Avenged Sevenfold is a band usually brushed aside by rock fans and critics alike. While some may argue that this is rather unfair, after listening to the band's newest self-titled effort, it seems that perhaps this discrimination is well warranted.
The band first came to prominence with its 2005 album "City of Evil," an album loaded with power-rock ballads and speed metal guitar solos, but lacking in basic melodic catchiness. The band's previous release, "Waking the Fallen" (2003), was much of the same, full of elongated songs with winding structures, but no real discernible choruses or truly ingenuous riffs.
The band's newest release is, sadly, simply more of the same generic riffing, which is truly disappointing coming from a band that has potential to do so much more with its music than just cover old ground. Nearly every song on the album begins with a slow piano or guitar intro, swelling into a double-bass-drum barrage from drummer The Reverend Tholomew Plague, and eventually disintegrating into cheesy harmonized guitar solos from guitarists Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance - and yes, those are their names.
The first track and first single from the self-titled album, "Critical Acclaim," starts exactly as previously described, with a swelling dramatic organ intro breaking into a wall of distorted guitars and speedy drums. The lyrics, on the other hand, are actually rather deep, for a metal band at least, taking a look into the current political scene in America, beginning with "Shh, be quiet, you might piss somebody off / like the heartbeat of this country when antagonized too long." Although the lyrics are not all that insightful, they will almost assuredly get the listener riled up over something.
The second cut and second single, "Almost Easy," is similar to the first, but with a bit catchier chorus and a better guitar riff. What is most readily noticeable about this piece is that the production quality seems to have dropped off rapidly from the previous track, as if this version of the song was a demo, waiting to be redone for the album version.
Perhaps the best song on the CD is the third track, "Scream," which unfortunately is not a cover of the Michael Jackson song. Although the track starts out with a clichéd horror movie scream, the guitar riff that kicks in next propels the song into legitimacy. The chorus, which comes after a series of verses and winding bridges, is the most melodic and well-constructed on the album, with a fantastic backbeat from The Rev that makes the song more than just another processed metal menagerie.
Unfortunately, "Scream" is subject to the same pratfalls as the rest of the album, eventually ending up at a dead end with a poorly written two-part guitar solo leading into lead singer M. Shadows growling some insipid phrase multiple times in his limited singing range, if "singing" is even the right term. This song could have used another well thought-out guitar riff, or even a drum solo, since The Rev is obviously the one holding the band together and making the music interesting to listen to through nearly every song.
"Afterlife," the fifth song on the album, is yet another carbon copy of the previous four, with an orchestral introduction followed by - you guessed it - a straight 16th note double-bass-drum-and-tedious-guitar-riff extravaganza. While the riff is decent enough, singer M. Shadows' voice is just annoying by this point of the album, as it has become apparent that his descending growls are only a cover for a lack of melodic ingenuity.
The second-to-last song, "A Little Piece of Heaven," is a surprisingly different song that the band, for some odd reason, felt the need to disguise as the same old crap it's been doing for more than five years. The tune is an eight-minute epic rock ballad spiced up with carnival-esque orchestra parts and accordion solos.
This is a perfect example of what the band should have been doing all along: using its penchant for long and winding songs to construct something that is so confusing, it's novel and interesting rather than overwrought and predictable in its complexity.
Avenged Sevenfold is a half-decent rock act that should have more faith in itself and go for continued improvement rather than its current contentedness with stagnation. Its new self-titled album suffers from under-production - which is rarely the case with any modern rock album - and a boring similarity between songs. The individual members should take a year of lessons at their respective instruments, regroup, and see what they're actually capable of producing.
