California-based Avenged Sevenfold released a video for the new single off of their upcoming self-titled album recently, a track entitled “Almost Easy”. It’s viewable below, for those of you that want to skip the rest of this…
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(my take)
So let me dish this out for you, because my relationship with this band is a very very odd one… and if i’m not mistaken, once their new album is released, it’s going to get even more odd…
The first time I ever heard Waking the Fallen, I was sold. This was a band that fit in with the current up-and-coming “metalcore” trend, but had an identity completely all it’s own. I thought the look was goofy, I thought the names were childish, but the MUSIC…. the music had it. Waking the Fallen was one of those discs that, as you listen to it, you realize it’s FAR from perfect…. but that’s kind of the point. It was an album showing hunger, showing strength, showing the broadening of a new identity that set them out from their peers. To say I was excited for the follow up album would be an understatement. When the band were still in the touring stages for Waking the Fallen, I was singing as many praises as I could, telling everyone who would give it a spin long enough to go “I don’t know….. they’re alright” to just WAIT for the next album. The way the disc ended… I knew the direction they were headed in, and I couldn’t wait to hear it.
Looking back now… I don’t think I could’ve been any more wrong.
If you don’t know by now, the fanfare that the eventual follow up – City of Evil – garnered, then you’re hiding under a rock or you have no interest in this style of music. To argue that City of Evil was Avenged Sevenfold’s “mainstream breakthrough” is like arguing that “Enter Sandman” is played on mainstream rock radio way too much… tell us something we don’t know. As soon as the first single, “Bat Country”, was released, it was like a universal scream of endless praise. “This band is the new Guns ‘n Roses!” “Avenged Sevenfold is to today’s hard rock as Motley Crue was to the 80’s!” “They’re carrying the banner of rock and running with it!”
Personally, I wanted to vomit.
I couldn’t argue with the press the record received. Yes, they could very well be the next Guns ‘n Roses or Motley Crue. That’s great, good for them…. I DON’T WANT ANOTHER GUNS ‘N ROSES OR MOTLEY CRUE. Even a band I absolutely love, The Sword, i’d agree rips off Black Sabbath like none other. But where Avenged Sevenfold just screams of the bands they’re influenced by, The Sword gives me the dignity to let me know they’re influenced a lot by Black Sabbath, but not throw it in my face every 2 seconds. So great, there goes another band with great potential, down the drain for me. I get to despise them until they die, write them off as a mainstream money-grubbing group, and not worry about it. I had even gotten my point to other people who were telling me how great the new record was and how right i’d been! I couldn’t be happier, right? I mean, their new album was going to be released a day before Halloween! How much more cliche and fake evil can you get?!
Then they released “Almost Easy”.
Dare I give it a shot, right? I’ll probably cut it off right when it hits the first chorus and write it off as another piece of garbage, and be no worse for wear…
Wrong again. I watched the whole thing… and i’m scared I might actually enjoy it a little bit. It’s so against everything I stand for with my opinion on music. I can’t just LIKE a band that I had so many reasons to loathe! I still don’t like the look, I still hate the names, I still think City of Evil is junk… but i’m almost afraid to admit that I just might like this song…
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Watch it, and let me know what you think.
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