Ultratop.be – Avenged Sevenfold – Life Is but a Dream..." (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved June 11, 2023. Everley, Dave (May 26, 2023). "Life Is But a Dream... – Avenged Sevenfold". Metal Hammer . Retrieved June 2, 2023. Lang turned down multiple offers to collaborate over the years, but the pair still became good friends, often sending each other their latest works, swapping notes on demos and paintings. One such work was an art piece entitled ’Nobody’, that inspired Shadows to write the song of the same name.

Mills, Matt (June 2, 2023). "Loving the new Avenged Sevenfold album? Here are the 10 records you need to listen to next". Metal Hammer . Retrieved June 2, 2023. There’s never gonna be a comment section where I don’t see, ‘These guys don’t know how to write a song anymore,’ because they want us to write more stuff like Bat Country,” he shrugs. “Or someone will say, ‘They died with [late drummer] The Rev.’ And then they give The Rev credit for a bunch of songs that I wrote – that’s just what happens when someone dies: they go, ‘Well, he wrote this, this and this…’ and it’s like, ‘No, I actually wrote those myself, but okay.’ There’s never gonna be a situation where as you go on and you’re doing new things, you don’t just see negativity.” The art kind of grounds you in this reality of the life experience that we are going through. I think it compliments it really well. I think the art on this record is just as important as the music.” New Avenged Sevenfold album features music & lyrics written by The Rev". The Point. May 25, 2023 . Retrieved June 5, 2023. Relating to the orchestra on their level, he cites Stravinsky’s ‘The Rite Of Spring’ as a key reference point – disrupting the norms through music and allowing the orchestra to find comfort in that idea.

CRITIC REVIEWS

Life Is But a Dream... is the eighth studio album by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, released on June 2, 2023, through Warner Records. Its release follows nearly seven years after its predecessor, The Stage (2016), marking the band's longest gap between studio albums to date. It is also the first album to feature contributions from their late drummer Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan since Nightmare (2010). Similar to The Stage, Life Is But a Dream... was produced by the band with Joe Barresi. It marks the band's return to Warner following a legal dispute between the band and Warner Music in the mid-2010s. It wasn’t the most relaxing night’s sleep. Late one evening after a hard day’s work in the studio, M. Shadows was laying down ready to go to bed when he put on Avenged Sevenfold’s new record. It had just been freshly mixed by Andy Wallace, and the frontman was keen to hear how the songs that comprise Life Is But A Dream… would transition into one another in their final form – specifically the trio of G, (O)rdinary and (D)eath. While the album title may suggest a semblance of serenity, the experience didn’t gently send Shadows into a slumber. On the contrary, it hit him so hard that his heart began to pound. When I think of a Quentin Tarantino movie and how serious those movies are but they are funny as hell. There are so many funny things that go on.” I went through a really major injury. An injury where most doctors told me I wasn’t going to sing again. I have to say, purely based out of finding the right vocal coach, working really hard at it and technique, I was able to do something that most doctors said wasn’t going to be physically possible.” He’s also thought a lot about how fans of specific eras of the band might respond to the new material, and how their attachment to various albums might mean they’ll either embrace or reject what Avenged do now. If you’re only into 2003’s Waking The Fallen or 2005 follow-up City Of Evil, for example, he wonders if that might be a “hinderance” in some cases.

We know what we want it to sound like but it’s not traditional” says Shadows. “We want the bow to be sharper here, the mic to be further down the tuba because we want to hear the breath instead of the softer sound. Whatever it was, we were able to get with a team that allowed us to do that.”

That aside, there’s a deftness to AVENGED SEVENFOLD ’s musicality. They’ve been a successful unit since 1999 and pipped to be a generation’s METALLICA for a reason. The shred on display is undeniable and we aren’t going to dispute that. When set against the contrasting flutes and violins of the mid-section, we hear what the band is trying to do. “ I don’t belong here ” could refer to the mundanity of life this song surrounds, or AVENGED SEVENFOLD’ s standpoint of wanting to transcend genres.

Someone else declared, "This is what is must've been like to hear 'Bohemian Rhapsody' on the radio for the first time." It was inspired by an old Folgers [U.S. coffee brand] commercial, which is so mundane and everyday, but we were like, ‘We need more syllables… the bestest!’” Shadows laughs. “We did pure stupidity for the sake of art in a cool way. Do we think ‘bestest’ is a word, no, but we think it’s kinda funny.” Death is right there and it’s not supposed to be a sad thing”Shadows explains. “You’re here now I’m reminding you that you need to shape up. You need to live your life and do what you want to do. And if you take the record too seriously lyrically, then you are not doing that. We’re having fun making music and it’s our art and there is a message but we can have fun doing it as well.”

It’s also very funny in places. One of many knowing winks on the album, Game Over contains the lyric, ‘ The bestest part of waking up.’ Which brings us to the album’s trilogy and a concept within a concept. G , (O)rdinary , and (D)eath are all seemingly written from God’s perspective. A disillusioned deity disgusted with the “ cheap imitations by obsessive fans ”. G confronts us with something akin to broadway jazz. While we try not to run away with the mental depiction of God wearing a feather boa sprawled across a leather throne, the complaint of “ six days of bullshit ” pulls us further in. Male and female vocals jar against each other in a moment we try to comprehend but escapes us. Ask Syn about his bandmate’s stirringly “real” vocals, and he quite literally gets goosebumps. And a bit sweary. Ultratop.be – Avenged Sevenfold – Life Is but a Dream..." (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved June 11, 2023.

Years later, Lang began sending him new art pieces inspired by their music, saying he just simply had to do it this time. Top Albums (Week 23, 2023)". Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique . Retrieved June 12, 2023. We had so much influence from hardcore and punk but also heavy metal, and that was the big boys’ league, right?”, says Shadows. “The hardcore and punk bands we loved were the bands we could go and see at shows. Then there was Metallica and Pantera and Guns N’ Roses, and things happening on a much larger scale. We were big dreamers; we always had grand ambitions to do things differently. But to say there’s a masterplan when you’re 17, that’d be giving us too much credit. We were just dumb kids who put all their eggs in one basket and said: OK, let’s see how this goes.” Lista prodaje 24. tjedan 2023. (05.06.2023. - 11.06.2023.)" (in Croatian). Top Lista. June 11, 2023 . Retrieved June 27, 2023.

Destroy Boys' Tour Essentials

Enis, Eli (May 13, 2022). "Avenged Sevenfold in Las Vegas: See Wild Photos of First Show in 5 Years". Revolver . Retrieved May 16, 2023.