Personal opinions of ‘Avenged Sevenfold - The Stage’

Today I’ve decided that I’m going to review ‘The Stage’ by Avenged Sevenfold. I’ve given it a couple of listens now, and good god… This album is going to be hard work.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. It’s just I’m having a bit of a problem with this. The thing is, I actually really like Avenged Sevenfold. There are many songs by this Heavy Metal group that are staple favourites for me, and a few of them actually feature on this album. As far as A7X’s career has gone, ‘The Stage’ is probably one of the strongest albums they’ve ever recorded. It’s a little different than some of their past work, and it seems to carry more of a political bite to it than their usual narrative like constructions. But it is also very mature, masterful and demonstrates a level of growth that’s very fitting for this band. Honestly, there are very few problems with practicality or musicianship that I can bring up with ‘The Stage’.

And yet, for some reason, I don’t really like this album…

So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to give a two-sided review this week. First I’ll talk about this album’s strengths and parts of it that I really enjoyed, then after that I’ll give my own personal opinions on the parts of it that annoyed me. I’m going to address particular problems I have with this release, so if you decide you want to try it out, you’ll go in with fair warnings. I will try and be as objective as I possibly can, but I think I’ll be venting a lot of my frustrations here. And I want you to understand, my personal opinion is not universal. If you disagree with me on anything I mention in this review, that is absolutely fine. You can listen to what you want. But at the same time, I’m not going to hold back on what I feel about an album that didn’t really do it for me.

Okay? Okay.

So let’s start off by talking about this album’s good points. As I said before, ‘The Stage’ is actually a very strong release. It takes elements of Avenged Sevenfold’s melodic and sometimes orchestral Metal style and directs it into more Progressive territory. It’s kind of the perfect direction for them, since their music has always been quite fanciful with narrative themes thrown into a few of their best songs. One difference with the conceptual side of this release however would be A7X’s new political ideology, one which fits in very well with our present day circumstances, and also ties in with the year of its release, 2016. The political edge to the concept provides for a bit of a Punk vibe too, particularly with the song ‘God Damn’ which despite being the shortest song in the tracklist, is a sharp, fun example of the band’s maturity.

The more Progressive Metal slant is most apparent in songs like ‘Paradigm’, ‘Sunny Disposition’ and ‘Simulation’ which make common use in sliding or abrupt changes in key, tempo and genre. Each of the three has its own unique standing as good songs with their respective uses of dark toned vocals, Brass instruments within the chorus, or the inclusion of guest voices for spoken word junctions during the bridge. Most of the songs on this album have their own experimental elements within them. Whether with the different verse to chorus structures, or the use of long winded guitars solos, each one is kind of its own masterpiece. Despite this, I’d say the best song on this album would be the titular and first track, ‘The Stage’. It is a bit of a long one, I’ll admit. But it’s probably the best intro track I’ve ever heard. It’s attitude and catchiness really sets the tone for the album’s concept and musical style, and the tempo is very powerful. The slower parts of the ending of the song also has a really sad beauty to it that’s perfectly performed by Avenged Sevenfold.

While I would argue that songs ‘Angels’, ‘Simulation’ and ‘Higher’ start off in rather similar veins, and that ‘Roman Sky’ feels a little placid and lifeless, I’d say that this is a pretty decent album. Perhaps songs are better off being heard separately so that their unique foils can be fully appreciated, but despite a few dips and rises in consistency, it’s not too bad of a listen. But, that isn’t to say that this album doesn’t have problems. I mean, all albums do. But this one in particular has some issues, small ones perhaps, that I just can’t overlook.

First of all, good god, this album is so long! And yeah, okay that is pretty typical with Avenged Sevenfold. They do write long songs, and most of the time that isn’t really a problem. It wouldn’t even be worth bringing up if it weren’t for the fact that the initial eleven tracks of ‘The Stage’ accumulate to over 73 minutes, (That being without the covers and live versions on the deluxe edition). Worst still is that around 15 of those 73 minutes is allotted to one song, that being the final track, ‘Exist’. ‘Exist’ is just awfully self indulgent if I'm being honest. It’s too long, most of the time on the track is spent with instrumental music, only a quarter of it features any actual singing, and the ending quarter is a dull, annoying, spoken word essay on how fucked up the world is. It’s like Classic Rock and Post-Metal teamed up at an industrial factory and gave a boring presentation about life while trying to sound cool. God dammit Avenged Sevenfold, I didn’t need this! I know you guys do long songs and I accept that that’s just one of your foibles. I even accept and love that many of those long songs are some of your best work. But you didn’t have to do this! I mean, 15 minutes! Most of the songs on ‘The Stage’ range from 5-6 minutes long as they are. It didn't have to be this way!

The second issue, and if I’m being honest probably the more important one, is this album’s lack of Avenged Sevenfold’s usual attitude. Songs like ‘The Stage’ and ‘God Damn’ are exceptions to this, but overall, this record comes across as a little bit conventional. And that’s okay, there’s nothing wrong with having straightforward convention. But it’s a little unusual when it’s coming from a band like this one. A7X have always had a certain character, a certain persona that shines through their music. One that’s multi-faceted, colourful and full of theatricality. It carries through it’s pacing and tempo, it’s melodies and it’s rhythms, the god like guitar solos, and most of all, the layered and individual vocals. At its highs and it’s lows, the vocals have always been full of emotion and power. Enough so that they really bring out the wonder, beauty and fury of the other components. This isn’t really as prevalent within the music of ‘The Stage’ however. I don’t want to make the assumption that the absence of the deceased Rev from years previous has some link to this, but he was the prominent backing vocalist and founding member of the band. Either way, with or without his input, the vocals on ‘The Stage’, while well tuned and furious, also come across as dull and even a little annoying. And without that much needed flair and bite, the band can’t hope to bring out the juicy goodness of the wonderful instrumentation like they did before.

Avenged Sevenfold have matured to a certain point, and I credit them for continuing on a fairly strong journey. There are a fair few songs from ‘The Stage’ that I’m hoping to continue listening to more often. But as for the album itself, no. I don’t think so. There are qualities to many of the songs on this album that make them individually enjoyable. But there are none that justify their existence within the confines of a full length studio release. Particularly one of such length and convention… At the end of the day, I can’t really tell anyone what to do. I’ve given my reasons as to why I didn’t enjoy ‘The Stage’ as fairly as I could. But who knows, maybe I’m missing a trick here. All I will say is this. If you decide to give this album a try, by all means go for it. I hope you enjoy it, and if this kind of music is more your thing, then all the more power to you. But I’ve given my warnings, and I hope they will be heeded.

So now down to the marking. To Avenged Sevenfold, I’ll give them the mark of 8/10. Even if I don’t appreciate all of their most recent work, I have to admit that it is rather special. To ‘The Stage’ however, I’m going to have to be a bit cruel and give it a 6/10. It’s not the worst thing out there, but it’s length and self-indulgence can be insufferable. But, as a rare bonus, I will give their song ‘God Damn’ a 10/10 as the most fun, exciting, and shortest song on this release.

I hope you enjoyed this review. It was a bit more biased and personal than how I usually work, but next week I think I’ll explore an album that I’ll enjoy a little more. I’ll see you next week.