Context
In the late 2000s to mid 2010s, I was finding my tastes as a burgeoning musician in middle/high school. We were given MacBooks to daily drive for assignments… and I absolutely abused the hell out of that thing. Ripped many a CD with the kids in class, anything we could get our hands on. I was listening to a lot of Green Day, Weezer, Rush, Metallica – as well as finding my way into EDM with the likes of deadmau5, Skrillex, Excision, Bassnectar (I would also find the masterpiece that is Enter the Haggis around this time, but that’s a story for a different day). I wanted it all. I was hungry.
There was one kid I ended up jiving with. His music taste was as weird as mine, just in WAY different directions. He’d made it down a few more rabbit holes than I had. He preferred bands like Sleeping with Sirens, Pierce the Veil, Black Veil Brides… There were exceptions to the rule like “King for a Day” (I heard it BEFORE TikTok made it cool!), but not many… until he showed me Avenged Sevenfold.
They wore the makeup and had the aesthetic same as those bands, but I saw something… different about them. They didn’t sound like the others. I had to know why. That kid gave me his copy of the self titled record to borrow - I copied it in class that day, gave him the CD back, and proceeded to have my mind blown for the next hour.
Since then I’ve been there through the ups and downs, the ins and outs. The Call of Duty collabs (which were actually GREAT tunes), the non-actionable Guns & Roses/Metallica ripoffs when they wouldn’t let the new drummer show off, what we thought was gonna be ONE instance of a Daft Punk impression… I was there. I liked them and continue to.
And now, more Daft Punk impressions.
Contents
I say that, but this project was at least a bit different than the stuff on Life is But a Dream.
LIGHTS was shocking for an intro, though it served its purpose as the intro – it really kinda let us know what we’re in for. The first few seconds are almost Stage-coded, and I was settling in for “This is gonna take a couple listens”. Then the vocoder kicks in. “Oh, this is gonna take a couple MORE listens.”
Then we have the title track STATICA. Overall, I don’t think this is a bad tune. It sounds like them, it drives, it’s ALMOST there. The commont theme for this project though, is the cardinal sin of too much fuckin’ vocoder – the vocal performance is good! If they insist on having it, leave it on the chorus, fine, it fit the vibe there – maybe even on the outro sequence. The verse could’ve used the punch of the clean vocal, in my opinion.
Next up is REJOICE. Another solid tune overall, the melancholy drone with an odd time – I’m here for it. The vocoder is still there, but not as egregious through the entire thing. This one didn’t hit me as hard on the first listen like the last two did. I was vibing through the entire thing – unfortunately up til the synth at the end. There’s a few spots in the project where it really lends itself well, to the point that going forward I can see some synth integration in the older stuff. I’m for a weird noise. There’s just this feeling of “Zack got a synth at a garage sale and hasn’t quite figured it out yet”. Not unwelcome, just not crazy about the performance.
ASHES to close out the project. I remember on first listen that the chorus hit my ear a bit weird, something about the distortion wasn’t sitting right - but after listens 3 and 4 it has eased up on me. The feeling persists of Zacky not completely familiar with his instrument yet (if that’s even him). This one doesn’t sound as outlandish – they’ve always had a sense of theatrics, especially more present since The Stage – and that theatric sense is still there.
Conclusion
It’s weird. It’s not a good listen, but I’d be lying if I said some parts of it didn’t stick with me.
What I keep coming back to is that all of these components on their own aren’t inherently bad. Vocoder can be used well, synths can be used well. Just maybe not by these people. And that’s subjective, because a part that stuck with me was the synth on LIGHTS. The performances weren’t the best but damn was that synth catchy.
And tbh I have gone back to REJOICE. Goes kinda hard.
I’m all for a statement, but I know these guys are capable of objectively better. With love, it’s a concept I hope they got out of their system - or going forward, hope it can at least better integrate into the sound of Avenged Sevenfold. If they keep doing the techno babble, do it under a different name. Keep it separate.