116 videos Play all Top Tracks - Avenged Sevenfold Avenged Sevenfold Five Finger Death Punch - Wash It All Away (Explicit) - Duration: 3:59. 5FDPVEVO 117,341,591 views. Jun 10, 2018 - “All things to all metalheads”: Avenged Sevenfold's Download headline. He got the party started on the Zippo Encore stage some hours ago. AVENGED SEVENFOLD is expected to release all the details of its new CD at an event taking place this Thursday (October 27), in which the band will give a global, 3D, 360-degree, live-streamed virtual reality performance in partnership with Universal Music Group, Capitol Records and VRLIVE.
The Californian sloggers honoured fallen friends and launched skeletal astronauts during their second Download headline set
“Let’s get this fucking party started!” yells M Shadows, much to the chagrin of Andrew WK, who was convinced he got the party started on the Zippo Encore stage some hours ago. But he’s no doubt off partying somewhere and there’s certainly a celebratory feel to Avenged Sevenfold’s second Download headline set; these are no fly-by-night hype screamers invading the top slot, but a bunch of hard-bitten Californian sloggers here by dint of a seven-album, seventeen-year mission to be all things to all metalheads.
Opener ‘The Stage’ acts as a recap on how far they’ve come from their metalcore roots to arguably the most pie-fingering rock act on the planet. The title track from their 2016 foray into shape-shifting prog metal, it hints at the twists and turns they’ve taken to get here. Shadows, dressed in the flapping lumberjack shirt and bandana of someone auditioning for the E Street Band or Harry Styles coming out of a ‘what do rockers wear?’ meeting, wails “Jahesaaahs Chraaaayst was born to daayiiiii!” in a voice straddling both Axl and Bruce. Guitarists Synyster Gates (the suave rock sophisticate that Alex Turner might well be modelling himself on) and Zacky Vengeance (who appears to have gotten dressed in the dark in an American flag shop) deliver duelling Aeromsith guitars back to back beneath First World War visuals drawn straight from Metallica’s more poppy-filled backdrops. Even before Gates strolls over to an acoustic guitar that’s set up, proggishly, on its own stand and plucks out some Portugeuse fado twangles and ‘Stairway…’ vibes, Sevenfold feel like a clutch of clichés, but as the nigh-on two hour set progresses they prove themselves a cohesive hotch-potch.
‘Afterlife’ emerges as the missing link between Bring Me The Horizon and Tool. ‘God Damn’ pummels away at the American Dream in a barrage of thrashcore before some golden riffs rise from the wreckage. ‘Higher’ is so Muse they even have an inflatable skeleton in a space suit rise from the stage. Gothic doom metal, full-throated gargle rock and even a bit of meaty REM are tossed together and juggled about in seven-minute chunks of song often held together by little more than a meagre melody verging on the subliminal and descending into sporadic patches of messy sprawl, but the sheer audacity of it carries Sevenfold through.
That and a spot of unifying emotion: ‘So Far Away’ is a tribute to their late drummer Jimmy ‘The Rev’ Sullivan who died of a prescription drug and alcohol overdose in 2009, complete with touching footage of his time with the band and a stuttering interview with him about Sevenfold being a family. Later, arousing cover of Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish You Were Here’ is dedicated to Anthony Bourdain, Shadows entreating troubled fans to “reach out, we all feel the same way”. Even the Jason Voorhees nearby must feel a tear or two dribbling down the inside of his hockey mask.
Sharethrough (Mobile)
“We’re gonna have a bit of fun now,” Shadows announces at the closing doom chimes of the Sabbath-esque ‘Shepherd Of Fire’, “no more songs about the devil, how about a song about necrophilia.” Um, okay. “A song about a man and a woman who got married and he killed her, ripped her head off and stabbed her fifty times.” Okaaaaay. Turns out that ‘A Little Piece Of Heaven’ is the finest example tonight of Sevenfold’s genre-mashing potential, rolling surf pop, goth, hardcore, a freaky Cossack bit and an anthemic Beatledelic chorus into one surprisingly huggable whole. They might be the sound of a Downloader’s iTunes corrupting, but in a world of furrow ploughers, vengeance will be theirs.
The Stage is the seventh studio album by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, released on October 28, 2016 by Capitol Records after a live stream event on the band's Facebook page. It is the first Avenged Sevenfold album to feature Brooks Wackerman on drums, who joined the band in late 2014[5] but was not revealed as previous drummer Arin Ilejay's official replacement until Ilejay's departure in 2015, because the band wanted to find a drummer that would 'fit in'. The Stage is also the band's first album to be released through Capitol Records.
Written and recorded throughout 2016, The Stage was musically different for the band, marking a progressive metal sound. It was a surprise release, being the first mainstream heavy metal album without promotion of any kind. It is Avenged Sevenfold's first conceptual album, with its main theme being based on artificial intelligence and self-destruction of society. It is also the band's longest studio album at 73 minutes and 35 seconds, thus beating 2005's City of Evil by almost a minute. In addition to being their longest album, The Stage features their longest song to date, 'Exist', with a run-time of 15 minutes and 41 seconds.
Upon release, the album received critical acclaim. It debuted at number four on the Billboard 200. The title-track was nominated at 60th Annual Grammy Awards in 'Best Rock Song' category.[6]
Background[edit]
In March 2016, Avenged Sevenfold held 'March Mania', a tournament to find the most fan loved Avenged Sevenfold song voted each week by fans. On March 31, 2016, Avenged Sevenfold released a video on their YouTube channel and announced 'A Little Piece of Heaven' was the winner, then gave an update on the new album, even giving a small clip of a new song, 'Exist'.
In October 2016, the band's logo, the Deathbat, was projected on major buildings around the world eventually leading up to the release of the first single entitled 'The Stage' along with the music video.
Musical style[edit]
In interviews prior to the album's release, rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance described the album as 'pretty much completely aggro'.[7] The band continued to experiment with The Stage, 'Sunny Disposition' features a section accompanied with brass instruments, 'God Damn' is one of the heaviest tracks on the album, and has one of the most aggressive and fast-paced thrash metal riffs. The song also has a melodic bridge led by acoustic guitars, with M. Shadows' aggressive vocal style over it, creating a contrast. 'Creating God' utilizes a D major scale over a D minor progression in order to give the chorus a unique sound. In the choruses, M. Shadows sings the vocal line around a D major scale, while Synyster Gates plays the guitar riff around a D harmonic minor scale. This technique is then used again in Gates' solo, where he imitates the vocal line sung by Shadows in the chorus. The song is in the key of D minor. 'Roman Sky' includes several orchestrated arrangements, similar to the ones throughout various songs appearing on 'City of Evil'. 'Higher' is one of the album's most melodic and progressive tracks, it features a female choir near the end creating a very unusual and atmospheric outro harmonized with synthetizers, piano and a drifting bass line. The band's longest song to date 'Exist', in which Neil deGrasse Tyson makes an audio spoken word appearance at the end, which he wrote specifically for the album, showcases the band's further experimentation in progressive metal. Other songs also show elements of thrash metal and progressive metal, with some songs using fast drum patterns, blast beat and rapid riff structure, along with thrash-style shouting at some points. The album also includes an influence from their earlier metalcore style, including metalcore-style riffs and breakdowns, with 'Paradigm' going as far as to include screamed vocals. The song 'Fermi Paradox' has a black metal influence in the instrumental, with the blast beats and guitar work, but the band chose to put clean vocals over it.[8]
Concept and lyrical themes[edit]
The Stage is Avenged Sevenfold's first conceptual album (2010's Nightmare was planned to be a concept record, but such plans were nixed following The Rev's death). The album's concept is based on artificial intelligence and self-destruction of society, it includes a variety of science-driven themes including nuclear warfare ('Sunny Disposition'), a failed NASA test ('Higher'), Giordano Bruno's death sentence ('Roman Sky'), space exploration ('Fermi Paradox'), simulation hypothesis ('Simulation') and religion ('God Damn', 'Angels'), all of these themes and events taking place on the same 'stage': Earth. Thematically, the album deals with mankind's relationship with technology. Lyrical content of the album was inspired by the writings of Carl Sagan and Elon Musk.[9]
In an interview with Rolling Stone, vocalist M. Shadows commented as examples: 'The song 'Paradigm' talks about nanobots – and how they can potentially be used to cure diseases and help you live forever. But how much of a human being would you be at that point? If you're 70 percent machine and 30 percent human, are you going to lose yourself? Or a song like 'Creating God' – computers are getting smarter and smarter, and all of a sudden they're becoming your god; they're so much more intelligent than you, you seem like apes to them, or ants'.[10]
The title-track 'The Stage' talks about humanity and the way people have treated each other throughout history. It speaks from the perspective of a man growing up and realizing corruption of the world.
Closing track 'Exist' was made as the band's approach to sonically represent The Big Bang, with the instrumental part in the first section (0:00-6:55) representing the creation of the universe and the second section (6:56-15:41) of the song representing the creation of Earth.[10]
Release and promotion[edit]
On October 28, 2016, the album was available for purchase on iTunes and for streaming on Spotify, following the band's live-streamed performance at the rooftop of the Capitol Records Building. Special bundles of the album were also made available on the band's webstore.
The band decided not to announce the album before its release, as vocalist M. Shadows stated 'it completely takes away the mystique of the record' in an interview with Rolling Stone. The Stage is the first heavy metal album to be released without promotion, and also the first album in general to be released without promotion in physical formats.
It was also announced on Chris Jericho's podcast 'Talk is Jericho' that 7 new songs would be added via streaming services at some point.[11] In a later interview with Kerrang!, the band said that 6 songs are cover songs, while there is one original song that was unfinished for the album.
The first additional track, a cover version of the Mexican folk song, 'Malagueña Salerosa' premiered on Sirius XM Octane on June 8, 2017.[12] The second track, a cover of Mr. Bungle's 'Retrovertigo' was released on June 30, 2017. The third track 'Dose', an original song, was released on July 12, 2017 as a part of a Dungeon Hunter 5 easter egg. On August 4, 2017, a cover of Del Shannon's 'Runaway' was released. The song features rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance on lead vocals, and The Vandals guitarist Warren Fitzgerald on additional guitar. A cover version of The Beach Boys' 'God Only Knows' was released on August 25, 2017. A cover version of The Rolling Stones' hit song 'As Tears Go By' was released on September 8, 2017.
Along with the release of a cover of Pink Floyd's song 'Wish You Were Here' on October 6, 2017, the band announced a deluxe edition of the album that includes all additional tracks and 4 live tracks, that was scheduled for a December 15, 2017 release.[13] The release was later pushed back to December 22, 2017 due to unforeseen circumstances.[14]
Critical reception[edit]
The Stage has received critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream music critics, the album received an average score of 74, based on 9 reviews, which indicates 'generally favorable reviews'. Music critics praised the new progressive style adopted. The album was described as a mix of Iron Maiden's anthemic style and Dream Theater's progressive songwriting.[20]Ultimate Guitar wrote 'with a renewed focus on sonic experimentation, speedy metal riffs, and deeper lyrical themes, Avenged Sevenfold release a very fine record with 'The Stage.'
Metal Injection even went on to say that The Stage is a 'masterpiece', stating 'with its brilliant composition, vast and strong collection of sounds, this is the Avenged Sevenfold record that shines the brightest amongst the stars. The Stage isn't just a great step up from their previous work, but an outstanding addition to the halls of metal and rock that will forever be remembered.'[18]
'What they did do was stick to their guns. And as the old guard of arena-filling hard rockers begin to diminish (physically, artistically), it's good to know there's someone dedicated to keeping the bar high.' cited Jason Pettigrew for Alternative Press.[17]NME's Anita Bhagwandas wrote that 'it's evident the band have begun a new chapter where they appreciate rather than become their influences. They've truly arrived.'[19]
The album was also praised for its dynamic range and mastering quality. Angry Metal-Fi called The Stage 'the best sounding metal record of 2016', noting how Avenged Sevenfold managed to break free from the loudness war.[21]
In a mixed review, PopMatters' Chris Conaton wrote 'Despite being a concept album, The Stage doesn't break much new ground for Avenged Sevenfold. They sound like the same band doing pretty much the same thing.'[22] Also in a mixed review, Exclaim!'s Bradley Zorgdrager cited 'Though Hail to the King failed to live up to the royal expectations of its titular disguise, The Stage's grandiosity smells of overcompensation; Avenged Sevenfold's crown lies somewhere in between.'[23]
Accolades[edit]
'-': denotes an unranked list
Commercial performance[edit]
Despite being a surprise release, The Stage debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 with 76,000 units, with 72,000 of that figure being pure album sales.[31] As of January 2017, the album sold more than 170,000 copies in the US alone.[32]
Track listing[edit]
All lyrics written by M. Shadows, all music composed by Avenged Sevenfold.
Personnel[edit]Avenged Sevenfold[edit]
Session musicians[edit]
Production[edit]Download Lagu Album The Stage Avenged Sevenfold
Management and label[edit]
The Stage Avenged Sevenfold LyricsCharts[edit]
Download Album The Stage Avenged Sevenfold RarThe Stage LyricsReferences[edit]Free Download Album The Stage Avenged Sevenfold
Avenged Sevenfold
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Stage_(album)&oldid=900300544'
Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |