Reviews Music / Life Is But A Dream

Life Is But a Dream: Another Beauty, But More Than That

The first 2 minutes of Game Over is the only song on here you'd expect Avenged Sevenfold 2 make.

Life is But a Dream... is an Avenged Sevenfold album. But you'd never guess that by listening 2 it. Once again the production is dialed back, but that's the least of our issues. The sound is COMPLETELY altered 2 be absolutely unrecognizable. Every aspect of The Stage is used here and is exaggerated 2 such a degree, this is closer 2 California by Mr. Bungle instead of The Stage. You have insane song structures, you have songs going from 100 2 0 in an instant, you have Shadows' shitty voice. Oh yeah, uh, Shadows' voice here. We'll get 2 that. You have fucken a Daft Punk song, fucking croon jazz.. The themes here combine The Stage's topics about the future with 2000's album themes of criticizing America, and the album does this by tackling consumerism, existentialism, and the purpose of being human.

It shares some similarities with Nightmare. Both have a song about some1 dying, both have a song about death powered by piano, but here's the big 1. Both are very dark and very mature albums, but whereas Nightmare was fueled by the emotions generated by the death of The Rev, LIBaD... instead shows the band covering these topics with surprisingly serious and mature intent. It also shares a lot of compare and contrast with, of all things, Sounding the Seventh Trumpet. Both cover the absolute extremes of maturity 4 the band. StST was an attempt 4 the band 2 figure out their sound and fit in with most other metal/punk bands in the early 2000s, while LIBaD goes balls deep with experimenting. Alas, both have Shadows' with a weird ass voice, but again, we'll get 2 that. Even the metalcore voice makes a brief cameo a few times, even if it doesn't sound like it used 2.

Ever since it first came out, it's always felt like a challenge 2 listen 2. Something I had 2 keep the will 2 keep listening 2. It's not bad, it just carries so much weight and it's so deliberately unsafe in it's sound. When Nobody first came out, I did not take it lightly. I h8ed We Love You even more. But I listened 2 it at school, the last day of school, the same day it came out. It took me a while, but it grew on me. Here's the review I wrote on that same day. Which is outdated.

The album's great and all, but it has problems. Like uh.... Uh.. Shadows' voice! Yeah his voice is just not the best. That's another extreme thing between here and StST. On there, he felt 2 young, but here, he feels 2 old. He sounds like an old man at risk of losing his voice any time soon. And uhh....

This album is fucking beautiful as shit in it's own special way. God.

Song ranking

1. Easier

2. G

3. (D)eath

4. (O)rdinary

5. We Love You

6. Cosmic

7. Life Is But a Dream...

8. Game Over

9. Mattel

10. Beautiful Morning

11. Nobody