Avenged Sevenfold - Hail to the King (11/11/2013)
When Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan passed away in 2009 it seemed like Avenged Sevenfold were not going to continue on as a band. With the help of Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater on drums, the band released Nightmare in 2010 and now have released their latest album Hail To The King.
This marks the first album the band have done without any influence from Sullivan and it is also the first with new drummer Arin Ilejay who joined the band earlier this year.
A bell's toll is what kicks off the album before the band kick into Shepard of Fire, the opening track for the album. In typical Avenged Sevenfold style there is about a minute of music before we first hear vocalist M. Shadows which is something they've clearly taken from their idols Metallica (who are clearly a big influence on this album.) Shadows vocals in this track, like with all of their songs, is very unique and powerful and the guitar solo in the song by Synyster Gates is one of the highlights of the album. It's quite amazing.
Lead single and title track of the album Hail To The King is a typical rocking A7X song that will be stuck in your head long after the album is finished. It is then we come to This Means War; a song that sounds so much like Metallica's Sad But True you could swear they were trying to cover it but just changing the words. It's unfortunate how similar the two songs sound because while listening to it you continue to think about the comparison which takes a lot away from the song itself.
Crimson Day takes things down a bit which is something the band have always done particularly well. Just like So Far Away on Nightmare the band show they can not only do they do big rocking metal anthems like Hail To The King they can bring it down and sound just as amazing in all departments. New drummer Arin Ilejay particularity stands out in this track for his simple, yet very effective drum track.
Fans of A7X who like a bit of trivia might be interested to know that Synyster's father Brian “Papa Gates” Haner Sr. does the outro guitar solo on Coming Home. He's now done at least one guitar solo on three of their six albums.
Planets is probably the catchiest track on the album if, for nothing else, just being a great hard rock song that you can nod your head along to. Acid Rain brings things down for the last track and, like most of the tracks on the album, is a long-ish song with at least one guitar solo by Gates.
There is a reason why Avenged Sevenfold are one of the biggest metal bands in the world right now and it's because they keep releasing albums that just kick some serious ass like this one. While Hail To The King is not Avenged Sevenfold's best work it's an album that all fans of the band are sure to enjoy for a long, long time.
Matt Barton
This marks the first album the band have done without any influence from Sullivan and it is also the first with new drummer Arin Ilejay who joined the band earlier this year.
A bell's toll is what kicks off the album before the band kick into Shepard of Fire, the opening track for the album. In typical Avenged Sevenfold style there is about a minute of music before we first hear vocalist M. Shadows which is something they've clearly taken from their idols Metallica (who are clearly a big influence on this album.) Shadows vocals in this track, like with all of their songs, is very unique and powerful and the guitar solo in the song by Synyster Gates is one of the highlights of the album. It's quite amazing.
Lead single and title track of the album Hail To The King is a typical rocking A7X song that will be stuck in your head long after the album is finished. It is then we come to This Means War; a song that sounds so much like Metallica's Sad But True you could swear they were trying to cover it but just changing the words. It's unfortunate how similar the two songs sound because while listening to it you continue to think about the comparison which takes a lot away from the song itself.
Crimson Day takes things down a bit which is something the band have always done particularly well. Just like So Far Away on Nightmare the band show they can not only do they do big rocking metal anthems like Hail To The King they can bring it down and sound just as amazing in all departments. New drummer Arin Ilejay particularity stands out in this track for his simple, yet very effective drum track.
Fans of A7X who like a bit of trivia might be interested to know that Synyster's father Brian “Papa Gates” Haner Sr. does the outro guitar solo on Coming Home. He's now done at least one guitar solo on three of their six albums.
Planets is probably the catchiest track on the album if, for nothing else, just being a great hard rock song that you can nod your head along to. Acid Rain brings things down for the last track and, like most of the tracks on the album, is a long-ish song with at least one guitar solo by Gates.
There is a reason why Avenged Sevenfold are one of the biggest metal bands in the world right now and it's because they keep releasing albums that just kick some serious ass like this one. While Hail To The King is not Avenged Sevenfold's best work it's an album that all fans of the band are sure to enjoy for a long, long time.
Matt Barton