LIFE IS BUT A DREAM...

Throughout Avenged Sevenfold's career, they have always experimented with progressive elements, and I knew that one day they would make the plunge into straight up progressive metal. From "City of Evil" through "Nightmare" or their "popular phase," they were always just a step away from being a prog band, but when they released "Hail to the King," I really thought that was the end and they would regress to an arena rock band. Their surprise release, "The Stage," however, took a 180 degree turn, marking their first venture into full-on progressive metal. While many fans of Avenged Sevenfold consider "The Stage" their best effort, even surpassing "Life Is but a Dream...," I happen to view this album a little less enthusiastically. While it's not a bad album by any means, I find that it really doesn't add anything to table that hasn't already been done before. I always thought of it as homage to the progressive metal bands who have influenced Avenged Sevenfold. While "The Stage" does this remarkably well at times, it also falls flat at many points as well.

I never really liked Avenged Sevenfold's melodic and harmonic bridges in their songs. And "The Stage" has a lot of those, which honestly makes the 74 minute album drag at some points. And this is a shame, because some parts of the album like Fermi Paradox, and the opening to Exist are some of the best moments in the band's history, I think, yet "The Stage" just drags on too long, with some songs like Creating God just being excruciating to get through at certain points. Had the band cut around all the fat and bone, I think The "Stage" could have been a top tier prog metal album.

Seven years later, the band releases "Life Is but a Dream...," which is the longest gap between two albums in their history. To hype the release of this album, the band claimed that they were using a 78 piece orchestra to support them on the album, and that they would be using a wide array of influences and unconventional song structures. This isn't the first time the band has delved into this type of musical territory - their 2007 eponymous album, Avenged Sevenfold released the song "A Little Piece of Heaven" which was an eight minute avant-garde metal song supported by a full orchestra, however it felt still very "pop metal" like, and fit in perfectly on this pop metal album. "The Stage" showed that Avenged Sevenfold had matured considerably in their songwriting capabilities since the release of their eponymous album. Needless to say, I was intrigued as to where they would be heading this time around, and honestly this album is pretty much what I expected them to sound like, given what I read about it prior to release.

"The Stage" was a concept album about AI and self destruction of society, which I find funny because when "Life Is but a Dream..." released seven years later, this is when public interest in AI pretty much peaked, with the release of ChatGPT seven months earlier, but I digress. I can't seem to find any sources calling "Life Is but a Dream..." a concept album, however, it very much feels like one. Each song covers a different, but related topic with overall arching themes rooted in nihilism, existentialism, and absurdism - the name "Life Is but a Dream" basically describes the overall lyrical concepts throughout the album, such that the protagonist in the first and penultimate songs views life as being nothing but a dream and that nothing is real. Many of the lyrics from the album are based around the philosophy of Albert Camus, as well as the band members' experiences with psychedelic drugs, particularly 5-MeO-DMT which is a highly dissociative drug historically used for religious purposes.

Compositionally, "Life Is but a Dream..." picks up right where "The Stage" left off in terms of sound development, and shows that the band is here to stay in the prog realm. If the latter played homage to the band's progressive influences, than the former takes its own, original approach to progressive music. What I mean is that this album is innovative at many points, and it is a lot more original in my opinion than the latter. adding more to the table that hasn't necessarily been seen before. For instance, Synyster Gates, the band's lead guitarist, is also the mellotron, synthesizer, and organ player on this album, and played the impressionistic classical piano album closer. Being as much of a virtuosic guitar player as he is, on this album he had a custom made synthesizer that I believe he attached to his guitar so he could play it like a guitar. So the synthesizers on this are played more like a guitar than a piano, which is a really interesting way to hear the instrument. The use of the vocoder and autotune on this album is also very tastefully done and reminds me a lot of what Electric Light Orchestra did in 1977 with their album "Out of the Blue." I don't think I've heard a prog metal album use autotune and vocoder as heavily as this one does. However the band never uses autotune or vocoder other than for artistic purposes, and when they use it, you'll know when they do.

This album also takes a more avant-garde and abrasive approach than "The Stage." I think this style actually suits the band a lot better. During much of the album, the band places more emphasis on rhythmic complexity than melodic accessibly, and I think this makes for a more interesting listening experience. In short, I think the "fat and bones" that needed to be cut from "The Stage" were cut here, and we're left with more meat. At a more manageable 53 minutes, I can sit through "Life Is but a Dream" more comfortably than its predecessor. The boring melodic bridges I complained about from "The Stage" are reduced considerably, and the experimentation that the band utilizes on this album is a welcome addition. In many of the songs, M. Shadows utilizes harsh vocals, which is not something he's done really since the band's metalcore days 20 years ago. At these points in the album, the band breaches into hardcore punk, post-hardcore, and crossover thrash territory, which is a style that suits Avenged Sevenfold like a glove, and I hope they focus more on this sound in the future, as well. In their milder sections, such as the song Cosmic, they play symphonic prog in a modern context, which also fits the band really well. In fact, the punk, prog rock, and avant-garde metal moments on this album I think sound considerably better than the prog metal moments. Perhaps making an album that alternates between their hardcore punk and progressive rock sounds in the future would be a worthwhile undertaking.

Despite this being a a rhythmically complex and compositionally advanced album, to my surprise upon further analysis, the vast majority of the album is played in a 4/4 time signature, making this a much more accessible and casual listen than most other prog albums. I actually think this works in favor of the album. While the songs can be quite predictable, at times, they are also really satisfying if you're following the rhythm. I actually find this to be more impressive than if they had utilized unusual and changing time signatures - somehow the band was able to make highly complex songs, with a changing BPM throughout the songs, which heavily lean into avant-garde metal territory, and with distinct sections that provide a journey-like experience, all while remaining in common time. This fact is also what makes the album considerably more accessible than practically every other avant-garde metal album I've ever heard, and easier for prog newcomers to enjoy. Surely this album will expose many new people to the realm of both avant-garde metal and progressive music. The eponymous impressionist classical album closer is played in a time signature of 3/4, so it is technically a waltz, but Synyster Gates did a phenomenal job on the piano on this track, considering this was the first time he played piano in a professional setting. My major complaint for this album would be vocals, though. M. Shadows I think has a great hardcore punk voice, and the harsher vocals sound good. I also think the more toned down "prog rock singing" here is also decent, and the spoken word sections are fine, as well. It's the most frequent vocal technique that he uses on the album that I really have an issue with and that is his "classic metal" singing, or maybe "melodic shouting" is a better way to describe it. While this style has worked on their albums "City of Evil" through "Hail to the King" - although I was never a fan of it - on "The Stage" this singing style really began showing its weakness, and his voice to me really failed to hit the mark. On "Life Is but a Dream", his voice sounds pretty much shot. This is particularly noticeable on the song "Mattel," when he sings the words "Good Afternoon, Good Evening, and Goodnight," which just sounds straight up bizarre and had me leaning back and involuntarily whispering "oh jeez" upon first listen. This singing style can get mildly grating mildly quickly and I think changing out this particular vocal style would benefit the band considerably, even though it's basically the band's "signature" style, if you will; again Shadows has a very good hardcore punk voice, and can do decent enough prog rock vocals, too - similar to how Andrew Latimer from Camel doesn't have a particularly striking singing voice, but it's decent enough to suit the music - but the "metal shouting" does not work anymore. In fact, it's this style of singing that makes the song "Mattel" probably the only weak track on the album in my opinion, but cutting out the "metal shouting" sections would make this one of the stronger tracks, I think.

Aside from the prog metal, the avant-garde metal, the prog rock, the hardcore punk, and classical closer, other genres are found on the album as well. The song (O)rdinary is an electro-disco song, and probably the most different thing the band has ever done, and the song (D)eath switches between traditional pop (eg, Frank Sinatra) and symphonic rock. As per usual with Avenged Sevenfold, there is an alternative edge on this album, and the way the alternative metal presents itself this time around would fit in nicely on a Mike Patton album. This is probably the bands first album since their debut on which there really isn't much, if any, standard heavy metal, and I suppose this worked in the band's favor since the "metal clichés" for which the band had historically been criticized are largely gone here (although the vocal style I complained about above is the only remnant of the "metal clichés"). And while the vocals may not be fully matured, yet, the lyrics are a major departure from "The Stage." On "The Stage" Avenged Sevenfold sought to write more mature lyrics, but I always found that they still could have used some more work, but they were definitely an improvement from "Hail to the King". On "Life Is but a Dream...," I have very few complaints with the lyrical content itself and I think the band has shown that they have matured conceptually enough to be taken a more seriously within prog circles.

Since "Hail to the King," Avenged Sevenfold has been a major opponent of the loudness war, and I greatly appreciate the band for taking this stance. I could never get into their earlier metalcore albums because they're produced way too loudly. They don't sound good at all. From "City of Evil" through "Nightmare," the sound is good, but not great. Produced by Andy Wallace, who has been standing against the loudness war for years now, "Life Is but a Dream..." is legitimately one of the best sounding metal albums I've heard since the mid-1990s; aside from some minor nitpicks in the mixing (eg the vocals are a little too far in the front of the mix), I think the actual sound of the album from a production point of view is spot on. Clocking in at a DR of 9, "Life Is but a Dream..." has enough breathing room to hear everything going on, but without feeling flat or thin. On "The Stage," which clocks in at an impressive DR of 12, the album felt very thin and muddy. As much as I love dynamics in my music, this one really stood out of being too quiet for this style of music; and this is not something I thought I'd ever really say. I can't pinpoint any moments of "Life Is but a Dream..." during which there is clipping, but the sound is full enough that it just feels natural and satisfying.

Overall, compared to "The Stage", I find that "Life Is but a Dream..." is a much more consistent album and easier to sit through the entire thing, however, the high points of the latter don't match the high points of the former , and if I cut out the sections that drag on in the former, that I actually think it makes a better listening experience than the latter. But for me, consistency is of major importance when rating an album. I'd rather have a shorter album that's filled with meat than a longer one in which I have to cut out the fat and bones to get to the meat - although a long album filled with meat is even better, such as Orphaned Land's "The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR." For this reason, I do prefer "Life Is but a Dream" to "The Stage", and I hope Avenged Sevenfold can refine the sound they have generated on this album for the better. They have proven that they are capable of greatness, but "Life Is but a Dream..." does fall, in my opinion, just short of "great."