IN REVIEW: Avenged Sevenfold - "The Stage"

Anyone can surprise release an album online, but it takes a special kind of trust and coordination to sneak a physical release into stores. How Avenged Sevenfold managed the feat in our spoiler-hungry times boggles the mind, but their seventh record ended up in stores without warning a week ago. It's their first for Capitol Records after an ugly split with Warner Bros., the legal fallout of which is still unresolved. Undeterred, Avenged Sevenfold come out swinging on The Stage, their longest and most complex record to date. It's a sharp about face from the simplified approach of previous album Hail to the King, as that record's hero worship has been replaced with more standard A7X fare: so as to say, epic, prog-leaning metal, albeit with their penchant for melody still more or less intact. At nearly 74 minutes, it's certainly somewhat bloated and self-indulgent (especially on the almost 16 minute closer Exist), but all of the band's established hallmarks are here in spades. New drummer Brooks Wackerman (ex-Bad Religion) is a welcome addition, his hammering and intricate rhythms adding colour and bombast to these songs; no one could replace original drummer The Rev (who sadly passed in 2009), but Wackerman is evidently more up to the task then previous drummer Arin Ilejay. His playing, combined with some spirited performances by lead guitarist Zacky Vengeance, help give a proper sonic backdrop to the album's themes of artificial intelligence and societal destruction. A few overblown experiments aside, The Stage is a consistently entertaining, occasionally thought provoking, often thrilling record that's capable of sneaking up on you in more ways than one.

October 28, 2016 • Capitol
Highlights Sunny Disposition • God Damn • Creating God