Nightmare

On Christmas 2009, Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan handed in a demo for a song he had written entitled "Death" and proclaimed, "That's it, that's the last song for this record." Three days later, the Avenged Sevenfold drummer was found in his home, dead from a lethal mix of prescription drugs and alcohol. On Tuesday, A7X will release that record, now called Nightmare, which is not only the last physical recording of The Rev's legacy, but also his tribute.

Musically, Nightmare picks up where 2007's self titled release left off. The sonic maturation that A7X has shown on every disc continues not only instrumentally but also in the vocal timbre of singer M. Shadows. Long gone is the blood curdling screamer from Waking the Fallen; what remains in his stead is a hard rock voice with a strength and tone no less unique than the icons known only by one name: Ozzy. Halford. Dio. (Shadows? Perhaps, if A7X continues on the path they seem to be destined for.)

As Virgil led Dante through Hell, so Shadows leads us through the band's own descent into darkness, greeting us on the album opening title track, "Now your nightmare comes to life!" What follows is vintage Sevenfold: tight, syncopated guitars over a steady and churning rhythm section that veer off into chaotic but melodically fluid harmony guitar leads and blistering technical solos. Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance can arguably be called the greatest guitar duo since the turn of the century and certainly have earned the right to be named among such stalwarts as Downing/Tipton, Murray/Smith, and Degarmo/Wilton.

With such familiarity emanating from the speakers, it's easy to forget that The Rev isn't holding it all together, as he always had before. In his place is Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, who along with the always capable Johnny Christ on bass make up the backbone of A7X on Nightmare and the subsequent tour. Considered by many (and also The Rev) to be one of the greatest living drummers in the world, Portnoy shows admirable restraint and respect for his late predecessor, remaining as true as possible to The Rev's written parts from the demo versions of the album's tracks. That's not to say his mark isn't on it however. "Natural Born Killer" is classic Portnoy with an extreme double bass section punctuated by his single signature splash hit. The rocker is also indicative of the album as a whole and most likely predictive of A7X's future.

While it starts out with an almost grindcore passage of metal brutality, "Natural Born Killer" is, for all intents and purposes, a hard rock song. And while also containing more than a few moments of metal brilliance, Nightmare is, in fact, very much a hard rock album. At this point it shouldn't really surprise anyone - the biggest stylistic change from metalcore to melodic metal happened between Waking the Fallen and City of Evil and all the "hardcore" fans who complained about the band "selling out" at that time are (hopefully) long gone. Since then, the band has continued to gradually evolve into what they are today.

Avenged Sevenfold haven't abandoned their roots though. Songs like "Buried Alive" and "God Hates Us" feature some Metallica inspired thrash that would make any metalhead proud. And these songs don't come off as bones thrown to older fans - they're very much a part of who A7X still is and probably, to some extent, always will be. But the majority of riffs and rhythms throughout Nightmare rely more on blues based progressions than ever before. A perfect example of this is "Tonight the World Dies," a dirty bayou blues rocker with some wicked slide guitar work reminiscent of a Louisiana voodoo version of STP's "Interstate Love Song."

There are a few missteps. "Danger Line" comes off as generic and uninspired and probably shouldn't have been programmed so high up in the track listing. The play-by-numbers metal ballad chorus of "Buried Alive" is a letdown after a wonderful opening filled with Zeppelin melancholy. And whoever mixed the album should be ashamed that Johnny Christ is buried so deep. But in the grand scheme of things, none of this matters.

The central and most important focus of Nightmare are the lyrics and the overarching theme of death as well as the guilt, bitterness, and doubt of those left behind. Equal parts diary and therapy, the album is unapologetically the bared soul of lives torn apart by The Rev's tragic ending. "Will you stay away forever? How will I live without the ones I love?" sings Shadows on "So Far Away," an intimate letter to The Rev; a song of all the things that remain unsaid, of the feelings that we all take for granted in our most precious relationships. It's heartbreaking - but not without hope as Shadows knows he will be reunited with his friend again admitting, "I'll see you...when He lets me."

It all culminates with the final song that The Rev turned in last Christmas, now called, "Fiction." Written before his death, the symphonic epic sends chills to hear the foreshadowing in The Rev's own words, "Left this life to set me free, took a piece of you inside of me. Now this hurt can finally fade, promise me you'll never be afraid." In the ultimate emotional turn, The Rev's own vocals were left in the recording and they are soul crushing as he sings, "I know you'll find your own way when I am not with you." His voice fades out and Shadows picks up his part, and his burden as the one left behind. The song is a masterpiece and the greatest gift The Rev could have left for us.

The album closes with Save Me, a perfect bookend to the album opener. Opening with a discordant instrumental symbolizing the attempted escape from the hour-long Nightmare, the song continues to chronicle the theme of being left behind and the pleas to join The Rev in the afterlife. The realization arrives that the "nightmare" of The Rev's passing may feel like a dream but they will inevitably awake into a reality where he is gone and nothing will bring him back. Although still angry and bitter, Shadows know he must go on alone and begs, "Help me find my way." And though he can't join his friend yet, he knows that they will always be connected as he repeats, "Tonight we all die young," until the album comes to its end.

For better or worse, Nightmare can only be judged in light of the tragic events that preceded it. Because of that, it's hard to critique an album where the listener transcends the musical experience to become a voyeuristic observer of the bands grief and recovery process. But while uncomfortable at times, it is ultimately hopeful, and needs to be recognized as not only an important addition to the A7X discography but also a powerful statement about losing the ones we love and living in the aftermath.

The central theme of Nightmare by Avenged Sevenfold is emotion. Certainly with the death of a fellow member of the band and a brother, the members of Avenged Sevenfold were swimming in an ocean of emotions. This album has remorse, confusion, and pure hate among other varied emotions that enable listeners to intake a small taste of the experience these talented individuals underwent.

Nightmare (5/5): The title and opening track of Nightmare begins your journey with a bang. This track starts off with a dreamy chime before blowing you away with Shadows screaming "nightmare" leading you into a high paced experienced. This track was well chosen as the leading single. It's very catchy and it isn't long before you're singing along learning of the bands nightmare that is about to unfold before you.

Welcome To The Family (5/5): This track is probably a future single and perhaps the most accessible song on the album. After a shout out to a "Waking the Fallen" instrumental intro Shadows jumps into the melody of this very catchy track. Like Nightmare this song is also set to prepare you for what's to come. It addresses the cacophony of emotions running rampant with their minds. We see that even the members of A7X aren't sure exactly what they are feeling it's a mixture of so many raw emotions, "When our thoughts are so numb and our feelings unsure
We all have emptiness inside, We all have answers to find, But you can't win this fight." Among the catchy melody and chorus is a blazing a solo and Shadows intermixing a growl/whisper tone to conclude this track

Danger Line (3/5): This song starts off with a marching band type drum progression, before jumping into a moderately high passed jam. I enjoyed this song, but it just didn't seem to fit into the concept of the album. It's well known that Avenged Sevenfold are big supporters of the men, women, and children affected by war and the lives of soldiers, which this song exemplifies. There is an interesting surprise towards the end of the song when the melody and pace slows to almost a ballad, highly contrasting with the fairly quick pace the song initially sets. As I said before this is a pretty decent stand alone song, but just doesn't flow or mesh with the rest of the album.

Buried Alive (5/5): This track begins with a long, slower paced Metallica-esk intro of guitar bliss before finally jumping into the initial melody of the song. Maintaining the Thrash ballad feel the song jumps into a powerful chorus that takes you a little bit by surprise the first time you hear it. This song has a groove about it early on that will leave you feeling relaxed and intrigued before it hits the blistering solo that synyster shreds out with technical perfection. Soon after the solo, however, the song takes an adrenaline pumping twist, pounding out heavy chords and a deep base. With that we get the first real taste of Shadows screaming since Waking the fallen, which left my jaw on the floor. Lyrically, through the progression, the concept of the album is continued. While using the tracks "Nightmare" and "Welcome to the Family" as a basis for the album, Buried Alive suggest the feelings the band felt after the initial shock wore off. Without Jimmy the band felt, as the title suggests, trapped and helpless. The progression of the song also leans towards the experience of claustrophobia. At first the trapped feeling is subtle and leaves you vulnerable, but if the feeling continues to linger it doesn't take long before the feeling detonates into an overwhelming flurry of pain, as if not only were they trapped and alone but suffocating in their own hell. The final lines of this song bring Avenged Sevenfold forward to an angry acceptance of what has happened to them this past year as Shadows bellows "THIS IS NOW YOUR LIFE, DIE BURIED ALIVE"

Natural Born Killer (5/5): This track will blow your mind away the first time you hear it. This track begins at a blistering speed and only lets up a little during the chorus just so you can process the instrumental inferno that just took place and will undoubtedly continue post chorus. What stood out to me on this song was the drumming. Portnoy did a great job filling in for The Rev, but it's still very obvious that it was in fact Portnoy doing the drumming on this album, while doing his best to keep The Rev's memory alive. This track, however, just screamed The Rev in every direction. If I didn't know it was Portnoy I would have thought Jimmy was able to leave this beat behind. To me, due to the drumming, this song is the most complete. It not only has a nostalgic feel about it, seeing as how it could be a love child of "Waking the Fallen" and "City of Evil," but also the fact that you can almost sense Jimmy behind the kit.

So Far Away (4/5): This song dismisses any intro and jumps into the emotional ride. The lyrics for this song were written by Synyster as his goodbye or just his feelings for The Rev. The song begins with a very straight forward verse, a guitar, and Shadows singing his words, that's about it. This song wasn't meant to be impressive really, it was just meant to help heal. Synyster opens his heart for this song describing who Jimmy was to him and how he's felt upon losing his best friend. Even though it probably wasn't meant to impress, parts of it still deserve notice. The solo in this song is simply gorgeous. Synyster begins with an acoustic medley following a slight pause before jumping into the sweet sound of steel. It's nowhere near his most complicated piece, but it speaks to the listeners without remorse, leaving a long lasting impression. While this song can be hard to listen to without tears welling up in your eyes, you'll find yourself wanting to experience this one over and over.

God Hates us (Holy **** 5/5): After So far away this track begins with a lighthearted intro meant to settle you in for the ride. Then out of nowhere this song jumps right out of the speakers drop kicks you in the face, beats you senselessly while you are down, and leaves you feeling entirely violated, yet somehow you enjoyed it. If there was any question as to whether Shadows would pull out some screams again, this track will solidify your belief. This is the hardest song I've heard from the band and it just devours you with raw emotion. Not only is this band hurt, but they are pissed. You can hear the anger and tears behind Shadows' words and it will drive you down the same path. This song will upset and offend some people while, taking the rest as its hostage of brilliance until this song comes to and lighthearted outro, leaving as subtly as it came.

Victim (5/5): This song begins with the chiming of what I would expect to be church bells and the choral female sounds influenced by Pink Floyd before transitioning into a very touching song. The feeling I got from this song was pure confusion. Avenged Sevenfold has vented some of their anger and beginning to accept what happened to them, but they still can't be sure. "And some say this can't be real, And I've lost my power to feel, tonight we are all just victims of a crime," the fairly catchy chorus sang by Shadows reveals that although they are accepting what has happened, they just don't know why. Why did this have to happen to their brother? Why did this have to happen to them? why did this have to happen to our fans? This track touched me unlike any other. We all do feel like something was taken from us, that there's really no just cause, and that it's something that we will never get back.

Tonight The World Dies (4/5): This song took me a while to warm up to, but it's actually a great piece in itself. This track continues the concept of the album with a blues influence to it. It remains blues oriented throughout rarely deviating from the somber feeling. This track illustrates that even with their loss they will continue to hold on, perhaps frozen in place with their emotions. Although the time moves on, they will live each day, perhaps feeling as if they could have done something to prevent this tragedy, but they know it's too late now. Even though time does continue to move their world has collapsed and they will never be the same. This song will probably only be appreciated by more hardcore fans. It's unlike anything Avenged Sevenfold has done in the past and true fans will understand the feelings and emotions behind it, but casual fans will probably be left unsatisfied.

Fiction (2.5/5 or 5/5): This song is what will be remembered as Jimmy's last legacy. It was originally entitled "Death" when Jimmy presented it mere days before his death. It was almost as if he knew his time was up and that he wanted us all to be ok without him. "Left this life to set me free, took a piece of you inside of me. All this hurt can finally fade ,promise me you'll never feel afraid." While listening to this song I was almost brought to tears. It's haunting hearing this song which is the only song to include Jimmy's vocals. The lyrics for this song are so appropriate considering the situation we are all in. Perhaps, with time, we can all learn to move on and celebrate his life properly, but for now we will continue to mourn. I gave this song two ratings, because of the perspective it can have. To hardcore A7X fans, this song is as much a blessing as it is a curse. We absorb as much of Jimmy as we can and this is a wonderful tribute to Jimmy's memory. To the casual fan, however, this song will not be satisfying. The gothic piano melody can be intoxicating, but as the band wanted it, the rest remained fairly untouched. The vocals from Jimmy were demos, though done very well, it's easy to think that they would be cleaner had Jimmy had the time to properly record them, especially during a few of the spoken parts where the quality is not what it could have been. Also, while the band could have probably altered this song with other instruments and melodic adjustments, they felt that would tarnish The Rev's memory. So for the hardcore fans this song is a masterpiece and something that will have a lasting effect on us. For the casual fan this song will just fade away as a memory of a song that just didn't seem finished.

Save Me (5/5): This song shows that perhaps Mike Portnoy and Dream Theater may have had a little bit of influence on Avenged Sevenfold much as they influenced him. This song is an epic progressive metal adventure with a catchy melody and haunting lyrics. This song moves through progression changes and melody shifts, with brilliant instrumental technicality over the 11min track. This track puts a wonderful conclusion to this concept album. The lyrics suggest that A7X knows they can't go back to a time where they can be with Jimmy again, but that's not to say they have seen the last of their fallen brother. In this song it sounds like the band is trying to speak directly to Jimmy hoping he can hear their plea. They wanted him to stay, but they want him to know that although they will walk this path without him that they will soon join their brother in internal life. As they march through the days alone, they are praying for the day when they can reunite with him once again. This song is a masterpiece, even those who are not huge fans can appreciate everything that went into making this song an epic journey.

Closing thoughts:

Hardcore Fans: Album (9.3/10)
This album is an amazing treat for hardcore fans. The band said that it was not a concept album, but the album very much plays as a concept album directed at the loss of Jimmy. With everything that has happened in the A7X family this album hits every emotion and directs us through the bands journey. We should all be happy that we got an album at all, much less one of amazing quality and delivery.

Win: Fiction - Getting to hear the Rev's voice and brilliance one more time.

Fail: Danger Line - Not a horrible track, but didn't mesh with the rest of the album at all.

Casual Fans: Album (7.5/10)*as well as I can think about it objectively.
Casual fans will find great interest in the albums heavier tracks such as God Hates Us, Natural Born Killer, Nightmare, and Welcome to the Family, but the rest of the album may be lacking for them. This album has a much darker mood and a generally slower pace than Avenged Sevenfold's previous albums, leaving something to be desired from casual fans, who enjoyed the party rock of Beast and the Harlot and Bat Country.

Win: Welcome to the Family - A high paced, very catchy, thrilling song that will make just about everybody who enjoys music bounce with approval.

Fail: Fiction - This track just can't be appreciated if you don't understand the meaning behind the album.

One last thing, this review was simply my personal perspective of the meaning behind the songs and the album as whole.

I have to admit that the only reason I bought this CD in the first place was because my favorite drummer, Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), joined A7X for this album and tour, after the sudden death of The Rev. Well, now we all know that he quit his band of 25 years during the Uproar Festival, but I don't know if he plans on staying with these guys.

Anyways, Nightmare is a really good album from start to finish. It has a nice mixture of metal songs like Nightmare, Welcome To The Family, Natural Born Killer, and God Hates Us, while balancing itself with some mid-tempo rockers like the old school Metallica sounding Buried Alive. Most important of course, these guys can really play. The drumming is outstanding as expected, the vocals have enough variation to remain interesting, and the guitars, while heavy at times, keep the technical aspects on display with some nice harmonies and solos. I'm not usually into the more recent class of metal music, but Avenged Sevenfold has the talent to keep them going through another decade and beyond.

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