Nightmare

Bereavement and enforcement in Avenged Sevenfold

On the release of the eponymous album, Avenged Sevenfold looked capable enough to reach the stars and conquer any heights. Even the most meticulous and strictest critics shared this opinion. However, one tragic event questioned not only the band’s further progress, but even the very fact of the band’s existence. In the late 2009, Avenged Sevenfold’s drummer, James Sulliva, was found dead in his house. He was one of the most skilled kit-masters in the rock community, and the outfit’s main creative force. Everybody knew right then that even if the ensemble carried on, the music and the image would be completely different. Avenged Sevenfold did carry on. Moreover, to record the following long player, Nightmare, they some how managed to put behind the drum-kit no one other than Mike Portnoy, that very Mike Portnoy who has been working hard and in good faith for Dream Theater, the progressive metal leaders. Mike is hardly likely to stay with Avenged Sevenfold to play on regular basis, but even the short-time cooperation with him in the studio yielded more than enough. Nightmare is not a terrifying vision, but a sweetest dream come true for everyone who likes hard rock music.

Many-faceted metal on Nightmare

Nightmare is opened by a smashing eponymous track. The sinister intro is followed by a dynamite-like riff that has no mercy on you. It gets even meaner if you add M. Shadows’ desperate singing or, rather, howling. Although it lasts about six minutes, the track speeds through you mind like a rapidest train. The first half of the album features mostly the songs done in the Avenged Sevenfold characteristic manner. Welcome To The Family, Danger Line, and Buried Alive are intense tracks with intriguing lead-ins, aggressive core parts and impressive endings. As you cross the border of the second half, you will know that the musicians afforded some liberties toying with music. Like many other performers of extreme music, Avenged Sevenfold tried playing a ballad. Although many metal makers crashed at this point, this band is not going to regret recording the lyrical So Far Away. It is immediately followed by the album’s, supposedly, heaviest song, God Hates Us, while M. Shadows’ vocals, which have just a minute ago sounded so sweet and touching, turn into a pure death-metal growling. The final epic Save Me is preceded by Sullivan’s last song, Fiction. It might seem a horrid coincidence that the original title of this piece was Death.

Avenged Sevenfold advance farther

It does not take a genius to understand that the drummer’s performance is beyond any doubt. Portnoy simply can not play poorly; and the rhythm section of Avenged Sevenfold on the Nightmare songs is exemplary. M. Shadows keeps working on his voice. This release shows that the range of his vocal skills is very wide, but the most encouraging thing is that whatever technique he is using this is emotions he puts first. The main conclusion about the guitars is that the perfect craftsmanship here is not to surprise the listener with its perfection, but is used to materialize all the interesting ideas the instrumentalists have and make their music as diversified as possible. Nightmare is, in fact, a very long CD almost reaching the seventy-minute mark and featuring eleven tracks. But none of these songs could have been eliminated from the final set. This work plainly has no flaws. Everything is executed skillfully: from the terrific cover designed according to all metal-music traditions, and to the music itself. Avenged Sevenfold are too young and too good to stop now; and no circumstances will keep them from advancing farther.