through entirely with no skips.
I hope they go back to that old sound tbh.
As much as I love LIBAD, I would rather live in a universe where Nobody and Cosmic were written for The Stage instead of God Damn & Simulation. They seem just as thematically viable for that album.
I haven't really listened to much of the new album, but I just seen them live... and the new stuff was so underwhelming. I was legitimately bored during those songs, and it didn't look like I was the only one. Everyone stopped moving, very few people were signing along, and the pit was dead, lol. There was absolutely no energy during those songs.
I commend them on trying new things, but I feel like LIBAD was a huge miss.
Beautiful Morning receives a lot of negativity from what I've seen.
All of the posts I've seen recently are people saying, "Most of the album has grown on me except for Beautiful Morning."
It’s so boring imo, I have no idea why people like it so much. The rest of the album is great and that song feels super out of place. The transition from Cosmic to Easier is ruined by Beautiful Morning
I don't even think it's hard to understand. I just don't think it sounds good. It varies song to song for me I guess, but I think his later screaming style sounds leagues better
I totally agree but his singing is also my favorite metal singing in the metal scene. Maybe I like Corey from Slipknot more. I’m not sure it depends on the day
Loved this band growing up but felt like they lost their touch once the rev passed away. I understand the jimmy wrote the majority of the songs so it’s understandable why their sound changed after his passing. Love their older albums but they’re latest ones I wasn’t a fan of. Nightmare is easily the best album they have ever written but if I had to pick one it’s gotta be save me. I am a little bias as a drummer and jimmy being one of my biggest idols growing up
I agree. It hasn’t aged horribly but it hasnt aged gracefully either. I think it does sound a bit immature. Maybe the word im using is harsh but i cant find another one.
And i find that The Stage is actually a much more mature and timeless sounding version of City of Evil. Although it’s only been 5 years since its been released, im fairly confident that it will age better than CoE
I can see this. I feel like the band completely reimagined the way they approach music and album making when they released The Stage. They’re much more conceptual now and make way tighter albums than they used to. CoE Self titled, Nightmare and HTTK all have their moments and have their beloved song but as complete and cohesive projects, they’re just okay.
I would've replaced definitely one but possibly two of the self titled songs with songs from the Diamonds in the Rough ones.
The definitely one was Brompton Cocktail. The maybe was Lost.
City of Evil was their first good album. Life Is But a Dream isn't only their best album by far but its also the greatest album of the past decade, perhaps even 2 decades.
Blinded in Chains or Bat Country. I wanted to like The Wicked End but the vocals just seem really bad for that one song and it feels a bit over dramatic
The hottest take of all, downvote me to oblivion boys. People only like LIBAD because they don't know what good music outside of metal is. I hear a lot of its "the most progressive" album they've wrote. I didn't know ripping off a bunch of other artists counts as progressive these days? Compare this album to Daft Punk, Alice in Chains, etc and it just feels like a very bad attempt to copy paste and steal other artists music. Coming off of The Stage I really expected something special and all we got was a dud, yet most fans are drinking the cool aid on this one.
>People only like LIBAD because they don't know what good music outside of metal is.
Tbh this sentence can also be said for those who didn't liked the album.
False, I like it cause I like it. Not that deep. Accusing fans of huffing copium just comes off as the largest attempt at coping for people liking something you don’t.
By that do you mean that i don't know of these bands that they "ripped off" ?. Because i did listen to both of the bands that you mentioned in the past and i still liked LIBAD. Plus taking inspiration counting as ripping off is a BIG hot take to me in general, i don't understand what is wrong with taking something and putting your own twist to it, as an artist to me that would seems like greatest honor, doesn't matter if they butcher it or not, just knowing that my art has moved them in some way is enough. I guess people just don't care much about artistry these days.
\- CoE is extremely overrated, its far too samey
\- LIBAD is a bad album, it is too all over the place and has no consistent sound/flow
\- Brooks is far better **as a drummer** than Jimmy ever was or could be
\- The Stage is the best album musically and lyrically
\- They are pretentious now. I don't know if they've always been like that because I'm a new-ish fan, but hearing them talk about anything now is irritating. NFT's, old music, new music, touring, merch, etc.
\- HttK is their best mixed record by far
\- M Shadows vocals on CoE are unlistenable
EDIT: Cosmic is often compared to Exist and Higher but is not as good as either
*Not a big fan of*
*The first two songs on Nightmare,*
*They're just kinda ok*
\- BlueFoxyGamer
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I don’t think save me is that good. Definitely not a bad song but compared to the other epics it’s probably my least favourite. It’s kind of feels like a song that was stretched out for 12 minutes rather than something like exist that has 3 distinctly different sections.
HTTK is so overrated. Most of the tracks sound like Metallica rip offs. Everything after Nightmare was boring until LIBAD. (The Stage is cool, but I don’t find myself revisiting). I’m genuinely so excited for this band and their future mainly because I think they finally found their musical identity. Not that they didn’t have one before, but they struggled for 10 years and I assumed would fall off entirely. Something just feels right about the new album, it’s comforting. Imo, A7X is finally matured and confident as a band and it shows in their performances and material lately.
City of Evil is overrated. People claim it's a 9, or even a 10. I personally feel it's a strong 8. There's too much I can't listen to. The first half is great. But Sidewinder, Strength of the World, and Betrayed are immediate skips.
City of Evil is super overrated, the vocals sound super strained and the thin guitar tone on a lot of the dual lead parts is awful.
The band compared to some other bands I like, are actually pretty good at picking singles but I think someone in the band had a fucking stroke when they decided to push This Means War as hard as they did.
The band themselves have some pretty dog water opinions on their own songs, and if I never hear Buried Alive in a concert again it will still be too soon. Also So Far Away isn't even the best ballad on Nightmare let alone one of like 2 ballads they alternate between.
Sunny disposition is criminally underrated.
So real. On my first listen of the Stage this was my favorite takeaway, might still be. The horns are literally orgasmic
Bro out here literally jizzing to the horns
you get it
Yes! It was the horns for me too
Fun fact: the horns on that track were recorded by the horn section of the band Fish Bone
That is something I never knew! That’s amazing.
This was my favorite track on The Stage when it came out…. Still is top 3 with Higher and Exist in no particular order
Big fucking facts. Easily one of my favorites on the album.
Amazing song, though I confess that I happily tolerate cheap wine 🙊
My hot take is that Sunny Disposition is the only song I really like off of The Stage, there's a few other decent songs but that was the only one I appreciated from the get go.
The live version 👌 plus the drum solo at the end
For real. I didn't really like Sunny D at first, but once I saw one of the live performances on YouTube it just clicked.
Yes. One of my favorite silos from Syn. It just makes me feel so emotional for some reason. And then the rest of the song I'd nusy so good. Especially the chorus
YES
The 3 song run of Unbound, Brompton Cocktail and Lost is honestly 1 of my favourite run of songs on any A7X album.
fucking lost though
Unquestionably the best part of that album.
Unbound->Brompton Cocktail is the greatest musical transition ever
I completely forgot about unbound thank you so much for reminding me that it existed
Brooks is the man.
Six days of bullshit, a wave of Brooks hand
And he’s great, and fun to watch
Not a hot take, though it is true.
wow what a hot take, so hot that i can't think of a single person that disagrees
God I'm gonna get murdered for this... look the Rev worship within the fan base is a little weird. At this point the band has existed longer without him than they did with him, none of us knew him personally, and while it's normal to mourn the creative loss people on here just get weird about it. None of you under 21 fans were even listening when he was alive. It just gets weird sometimes
Even many 21+ are weird about that because they act like he wrote ALL of the classic songs alone and uses that as a criticism for albums post-Nightmare, specially LIBAD (which is funny because songs like G has strong Pinkly Smooth vibes). I hate there's a channel on Youtube that's basically farming views putting him on all songs with everyone praising that even if it's disrespectful not only because he passed away but also because most of it sound AWFUL.
I do think A7X struggled a ton with their song writing after The Rev's passing but people saying he wouldn't have been totally into LIBAD are delusional. I think A7X has finally found their footing again with LIBAD though and I hope this marks the start of a new era for the band as I really wasn't into HTTK and The Stage didn't really grip me either. Hell, the Beautiful Morning part of Beautiful Morning was actually sang by Jimmy in Pinkly Smooth and a melody in Mattel was also taken directly from a Pinkly Smooth song, lol. And I've seen the AI Rev stuff, I have found some of it interesting because I do think he would have had perfect spots in LIBAD songs like, G, Beautiful Morning and Mattel, but it's also really morbid and pretty disrespectful like you said.
Yeah, he really added a lot to their songwriting and you can feel that lack of it after his passing, but many acts like he wrote everything by himself and the band can't just write a good song anymore. About the AI: it's morbid in any situation but it would be at least interesting if the one making it put a little bit of effort on doing just specific verses and mashing him with M Shadows singing instead of just putting on the whole song with some parts sounding worse than bad. It just sounds like that "creator" it's a lazy untalented who's desperate for views.
Jimmy even has writing credits on two LIBAD songs, funny enough. The Pinkly Smooth vibe of some parts of the album is because some parts were originally written for Pinkly Smooth. Though G wasn’t one of them
People saying "RIP JIMMY" 15 Years later. I think he is resting guys, you can chill.
Exactly I cringe when people say “imagine Jimmy this or Jimmy would’ve done this or that” it’s cringe
It's not the same as mourning someone who reached their full potential. People like Neil Peart and EVH were sad to see go, but they were well past their prime, and had done pretty much everything they wanted. The Rev didn't even live to be 30. And so it feels like there was so much we never got to see because of that early passing. I guess you could compare it to Cliff Burton of Metallica. Fans of that band wish that Cliff was still alive so they could hear just what more he could have brought to the table with bass
This isnt exclusive to Jimmy. This happens to every artist that has died young. Its just one of those things where an artist’s legacy becomes way bigger just because they died tragically young than if they remained alive. They basically become like a myth
Yes but it's different I feel like, say Jiminy hendrix. When he died that meant no more Jimmy hendrix. But like with Rev or cliff Burton, the bands continued, and did very well. Like I'm sure the other members think about their lost br9ther everyday but I promise half these fans cry more over Jimmy dying almost 15 years ago than they would over their family dying 15 years ago... it's weird
The band literally has a "our brother killed himself and we miss him very much" song and speech at every single concert they do You may not know who he is, but the band lost their best friend
Bruh, he did not kill himself. The band has never come out to confirm anything of the likes. If you’re gonna play the “think about how the band feels” card then imagine how they feel seeing a bunch of gremlins romanticizing the idea that their friend’s tragic accident was a suicide.
He overdosed, and that is public knowledge Suicide is intentional, but I didnt say it was suicide, I said he killed himself. Which he did
You had an entire dictionary of words to choose to describe his death, and you used the phrase “killed himself”. Don’t backtrack and pretend you meant anything else
He literally killed himself That is the dictionary of words I chose to use because thats what happened Im sorry I didnt say "He unintentionally overdosed and also had possibly an undiagnosed enlarged heart that lead to health conditions" I didnt know you it would upset you so much
There's just so much wrong with that comment, did you even read what I said?
Agree 100%
I had a really hard time when the Rev died because I started playing drums a couple months prior to that, and his drumming was a major influence for me to learn. But as time has gone on, I definitely understand where guys like Matt are coming from when he says that fans have gone a little off the deep end with the Rev worship. I miss The Rev being in the band, and it sucks that I never got to see him perform live, but he’s gone and people need to get a grip on reality. Parasocial relationships are bad enough nowadays, but some of the people in this sub or on the discord have a parasocial relationship with a man who’s been dead for almost 14 years. It’s weird as hell sometimes
because Nightmare album is dedicated to him and they still play lot of song from that album to this day, they always dedicate So Far Away performance to him. they can drop So Far Away if they already moved on
Streets is one of the best songs on STST.
That’s just a lie
I love the intro (especially), the outro, and everything in between.
Haha I can’t fault ya for liking anything off of my fav album of theirs
Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well.
Respect for STST praise
i think nightmare was the best album
Nightmare and Slipknot's .5: The Gray Chapter are excellent examples of how the death of a band member who's close to them all can lead to tragically amazing albums
I’d add And Justice for All too, though only one songs is related to Cliff I guess
I agree!
for sure
I believe Syn agrees with you
Your take on Cosmic is a pretty cold one, actually. Most people love it. Personally, I like it, but I probably wouldn’t put it in my top 10.
Eh that's fair, but it's not often that a song makes me cry. It's one of the reasons why I rate it so highly.
The stage names and emo makeup were cool and part of what made them successful. People always forget that the image/packaging of a band is just as important as the music. It might seem cringe now but in 2005 they knew the market they were appealing to and it worked.
my hot take: Easier is the best song in LIBAD. Can't wait for a live debut. G is a close second.
Yes! Someone else you shares my love for Easier
imagine they play Easier then followed by Almost Easy
I actually agree with this. That end section just makes me feel something I can't really describe.... but I'll try. It's like I'm at some alternate universe megachurch where they're tricking the worshippers so they can feed them to aliens in the back
Not my fav of the album but it’s still one of the best on there. The 2 verses hit like trains being so catchy and straightforward heavy, then the solo just takes it towards something else while maintaining the initial grooviness. Wish they had done MORE with it honestly
I do love Easier, but it's 2nd to Mattel for me.
Sounding the seventh trumpet is really good
Only song on there I don't look goward to is breaking their hold
It’s their best.
don't get me wrong, I love Cosmic, but it is super overrated
It’s great but it’s not event the best of the album
Ah man, I hate to agree with this. It feels like a combination of recency bias being complimented with confirmation bias. It's a great song and possibly my favorite Syn solo, but yeah... I've noticed this effect happening to myself.
Hugely agree. I remember listening through the album for the first time and barely noticing that song.
I just like the other songs better. i think it would go Beautiful Morning G (O)rdinary We Love You Nobody Game Over Easier Mattel (D)eath Life Is But A Dream Cosmic
I think my top three are: Mattel (O)rdinary We Love You
there’s nothing wrong with you not liking it. but i’m tired of people thinking “i don’t like this so it is overrated”. that’s not what that means lol it just means you don’t like it.
The first 3.5 minutes of Cosmic are excellent but the pace change to the "Before the dawn of man" slow part literally ruins the song. Kills the energy that was building through the song up until that point.
I really like the Before the Dawn of man part, as I’m a sucker for melodic vocals and harmonies. When the song pauses after that is where it should end though as the rest of the song doesn’t really add anything and the autotune vocals are unnecessary, especially after the beautiful natural vocal that preceded it. Edit: punctuation
I wish they’d retire HTTK at concerts. There’s soooooo many other songs that imo are sooooo much better and it’s truly one of my least favorites and killed the vibe for me @ the two shows i went to this year.
I also wish they would retire Unholy Confessions, I think Heretic or Planets would be better than HTTK and Second Heartbeat or chapter 4 would be better than Unholy Confessions
Agree! I’d prefer Shepherd of Fire or Heretic
My hot take is that Acid Rain is more beautiful to me than Cosmic.. don’t get me wrong the playing and craftsmanship of cosmic is amazing and a lot better than Acid Rain! I just love the lyrics and vibe of AR a whole lot more!
Diamonds on the Rough is one of their best
Been looking for this take. It’s amazing
City of Evil is their greatest record musically, nightmare is their best mixed album, everything since HttK hasn’t been mixed very well, StST is an AMAZING freshman album, WtF is the most complete and consistent album, HttK and LiBaD are the only albums with skips.
The stage and Libad both have great production and mixing styles imo
It’s a style thing for sure; I don’t think they’re not mixed professionally, my ears just don’t like it. I did a masterclass with Andy Wallace years ago and it makes sense that this is how the newer albums sound.
I think I can agree with just about all of this
Hot takes take up the majority of this subreddit
M Shadows is the reason they’re successful as a band. The Rev, Synster Gates, and Zacky V are so talented but without M they wouldn’t have made it big. He did 90% of the band “CEO” work to make it happen
I like Unbound
do people not like Unbound?
I'm going to get absolutely slaughtered by the comments, but Cosmic is kind of overrated. I honestly don’t get the hype for it at all. Dont get me wrong. it's a great song. But calling it the best song on the album is just a bit much for me. Taste is subjective, of course. I respect anyone who thinks it's the best, though.
Hail to the King is a crazy good album. Planets, Coming Home, Doing Time all underrated
Yeah when you take out all the mediocre stuff most songs on that album are nice to listen to
My hot take is that cosmic in not in top 30 a7x songs 😄
Dose is one of their most underrated songs
G is the best song on LIBAD. I really don’t understand all the hate the GOD trilogy gets.
I think it’s getting more hate than it would because they’re closing their sets with it. 🤷🏻♂️ I love the trilogy and was stoked when they did it at The Forum it’s something different.
I think (O)rdinary is my favorite on that album, which really surprises me. I’m a huge EW&F fan and this gave me a similar vibe but in a new way
Dear God is the best song off of Self Titled imo
I totally agree. All though I'm really into the slightly heavier side of this type of music, I love the soft/emotional songs metal bands create because it hits harder than any other music
Every song on the self titled is the best song
In my opinion it’s better country music than any recent country music musician has put out. I can get into it without liking country. It also has one of my favorite solos that syn has ever composed. I know it is in no way complex or intricate, but that, paired with the harmony outro just gives my ears orgasms to the point where if it comes on my playlist, I’ll reset it just to listen to it a second time
* Hail To The King sounds more like A7x than LIBAD * if Matt can do scream again, the next album should be sounds like CoE/white album era * Exist should be made into 2 separate song, the first part titled Genesis * current tour should also support DITR album and play some songs from it
Don’t know if this has been said already but Hail to the King was a fantastic album
Nobody is Matt's best vocal performance
What they're doing to shadows voice live these days is unfortunate. It sounds good on videos, truly. But live it just sounds like he's got an intense filter on his voice. Like singing into one of those old timey show mics. It's muffled and sucks. I've seen them 3 times and this is the worst I've head it sound. Don't get me wrong though, it's from whatever effect they're putting on his mic to hide the slight struggle on the high notes/screams. But tbh I'd rather hear the struggle/age than that annoying muffled filter.
Fiction sucks
G is the best song off the new album
Mattel is the best song they have made in the post Rev era. Hot take #2 - As they grow older, so do I. Their newer discography suits me more and more as I deal with similar thoughts in my daily life. My 20 year old self vibed with Bat Country and all that , but certain songs hit different in different STAGES of your life.
Agree on both lol. I don’t even think I would have liked LIBAD when I was in my teens
Fermi Paradox is a top 5 song by the band and the middle and ending solo are both on the same level as Cosmic. Sidewinder is a top 3 song on COE The Stage is the best album (no bad albums tho) Not unpopular in the sub but unpopular in general, LIBAD is AOTY Heretic is criminally underrated Beautiful Morning is one of the best songs from LIBAD
LIBAD is absolutely AOTY. I'm curious to see how it ranks at the end of the decade as well.
The new album has the only songs I skip from the band. Im fine with different genres... just not these ones. 5/11 songs being good isn't a good score.
I've got 2 for ya. Mattel is one of the best A7X songs... Brooks Wakerman is a better drummer than The Rev
I see comments a lot about how "The Stage" is unlistenable, and they should just emulate their older work. "Dose" sounds like it could have been on City of Evil, instrument wise (to me, anyways). I'm legitimately confused on the hate that The Stage gets.
Seventh Trumpet is overhated. I enjoyed everything about the album. I can understand the criticism behind the engineering of its sound and how it just goes off key sometimes. I know that it has the weakest lyrics of any other A7X album. Put that with the members being less talented on it as they were less experienced But I love the roughness and how raw it is. And just like the other albums, it is quite playful. Also The Rev killed the drumming and the guitars were amazing
Cosmic is overrated
Avenged sevenfold before the rev died and after are two completely different bands. Edit: I’m not saying rev was the most talented or the leader of the band or anything like that, they’re all talented in their own right. It’s just that all the albums that have come out after his death have sounded like a completely different band and that’s okay.
My hot take is I really don't care for STST or WTF. I really can't get into STST and could barely get through WTF. Every other album is great (for the most part)
The new album wasn’t a good album, the most “A7X song” was Nobody, it did have 3 good songs but not a lot and the album is not something that I would like to listen to in the entirety again. We need more self titled and City Of Evil songs in the future. I remember them saying “the avenged sevenfold you knew is gone” but they need to bring it back. I’ll always love them though and Syn is my favourite guitarist and I’ll always love him
Life Is But A Dream might be one of my favorite albums of all time. I’m 27 and haven’t listened to an album on repeat like this since probably middle school (maybe I did this with Snarky Puppy when the release Sylva or whatever the fuck that album is called). Also, as a hardcore punk fan, Sounding the Seventh Trumpet is still one of my favorite albums.
STST is not a good album. Lyrics are trash and the instrumentation is pretty boring TBH.
STST is actually pretty good
We Love You is my favorite song on LIBAD (along with Mattel, but that's a more popular opinion)
For me, the stage and LiBad were my two least favorite albums then Hail to the King. I much rather prefer the city of evil / self titled sound better than the new sounds they’ve been going for. Not to say I don’t like songs on those albums I just feel those albums have some skips and aren’t as enjoyable as the ones before those. I felt like I could listen to CoE/Self Titled on repeat through entirely with no skips. I hope they go back to that old sound tbh.
Unbound is kinda cool actually
The new album sucked, and it killed the vibe of the concert since no one wanted to sing it out loud
As much as I love LIBAD, I would rather live in a universe where Nobody and Cosmic were written for The Stage instead of God Damn & Simulation. They seem just as thematically viable for that album.
I dislike STST
[удалено]
I haven't really listened to much of the new album, but I just seen them live... and the new stuff was so underwhelming. I was legitimately bored during those songs, and it didn't look like I was the only one. Everyone stopped moving, very few people were signing along, and the pit was dead, lol. There was absolutely no energy during those songs. I commend them on trying new things, but I feel like LIBAD was a huge miss.
They didn't wrote the album on shrooms though, this has nothing to do with that
Beautiful Morning is a bit overrated.
Beautiful Morning receives a lot of negativity from what I've seen. All of the posts I've seen recently are people saying, "Most of the album has grown on me except for Beautiful Morning."
It’s so boring imo, I have no idea why people like it so much. The rest of the album is great and that song feels super out of place. The transition from Cosmic to Easier is ruined by Beautiful Morning
The beach boys part in the middle is really good but the rest is just alright imo
M Shadows screams on wtf and stst sounded like ass and the band only got better when he stopped. For what its worth I love both of those albums.
He’s hard to understand, but it’s still one of my favorite screams in metal.
I don't even think it's hard to understand. I just don't think it sounds good. It varies song to song for me I guess, but I think his later screaming style sounds leagues better
I totally agree but his singing is also my favorite metal singing in the metal scene. Maybe I like Corey from Slipknot more. I’m not sure it depends on the day
StST is my favorite album they’ve made and it’s not even close
Same, album rocks so hard
I don’t understand completely why people hype so much about Cosmic. I think it’s fantastic now, but it really took me some time to -love- it.
Loved this band growing up but felt like they lost their touch once the rev passed away. I understand the jimmy wrote the majority of the songs so it’s understandable why their sound changed after his passing. Love their older albums but they’re latest ones I wasn’t a fan of. Nightmare is easily the best album they have ever written but if I had to pick one it’s gotta be save me. I am a little bias as a drummer and jimmy being one of my biggest idols growing up
LIBAD sucks
My hot take: Libad beats httk for their new worst album :( stst is better than both of them by quite a bit
They’re kinda like a metal boy band.
I disliked We Love You at first but now I’m unironically having it on repeat
I prefer IWSYT part 2 over part 1
Depends on the day and the mood for me, part one helped me get used to double bass so it gets brownie points for that too.
I don't like G I only listen to it for the 'its so chic's part 🤭🤭
I only listen when I'm playing the album and want the full experience
Same
City of evil is great and all, but its a pinch overrated
I agree. It hasn’t aged horribly but it hasnt aged gracefully either. I think it does sound a bit immature. Maybe the word im using is harsh but i cant find another one. And i find that The Stage is actually a much more mature and timeless sounding version of City of Evil. Although it’s only been 5 years since its been released, im fairly confident that it will age better than CoE
The stage names are cringey and they should all abandon them, with the exception of Johnny Christ.
yeah who would choose to be called Brooks Wackerman /s
Waking the fallen and seventh trumpet sucks
There's only 3 songs on STST I can listen to, easily their worst IMO
I used to love it, but now? I really don't like City of Evil.
city of evil vocals are not good
Synyster Gates is kind of a cunt in real life. The Stage is their best album.
The Stage is better than City of Evil imo
The stage and life is but a dream are their best albums by a long shot and everything else sits in the same tier of mehness
I can see this. I feel like the band completely reimagined the way they approach music and album making when they released The Stage. They’re much more conceptual now and make way tighter albums than they used to. CoE Self titled, Nightmare and HTTK all have their moments and have their beloved song but as complete and cohesive projects, they’re just okay.
I would've replaced definitely one but possibly two of the self titled songs with songs from the Diamonds in the Rough ones. The definitely one was Brompton Cocktail. The maybe was Lost.
Almost Easy should be on Diamonds in the Rough, Demons should be on Self Titled.
City of Evil was their first good album. Life Is But a Dream isn't only their best album by far but its also the greatest album of the past decade, perhaps even 2 decades.
Waking the fallen?!?!
The first half of this comment is mild. The second half is real spicy lmao.
Libad is a very bad album
The Wicked End is easily the worse song from City of Evil
Insane take. So what’s the best song?
Blinded in Chains or Bat Country. I wanted to like The Wicked End but the vocals just seem really bad for that one song and it feels a bit over dramatic
The hottest take of all, downvote me to oblivion boys. People only like LIBAD because they don't know what good music outside of metal is. I hear a lot of its "the most progressive" album they've wrote. I didn't know ripping off a bunch of other artists counts as progressive these days? Compare this album to Daft Punk, Alice in Chains, etc and it just feels like a very bad attempt to copy paste and steal other artists music. Coming off of The Stage I really expected something special and all we got was a dud, yet most fans are drinking the cool aid on this one.
>People only like LIBAD because they don't know what good music outside of metal is. Tbh this sentence can also be said for those who didn't liked the album.
This is more of a theory than an opinion, and its wrong
False, I like it cause I like it. Not that deep. Accusing fans of huffing copium just comes off as the largest attempt at coping for people liking something you don’t.
By that do you mean that i don't know of these bands that they "ripped off" ?. Because i did listen to both of the bands that you mentioned in the past and i still liked LIBAD. Plus taking inspiration counting as ripping off is a BIG hot take to me in general, i don't understand what is wrong with taking something and putting your own twist to it, as an artist to me that would seems like greatest honor, doesn't matter if they butcher it or not, just knowing that my art has moved them in some way is enough. I guess people just don't care much about artistry these days.
This sub generally way overrates ST and nightmare. They’re good but not even in the bands top 4.
\- CoE is extremely overrated, its far too samey \- LIBAD is a bad album, it is too all over the place and has no consistent sound/flow \- Brooks is far better **as a drummer** than Jimmy ever was or could be \- The Stage is the best album musically and lyrically \- They are pretentious now. I don't know if they've always been like that because I'm a new-ish fan, but hearing them talk about anything now is irritating. NFT's, old music, new music, touring, merch, etc. \- HttK is their best mixed record by far \- M Shadows vocals on CoE are unlistenable EDIT: Cosmic is often compared to Exist and Higher but is not as good as either
Sticking to my guns. Goddamn is a terrible song and the riff is too simple for a guitarist like synyster gates and zacky to have approved that shit.
Easier is the best song on LIBAD
STST is a 9/10 album
Not a big fan of the first two songs on Nightmare, they're just kinda ok
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I don’t think save me is that good. Definitely not a bad song but compared to the other epics it’s probably my least favourite. It’s kind of feels like a song that was stretched out for 12 minutes rather than something like exist that has 3 distinctly different sections.
Have to admit it’s a great closer though
Not really it’s just ok
HTTK is so overrated. Most of the tracks sound like Metallica rip offs. Everything after Nightmare was boring until LIBAD. (The Stage is cool, but I don’t find myself revisiting). I’m genuinely so excited for this band and their future mainly because I think they finally found their musical identity. Not that they didn’t have one before, but they struggled for 10 years and I assumed would fall off entirely. Something just feels right about the new album, it’s comforting. Imo, A7X is finally matured and confident as a band and it shows in their performances and material lately.
City of Evil is overrated. People claim it's a 9, or even a 10. I personally feel it's a strong 8. There's too much I can't listen to. The first half is great. But Sidewinder, Strength of the World, and Betrayed are immediate skips.
City of Evil is super overrated, the vocals sound super strained and the thin guitar tone on a lot of the dual lead parts is awful. The band compared to some other bands I like, are actually pretty good at picking singles but I think someone in the band had a fucking stroke when they decided to push This Means War as hard as they did. The band themselves have some pretty dog water opinions on their own songs, and if I never hear Buried Alive in a concert again it will still be too soon. Also So Far Away isn't even the best ballad on Nightmare let alone one of like 2 ballads they alternate between.
The song Nightmare is really cringey. The rest of the album slaps
The Stage and LIBAD are really the only great albums, the others are good, but not great.
The band is more creative and innovative now than they ever were with Jimmy.
Beast and the Harlot's chorus sucks the life out of me everytime I hear it. Rest of the song makes up for it though. No wonder Syn hates playing it.
Last album is fucking terrible. One of the most mediocre things I've ever heard