Oliver

For a bunch of b sides it’s amazing, I think that the covers of flash of the blade sounds better than the one off of power slave. Walk is just as good in my opinion, and we don’t talk about paranoid. Crossroads is a surprising b side, it fits perfectly where it was meant to be, but at least we got to have it here. The version of afterlife is the music video version, which does make it bad, but otherwise it’s a nice compilation. Live in the lbc is incredible for a live album, and the revs singing while playing is one of the coolest things ever, crying shame brookes can’t do it.

I know that it’s meant to be simplified, but that doesn’t change my disdain for this album. It’s just bad, everything here is bad. There’s no fun to be had here, just sadness. I’m sure arin illijay is a great guy, but wow his drumming here is bad. He basically just played a basic rock beat with some fills and called it an album, same with the songs they made for the two COD games of the time. Even those are better, in fact they’re some of the best songs a band has made for games. But he just doesn’t live up to the expectations set for him, none of the style, sound, or presence that his predecessor, the rev, had. Could have been better if they got Mike portnoy to stay. Though I’m sure he was of making better music with dream theater.

As good as the album is, I think this was the beginning of a low point. This is, in my opinion, the album with the worst of their title tracks (out of five). It’s boring and nothing is necessarily interesting. Exist is great, but I don’t think it’s anywhere close to the best. Still better than hail to the king, though that doesn’t say much. I think that Brookes’ drumming sounds very similar to Lars Ulrich when he was good (basically from kill’em all to death magnetic minus saint anger). As unpopular as it sounds, I still think that Jimmy was better, even if not in terms of technicality on the kit, in pure ability. I will agree, brookes is an amazing drummer, but he just looks bored, he has no stage presence, and he can’t sing while he plays. That sorta makes songs like “little piece of heaven” or “critical acclaim” less fun or really impossible without full band participation.

Honestly, I think it’s way over hyped, the sound is just off, I know that they tried a new direction, and that’s fine, but I don’t think it’s wholly them. Much like how I feel about hail to the king, it’s not avenged sevenfold, I’ve been listening to them basically since I was in the womb I think I can say that. Nothing feels right here, not even the music videos. Yes, there are good songs, my favorites being nobody, Mattel, and we love you. But the rest are mid tier nothings. The music videos are cheeks, the only really good one is nobody. The music video for Mattel is just Barbie’s basically, I suppose it’s about Barbie going insane, but it’s not fun, it sorta just feels like they wanted to set Barbie’s on fire. The music video for we love you is the most low effort garbage they’ve ever done, it’s just a loop over some uninspiring music, the song itself isn’t even that good, it’s just better than most of the rest of the album. I miss when they made things that were cool and unique to them, now they sorta just sound like everything else. They also aren’t doing anymore actual albums, just singles and eps.

I won’t see you tonight parts 1&2 are two of the most beautiful sounding things this band has ever created and in my opinion made way for songs like “M.I.A”, “the wicked end” and even a lot of the rev’s music like “save me”, and “fiction” with all of them having a very similar ballad style. I think it’s just better, the new stuff is ok, but I don’t think it can ever really be as good…

2nd best to Avenged sevenfold (their self titled), may favorite off the album is “the wicked end.” An amazing album all around, the mixes of musical styles is done masterfully, certainly better than the new stuff imo. Matt’s raw voice on M.I.A with no editing is insane. I love the funny poppy sort of vibe through the whole thing.