Avenged Sevenfold. This name is fairly often synonymous with generic, underwhelming, as well as other unlikable characteristics. Past albums out of this band have always lacked something, the other of these shortcomings may be the ability to successfully deliver emotion through their music. This is something Avenged Sevenfold has frequently failed at, with one exception (I Won’t See You Tonight, Part 1). Something just clicks using this album, and other emotions seep throughout most songs, whether it's anger and angst (God Hates Us), melancholy (Victim and Tonight the World Dies), or reflection (So Far Away).
On one other hand, the complete songwriting has matured greatly on “Nightmare” ever since the underwhelming self-titled album. Not every song is generic verse-chorus structure, even though choruses exist, the songs don't always follow a formulaic structure. Lyrics are far better than their previous effort, while they tend to target the loss of band-mate and greatest friend “The Rev.” As a result, the lyrics are extremely inspired and sound genuine, apart from a few moments (title track “Nightmare”). Most importantly, M. Shadows decreases the nasal-whine he's got become infamous for, producing his best performance since Waking the Fallen.
Another thing Avenged Sevenfold has improved on dramatically is song diversity. Every song sounds exclusive, and it’s near impossible to confuse one track for an additional pair. In fact, practically every musical influence you can imagine finds its way onto “Nightmare”, including jazz, progressive rock, death metal, pop rock, and in some cases neoclassical music! Unlike the self-titled album, however, the abundance of influences improves the album instead of detracting from this. The album never feels bloated, as every one of the influences assist to feed the band’s emotion for the listener, as an alternative to for the sake of just being there. Surprisingly, with the variety of influences, Avenged Sevenfold were able to create a unified atmosphere that pulls the listener in and do not lets go. It’s truly an experience that need to be experienced on your own. Anyone knows it’s challenging to explain the atmospheric feelings that bands like Opeth produce.
Flaws usually are not exempt, however. The first one half of the album is a lot more formulaic compared to the latter half, and falls a lttle bit short. Sometimes Avenged Sevenfold has recently overlooked verses so they could earn bombtastic choruses, which inevitably brings about some annoyingly generic moments. However, these flaws are miniscule when confronted with numerous positives that will make this album quite excellent.
Track Listing
- Nightmare
- Welcome to the Family
- Danger Line
- Buried Alive
- Natural Born Killer
- So Far Away
- God Hate Us
- Victim
- Tonight The World Dies
- Fiction
- Save Me
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