Avenged Sevenfold Gamble with Avant-Garde Metal on Life is But a Dream…

How experimental is it?

Alexander Razin
The Riff

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Image Credit: Warner Bros. and Avenged Sevenfold via Walmart.

Music fans, we have musicians we hear from time to time. We may not play their music every time, but we give them a listen whenever they release anything new. I have many of those musicians, and Avenged Sevenfold is without exception.

Starting as a metalcore and punk band in 1999, Avenged Sevenfold (A7X) is a metal outfit from Huntington Beach, California. They reinvent themselves in each of their releases. From traditional heavy metal to progressive metal, Avenged Sevenfold experimented with successful results.

Their most noteworthy was 2013’s Hail to the King, reaching number one on the Billboard 200 Album Chart. In addition, Hail to the King sold 1,000,000 copies, certifying it Platinum from the RIAA in 2021.

I have been a fan of Avenged Sevenfold since I was a teenager in the early 2010s. Mind you, I only listened to singles rather than the entire albums. I was 20 in 2015, and Avenged Sevenfold didn’t appeal to me anymore — they sounded cliche and annoying.

So, I ignored Avenged Sevenfold for the rest of the 2010s until they dropped Life Is But a Dream… in 2023. I thought of ignoring A7X again, but I said, “Let’s give a band I loved as a teenager another try.”

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Alexander Razin
The Riff

Aficionado and connoisseur of obscure and experimental music, movies, and TV. Fictional and nonfictional pieces have their place here, too