Article written by: Ian Urquhart

Adaptation; a band’s creative effort to remain relevant in the music industry. Dish out a few teaser trailers? Overused. Maybe leak a new song to stir the rumor pot? Exhausted. How about performing live, rooftop of Capital Record’s Headquarters, while a virtual reality concert steams live over the internet with a new album release encore? Avenged Sevenfold adapted and the world listened.

After three years of silence, The Stage is Avenged Sevenfold’s seventh studio album to be released. Previously with Warner Brothers Records since 2005, Avenged split with the Cameron Strang record company after a breach-of-contract suit was filed against the band. Capital Record’s took advantage of the opportunity and provided the tools necessary for Avenged Sevenfold to create their most ingenious album to date.

The title track, The Stage is about perspective. Living in a world filled with tyranny, malicious terrorism and technological advances, Avenged shed light on debatable topics to open a new frame of reference. Instead of visualizing a stage as an entertainment podium, this song refers to the world as its stage. Hence, we as human beings are the puppets performing on such a platform.

As the advancement of technology gains perpetual momentum, Paradigm and Creating God reveal worries of nanobot technology replacing the DNA of what codes a human personality. Concerns of machines becoming so powerful that definitions of ‘God’ will be misinterpreted with mechanical contexts. That one day, technological creations could overrun and sustain inevitable control.

Aside from the album’s educational intention, Higher devotes its purpose towards their fallen drummer and best friend, James “The Rev” Sullivan. Previous songs such as So Far Away (Nightmare 2010) and Fiction (Nightmare 2010) have shared the band’s collective heartache with their fan base. Higher grips a subtle acceptance of death. Replacing thoughts of disbelief, hints of compliance are felt as Matthew Shadows (lead vocalist) foreshadows a future reunion with Jimmy,

“Meet you in the stars tonight. There you find me drifting in the ether within the hill”

Tying the album together, Exist is a fifteen minute, elegantly orchestrated conclusion. Modulated guitar tones and supernatural, cosmic effects represent the Big Bang inception. A strong Pink Floyd influence is sensed as the ballad continues into its adolescence with soft accented guitar licks. As a surprise to many, a Neil Degrassi Tyson monologue describing self-inflicted human destruction and the importance of space travel, finalizes the eleven song memento.

Final thoughts.

If you presumptuously listen to this album thinking it’s going to be another ‘Hail to the King’ heavy hitter, it will be complicated to fully appreciate this piece of art. In order to entirely let each song soak in, three to four listens will most likely be needed. Art is never meant to be constant. Change is necessary. If you remain uninterrupted and refuse to accept adaptations, true artistic discovery will be impossible. Expanding your horizon, widen your view and accept the revisions made in order progress. As a loyal fan of Avenged Sevenfold, I believe their finest work has only just begun.

The Stage (2016)

1. The Stage (8:33)
2. Paradigm (4:19)
3. Sunny Disposition (6:41)
4. God Damn (3:42)
5. Creating God (5:33)
6. Angles (5:41)
7. Simulation (5:31)
8. Higher (6:29)
9. Roman Sky (5:00)
10. Fermi Paradox (6:31)
11. Exist (15:41)