Nightmare is the 4th album from the rockers commonly referred to as A7X. Still relatively unknown to the United Kingdom public, Avenged released this album on the back of some major publicity, for Avenged's leads singer, M. Shadows, had appeared on Slash's debut album on the track 'Nothing to Say'. The vocalist is very typical of their hard rock style, I hear similarities in his tone to that’s of Axel Rose of Guns N' Roses and Steve Tyler of Aerosmith, more than capable of striking the perfect notes, as well as hitting the strange screaming tones.
M. Shadows' appearance on Slash's album might have helped his publicity, but it was not how I found him. I knew of many people who attended this summer's Leeds Festival where I heard about Slash's old band Guns N' Roses stole the show, it lead to me wanting to play a band that I believed I had played to death several years ago, and it made me rediscover my taste in hard rock, which had been intermittent for a number of years. Here I became across Avenged Sevenfold, as well as seeing numerous band t-shirts in Doncaster town centre I decided to give them a shot.
The first track on the album immediately caught my ears. The lead single, Nightmare, was released in May 2010, but for the above reasons I didn't come across it until September.
The introduction, however cold it may be, grabs the audience’s attention with its sharp dabs on the keyboard, slowly forming tension before an unexpected burst of drumming begins, soon followed by a fast, tuneful flow of guitars. The rhythm is now more upbeat and tuneful, and you should enjoy this bit. There are no lyrics in the first minute of the track, until M. Shadows speaks 'Nightmare'. This single received recognition at the Kerrang awards, where it was nominated for best single before falling to Liquid Confidence by You Me At Six. The first sentence of the track is a scary 'Now Your Nightmare Comes To Life'. Followed by drum solo.
A lot of the lyrics you can tell exactly what are being said, there are exceptions, however, like a lot of tracks in this genre of music.
The lyrics are ruffled and unclear on lines such as 'Peace of mind is less than never' and 'Burn the world your last endeavour', and in my opinion they are useless in the song- and the main reason why tracks like this do not catch on to the main bulk of the public.
One of the reasons why I like this song is the chorus:
"You should have known
The price of evil
And it hurts to know that you belong here
Yeah
Oooooooh
It's your fucking nightmare
While your nightmare comes to life"
The lyrics are in tune and are soft to listen to, as opposed to a lot of the rest of the song. I like to compare this style to Queen's "I want it all" track, where Freddie Mercury sings "I'm a man with a one track run, so much to do in one lifetime..." to a much softer melody to the rest of the track, although its not quite as dramatic and sinister sounding as the rest of Nightmare.
Obviously if you have listened to the song, no doubt the headline lyrics are "It's your fucking nightmare". This is unpredicted as it is the first time any swearing is taken part.
The guitaring is typical of many Avenged songs on this album. It is amazing. Similar to many hard rock classics, the solo particularly certainly grabs the audience's attention. It begins with a rift, which is similar to the one at the start. It lasts around one minute, and in the grand scheme it does fit well with the song.
Unfortunately people may suggest the track becomes repetitive after a while, as following the solo the song just resorts to where it was before it. The solo does break it up well however, with the track still lasting over 6 minutes, a theme shared throughout the rest of the album.
Prior to the production of the album Avenged's drummer, The Rev, passed away. The majority of the drummer on Nightmare was written by him however as a tribute, as Mike Portnoy filled in on the drums.
To be continued...
