Letting go as you lose your name and all you’ve known to be.
Life Is But a Dream… is the eighth studio album from heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, released on June 2. 2023.
Seven years after their previous album, the band this time wanted to take a more abstract and philosophical approach, with lyrics about life, boredom, death and existentialism. If The Stage was the band dipping their toes in prog territory, LIBAD... is them diving headfirst into it, this time playing with conventional song structure and blending genres more than in any of their previous albums. The fact that it was mostly written and recorded during the Covid crisis in 2020-2021 partly explains the delay as well as the themes.
Citing influences from Kanye West or Daft Punk, among others, the usual heavy riffing and soloing is flavored with a pinch of hip-hop, electro, funk and classical with a 72-piece orchestra. The album has also vibes reminiscent of Pinkly Smooth, the band Synyster Gates and the late Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan played in all the way back in 2001.note
Incidentally, this album makes Brooks Wackerman the first drummer to record two albums with A7X since The Rev’s passing in 2009.
Tracklist:
- Game Over (3:47)
- Mattel (5:31)
- Nobody (6:03)
- We Love You (6:15)
- Cosmic (7:32)
- Beautiful Morning (6:33)
- Easier (3:38)
- G (3:40)
- (O)rdinary (2:54)
- (D)eath (3:21)
- Life Is But a Dream... (4:30)
Members and guests:
Avenged Sevenfold- M. Shadows − Vocals
- Synyster Gates − Lead guitar, piano, synths, bridge vocals on "Beautiful Morning"
- Zacky Vengeance − Rhythm guitar, backing vocals
- Johnny Christ - Bass, backing vocals
- Brooks Wackerman - Drums
Additional Musicians
- Jason Freese − Keyboards on "Nobody", "We Love You" and "Cosmic"
- Taura Stinson and Brianna Mazzola − Additional vocals on "G"
- San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra
Tropes featured in the album
- Driven to Suicide: There’s not much suspense as to what the protagonist of "Game Over" is up to. The song includes lines like "It strikes me that I don’t belong here anymore" and "Hanging from the family tree. Say goodnight…"
- Epic Rocking: "Cosmic" clocks in at 7:32, which isn’t the longest song they wrote by a long shot but is enough to take you to an ethereal journey in four parts going crescendo, including one of Syn’s longest solos to date at 1 minute 35 seconds.
- God Is Flawed: "G" depicts God as lazy, bored and utterly uninterested in the well-being of His creation. The track is set on a funky track with female singers while M. Shadows sings in his lowest barytone, which all creates a darkly comical effect.
- Lonely Piano Piece: The closing and title track is a meandering classical piano piece composed by Synyster Gates, that has a melancholic and dreamy feel in line with the preceding track "(D)eath".
- Lyrical Dissonance: Boy oh boy, is there ever. If you don’t pay attention to the lyrics, you might feel like you’re listening to a soothing, peaceful, if slightly dark album. But themes of death, loss of meaning and servitude permeate it all the way through. The very first track "Game Over" sets the tone, with someone committing suicide with the most calming acoustic guitar you’ve ever heard.
- Metal Scream: The pre-solo bridge of "We Love You" has Matt use harsh vocals for the first time since the Nightmare album, creating a brutal contrast with the quietly sung chorus just before. It serves to mimic the emotional and psychological rollercoaster caused by drug use.
- Mood Whiplash: Similarly to the Metal Scream example above, a lot of the songs use sudden and repeated shifts between soft acoustic guitars or synths and heavy riffs. According to M. Shadows, this is partly meant to reflect the modern "ADHD society" where people can’t stay focused on one thing for long.
- Out-of-Genre Experience: Most notable in the last third of the album, with "G" being a satirical funk metal track, "(O)rdinary" delving into electro and disco and "(D)eath" being reminiscent of classic crooner music à la Frank Sinatra. It’s all capped off by the title track, a gothic-tinged impressionism piece.
- Pastiche: You’d be forgiven for thinking "(O)rdinary" was a lost track from Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories. Funky disco guitars and synths? Check. Soft autotune and vocoder? Check. Catchy but melancholic rhythms? Check. The narrator is a robot? Check.
- Shout-Out: Mattel’s second verse ends with "In case we don’t see you again, good afternoon, good evening and good night." The line directly references Truman’s words in The Truman Show, reflecting the fake, artificial world described in the song.
- Title Drop: The opening track "Game Over" ends on the line "Can’t you see life is but a dream, anyway?" Considering the narrator says it while committing suicide, it puts said title in quite a different perspective than in the original children's song.
