Avenged Sevenfold's Nightmare - the initial album review and the Metallica resemblance.

I'm aware I'm not ahead by a damn sight in doing this review even if I got this record on it's first day of release. And as seasoned readers most of you may well be, you know for a fact there's really nothing proverbial to say if you have only been listening to tracks you just got a few days ago. Not even if you had looped the songs non-stop. So at this point, it's only initial impressions. And I bet those are what you may be wanting for if you're reading this right now. Unless you enjoy that 'song-opens-with-a-thunderous-explosive-stick-count-ends-in-an-apocalyptic-bassdrum' kind of bullcrap, I'm not doing that. It's a waste of time, that kind of literal horseshit account. Hear the tracks in Amazon preview for fuck's sake rather than have somebody describe them to you in words.

Believed to be the heaviest record to date from these Huntington Beach rockers, Nightmare for me stands in a laterally different category with their past releases. Heavy is relative. Arguably I can't label this effort as such. If it's one thing, Nightmare is their saddest record so far. Even If I had not known the passing of The Rev, I could and probably would have stated that there's the sad signature in this record. Still not convinced? Give me one song, just one song from Nightmare where we can unanimously concur that they just went out there and played for the fun of it. Something like they did with Bat Country from City Of Evil or Scream from the self-titled one. Quite noticeably, there is not one 'fun' song in this record. Predictable to an extent, of course, losing Jimmy just recently. And let me just add, having been a huge follower of their behind-the-scenes videos, that I'm pretty much sure The Rev was the happiest camper in the pack. So abandon all hopes of fresh radio-friendly hooks and stripper tunes, there are just none in this new output.

Yet in the same light, there's no mistaking that this is unashamedly and unabashedly an Afuckin7X record.

It's no big task backtracking some to shed light on how they came up with the sound in Nightmare. With Mike Portnoy filling in on The Rev's shoes, a kind gesture I must say, there's really no reason for Dream Theater fans to be checking this one out for his drumming. There's almost no difference- even The Rev's trademark 'double ride' was effortlessly executed by his icon, as heard in 'Natural Born Killer'. As you may have noticed, everything was on 'template' already, with Mike suggesting a few tweaks here and there. Thus that leaves us no basis as well to gauge how much creative output expired with the Rev as he was a part of the laying of the groundwork as everyone was. But the recording is another matter, and his screaming is sure missed. At least he had graced us with his 'let it burn..' part in the song 'Fiction'.

The loudest buzz going on with respect to initial reviews is how much of a resemblance this record is to the early Metallica sound. And that is what I want to objectively tackle. Too many haters seem to disagree but cannot prove that there's nothing Metallica-esque here. True, it may be, that it all sums up to one's perception. But I'll give it a try. 

No painstaking scrutiny needed here, but it should be made clear whether we refer to the 'rig' or the 'riff'. Some tracks do, on occasion, sound like it used the same rig or set-up with the ones used in Master of Puppets, though I doubt there were any ESP's but there's no mistaking in the depth of distortions. The amps, the environment, lots of other factors may be the same. Even the clean guitar employed on the song 'Victim' is evidently Hetfield-reminiscent. 


As with regard to the 'riff', well that's a different subject. As much as I hate to stride on these grounds, I will have to name a few. The song 'Buried Alive' embarked on to its heavy part with something that sounded like the 'Orion' main riff, and by the outro I seriously thought they were flagrantly quoting 'Ride The Lightning'. I hear also, 'My Apocalypse' via the same Death Magnetic style palm-muted chugs in the rhythm filler of the solo to 'Welcome To The Family'. One thing that is not Metallica thrash here is the song 'God Hates Us'. Albeit with a familiar title, conversely it doesn't translate to that Slayer song. The main riff rings to me like another thrash song that has even got something synonymously resonant of the title -Death Angel's 'Lord Of Hate'. If you have noticed anything even remotely Pantera about this song, or any other track for that matter, name it. Otherwise you're just another Wiki junkie who happens to have taken M.Shadows' word for it.

Moving on, I'm on the high road to being a dog with two dicks, thanks to this new record. I honestly do not care one bit if it sounds like something else. Before being the legends they are, Metallica took several strikes for sounding like Diamond Head, or whatever the critics thought close to them at the time. Yet the records they made are our anchors to everything that is great in this whole metal lineage.  Initial impressions are far easily transcended the more you play this record, as there are more than just the sound to consider. On top of everything else, Synyster Gates is as unfailing as ever in writing his guitar parts. Nothing too flashy, technique wise, but hell those licks sure make their mark. Had he lived through the eighties he would have blasted away many other pop metal axemen. Double that up with Zacky's guitar and you got a pyro of a duo that's sure to light up the sky. And we do not have that much of a tandem recently. 


With their efforts altogether, they have given us once again a full-on barrage of dark, fuck-this-world, furious songs and sad ballads that conjure up images of a funeral pyre, slow processions and a stormy weather farewell rites to a friend. Not wishing tragedy to befall anyone, but this sure is a great record to carry anyone through his darkest days.


That's how this record falls into the great halls of awesomeness. Its an album that's not a repetition of past ones yet it still maintains that hallmark sound. 2007's Avenged Sevenfold may have been well-received by the big-ass critics in the industry, in the same way that City Of Evil was taken back in '05, but evidently those two albums never sounded thematically the same. And here we got a new one that is no way inferior to the previous two. And one that just might knock-off Eminem at the Billboard top spot.


In summary, Nightmare had all the workings of a classic. It may be disparaged by your usual A7X hater, possibly not in the same degree that hair metal was criticized back then, but surely this will be one revered album now, and even 20 years after.