Avenged Sevenfold : "Life is But a Dream"

I know seven years have passed since their last album, but how these guys turned into System of a Down? Maybe nu-metal was just the next logical bandwagon to jump on. This results in an opening track that is without direction and peddles well produced musical confusion trying to cosplay as something Mike Patton might do. At first "Mattel" leads you to believe they might return to their old ways. The riff to this song is more inspired while the vocals wandering around. All of that runs through my mind in the first minute and a half of the song. Then the System of a Down Syndrome sets in. It's not until the third song that they begin to shed the fetish for show tunes long enough to right a rock song.  They pull out plenty of guitar noodling so if that is your thing , then you might be impressed. 

The vocal production is admirable. They do some interesting things with effects on the layers of backing vocals. They are back to a more chaotic place for "We Love You". There is a weird almost industrial chant at one place in the song, hard to tell what is the verse or chorus, this must be a verse due to the way it repeats. To their credit I do not think this is the album , anyone thought they were putting out so I appreciate the odd twist. I am suspect when things start sounding like Slipknot. Another problem is nothing is really hooky or even peaks my interest for a second listen. While "Cosmic" finds a more sustainable sense of melody nothing  grabbed me and held my attention with it. This is not the only misstep, as "Beautiful Morning" starts fine then takes a wrong turn where the chorus should be.

"Easier" finds some of their rock n roll swagger returning. "G" takes that and throws it back down a long proggy hallway. But there is enough attitude in vocals to ground it a little before the female vocals come in. This provides a clear example of it does not matter how many solos you can rip, if you can not hold a song together. The almost funk like guitars do not help to make the overall sound darker. If you are pretending to be a metal band, being reasonably dark if a fair expectation. There is a more of a pop feel to a song like "Ordinary". I think it is fair to say their guitarist really digs Prince. 

"Death" floats off into the pill coated dreams of Las Vegas. If you want to be weird like System of a Down, fine, but you should take notes on how they know to throw a hook in. They close the album with the title track. I expected this to be heavy , as there has been little of that , but no they are twinkling the keys of a piano. This is more of an instrumental outro than a song. I will round this down to a 7.5, as it does not play to the strengths of who they are as a band. Sure they are great musicians and pull off some impressive shit, that does not equate to also writing good songs.