Music / Waking the Fallen

I know it's hurting you, but it's killing me..

Wake the ones and rise tonight
Fallen souls we shine so bright..
Rise now and ever
Leave your memory..
No one can touch us!

"Waking the Fallen"

Waking the Fallen is the second studio album by the American Heavy Metal band Avenged Sevenfold, distributed through Hopeless Records and released in 2003. It's the band's first album with band mainstays Synyster Gates and Johnny Christ.

The album is still Metalcore for a good portion, and still has dry production, but the band starts adding a lot more new elements on this album. There aren't as many Harsh Vocals, and the songs are bigger all around (Longer, with more complex structuring). Elements from future albums like City of Evil can be found here, like certain speed metal centered songs like "Second Heartbeat" and "Eternal Rest", although the album is able to retain it's own sound. It also hints at some growth for the band, with "I Won't See You Tonight" being about the suicide attempt of former bassist Justin Sane.

While it wasn't as popular as City of Evil would make them, it scored their first ever big hit, "Unholy Confessions", which gave them their first music video and is still the most well known song off of the album. In 2014, it was given an Updated Re-release with Waking the Fallen: Resurrected, which includes demos and live performances of songs from the album.

Tracklist:

1. "Waking the Fallen" (1:42)
2. "Unholy Confessions" (4:43)
3. "Chapter Four" (5:42)
4. "Remenissions" (6:06)
5. "Desecrate Through Reverence" (5:38)
6. "Eternal Rest" (5:12)
7. "Second Heartbeat" (7:00)
8. "Radiant Eclipse" (6:09)
9. "I Won't See You Tonight Part 1" (8:58)
10. "I Won't See You Tonight Part 2" (4:44)
11. "Clairvoyant Disease" (4:59)
12. "And All Things Will End" (7:40)

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Members featured on the album

• M. Shadows – Vocals
• Synyster Gates - Lead guitar, piano ^note on "I Won't See You Tonight Part 1"
• Zacky Vengeance - Rhythm guitar
• Johnny Christ - Bass
• The Rev - Drums

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Waking the Fallen contains examples of..

• Album Intro Track: The intro, about 2 minutes long, which also serves as the title track. The intro sings about waking the dead and has distant, reverberated vocals that fit the ghostly atmosphere.
• Alternate Album Cover: Unveiled inside the booklet, which presents a woman holding her hand out to the sky with disembodied hands below her. It seems to be holding a certain style to Seventh Trumpet, but is more of it's own thing, a contrast shared between the albums themselves.
• Alternate Music Video: The music video for "Unholy Confessions" has two versions. The first, and the more prominently known one, is a compilation of live performances and whatnot. The second is a Performance Video, with the band in an empty warehouse with a blue lighting filter.
• As the Good Book Says...: The Cain and Abel story serves as the basis for the lyrics of "Chapter Four".
• Book Ends: "I Won't See You Tonight Part 2" starts and ends with the same distorted riff.
• Changing Chorus: The final line of the chorus in "Remenissions" changes from "Keep away from me" to "Confused" upon the second chorus.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Downplayed. Although the album is more in line with later albums than Seventh Trumpet, it still has the same Harsh Vocals and, while the normal vocals are fine enough, one listen to a song from this and then another from City of Evil really shows the difference in growth.
• Epic Rocking: The songs on this album are much longer than the previous one. Whereas Seventh Trumpet's songs were mostly 4 minutes, this album usually has 5 and 6 minute songs, with three songs diving into 7, 8, and even 9 minutes.
• Fading into the Next Song: Seen on the transition from "Waking the Fallen" to "Unholy Confessions", as well the transition from Part 1 of "I Won't See You Tonight" to Part 2.
• Harsh Vocals: Like Seventh Trumpet, Matt's vocals dive into this at times, although it's a bit less prominent here.
• Grief Song: "I Won't See You Tonight, Parts I and II", written for former bassist Justin Sane, who left the band after a failed suicide attempt (and medicines prescribed to prevent another) left him psychologically unfit to tour. The first part revolves around Justin ending himself and Syn finding him, and the second part is Matt's reaction upon finding out.
• Last Note Nightmare: "And All Things Will End" ends in a solo that's increasingly off-key and slows down into a nightmarish cacophony.
• Lonely Piano Piece: "I Won't See You Tonight Part 1" begins with this, as well as having it somewhere in the middle of the song by itself.
• Metalcore: Their last album related to the genre, although they incorporate their own, different style into it.
• Minimalistic Cover Art: The cover art is simply a darkened Deathbat with the album name and logo of the band.
• Miniscule Rocking: "Waking the Fallen" (1:42), although the first draft of the song was heavier and about a minute longer; that version was eventually included as a bonus in Resurrected.
• Mood Whiplash: The out-of-nowhere ballad in the middle of "And All Things Will End", a mostly quiet part coming after a heavy chorus.
• New Sound Album: While retaining the Metalcore elements of it's predecessor, Waking the Fallen has some of it's own style incorporated into it, with longer tracks, deeper songs, and not as much Harsh Vocals.
• Title Track: Which is also the intro.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: "Desecrate Through Reverence" is a harsh speech about wanting to be left alone from someone else. Think of it as their version of "Walk"
• Updated Re-release: The band released Waking The Fallen: Resurrected in 2014, which includes a new cover art, as well demos and live versions of songs from the album.

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