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Post by noleafclover1980 on Apr 25, 2011 2:05:30 GMT -5
I remember the first time I heard these guys, the combo of screaming and clean vocals seemed really unique at the time, plus thy had some really fun riffs. Sadly when Shadows blew out his vocal chords, they had to change their sound to accommodate him. While they've had some fun songs, it's a shame they couldn't build on their sound from "Sounding the Seventh Trumpet" and "Waking the Fallen" and instead kinda turned into GnR lite. Any other A7X fans?
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Red Lion
Dennis Stamp
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Post by Red Lion on Apr 25, 2011 6:09:55 GMT -5
Agreed, old A7X is awesome, especially Sounding the Seventh Trumpet. It's a shame that Matt Shadows physically can't perform any songs from it live anymore.
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Post by Jim Stansel on Apr 25, 2011 6:43:31 GMT -5
Second Heartbeat is one my favorite songs of all time. I agree they are still pretty good, but nothing like their screaming days
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Phosphor Glow
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Post by Phosphor Glow on Apr 25, 2011 8:24:44 GMT -5
Yeah, their first two albums are really awesome stuff. Particularly Waking the Fallen, for me. I love that album. Really great metalcore from back when the genre hadn't gotten completely tired yet.
Beyond those first two albums...City of Evil had a couple of good tracks, their self-titled was completely awful, and Nightmare had a couple of good tracks.
Honestly, I think they'd be a lot better nowadays if they stopped doing ballads. A7X cannot write ballads to save their lives, and Matt's voice sure as hell doesn't suit them. They're so disappointingly awful nowadays.
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Post by VenomFang on Apr 25, 2011 9:10:51 GMT -5
First 3 albums were great. Last 2 just decent.
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Post by noleafclover1980 on Apr 25, 2011 14:03:18 GMT -5
Yeah, their first two albums are really awesome stuff. Particularly Waking the Fallen, for me. I love that album. Really great metalcore from back when the genre hadn't gotten completely tired yet. Beyond those first two albums...City of Evil had a couple of good tracks, their self-titled was completely awful, and Nightmare had a couple of good tracks. Honestly, I think they'd be a lot better nowadays if they stopped doing ballads. A7X cannot write ballads to save their lives, and Matt's voice sure as hell doesn't suit them. They're so disappointingly awful nowadays. Well, they DID do a pretty good on Waking the Fallen.I think the main problem is while he physically cannot do screams anymore because he blew out his vocal chords, he also lost a lot of power in his voice. It now has a weird nasally whiny tone to it, when back then it had a little more kick to it.
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Post by SenorCrest on Apr 25, 2011 15:00:22 GMT -5
I love both those albums. Unholy Confessions was just so much win. I might say tho, that Nightmare is my favorite album. I love every song on that album. MY other favorite song is The Art of Subconscious Illusion it has such an awesome name and the song was good too. The only album I was not to big on was their self titled album and the one after that.
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Post by BRAINFADE on Apr 25, 2011 15:28:18 GMT -5
Two bloody ace albums. I don't like the hate the other albums get though, i think they're all awesome. And FYI, i was at the show where Matt officially blew his voice out- Leeds Festival 2004.
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Post by noleafclover1980 on Apr 25, 2011 16:53:58 GMT -5
Two bloody ace albums. I don't like the hate the other albums get though, i think they're all awesome. And FYI, i was at the show where Matt officially blew his voice out- Leeds Festival 2004. They just lose a lot of the interesting dynamic I think. The songs came off as more epic in scope and intricate as well. The stuff after doesn't have the same "oomph".
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Post by BRAINFADE on Apr 25, 2011 17:15:19 GMT -5
Two bloody ace albums. I don't like the hate the other albums get though, i think they're all awesome. And FYI, i was at the show where Matt officially blew his voice out- Leeds Festival 2004. They just lose a lot of the interesting dynamic I think. The songs came off as more epic in scope and intricate as well. The stuff after doesn't have the same "oomph". I know what you mean, Waking The Fallen is by far the best album. But i don't blame them for changing direction because a) like we all know, Matt's voice got so screwed up he physically can't do that screaming style very much anymore, and b) i generally don't blame any band for taking a new direction after a few albums. It must get incredibly tempting to try something a bit different after years of playing what is essentially the same style night after night. The self titled album, i believe, gets a lot of very unfair criticism because it is so different, and it is the album with which they truly arrived (or "sold out" if you will). It is actually my favourite album after WTF. It was just so out of left field from what they had done in the past, but for me it just worked.
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Post by noleafclover1980 on Apr 25, 2011 18:24:08 GMT -5
They just lose a lot of the interesting dynamic I think. The songs came off as more epic in scope and intricate as well. The stuff after doesn't have the same "oomph". I know what you mean, Waking The Fallen is by far the best album. But i don't blame them for changing direction because a) like we all know, Matt's voice got so screwed up he physically can't do that screaming style very much anymore, and b) i generally don't blame any band for taking a new direction after a few albums. It must get incredibly tempting to try something a bit different after years of playing what is essentially the same style night after night. The self titled album, i believe, gets a lot of very unfair criticism because it is so different, and it is the album with which they truly arrived (or "sold out" if you will). It is actually my favourite album after WTF. It was just so out of left field from what they had done in the past, but for me it just worked. I did prefer it over City of Evil myself, as it does sound like on their newest album Mark got a little bit of his old power back in his voice. Maybe he's been seeing a vocal coach. One of the other guys in the band should work on their scream a little so the old stuff an be played right live, and not seem like a stripped down version of it.
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Post by SenorCrest on Apr 25, 2011 18:24:32 GMT -5
My screen name was inspired by Chapter Four.
"You took his side, you took his gift, feel the power of a fallen man, crestfallen man... "
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Phosphor Glow
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Post by Phosphor Glow on Apr 25, 2011 18:30:27 GMT -5
They just lose a lot of the interesting dynamic I think. The songs came off as more epic in scope and intricate as well. The stuff after doesn't have the same "oomph". I know what you mean, Waking The Fallen is by far the best album. But i don't blame them for changing direction because a) like we all know, Matt's voice got so screwed up he physically can't do that screaming style very much anymore, and b) i generally don't blame any band for taking a new direction after a few albums. It must get incredibly tempting to try something a bit different after years of playing what is essentially the same style night after night. The self titled album, i believe, gets a lot of very unfair criticism because it is so different, and it is the album with which they truly arrived (or "sold out" if you will). It is actually my favourite album after WTF. It was just so out of left field from what they had done in the past, but for me it just worked. I don't blame them for changing direction, either. I actually like it when bands do that. It's just that I don't like the direction they went in, particularly on the self-titled. I just thought it was awful, and I thought Matt's lyrics were garbage. He was never a great lyricist, but they got REAAAALLY bad there. Just my two cents, though.
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Post by noleafclover1980 on Apr 25, 2011 18:33:07 GMT -5
My screen name was inspired by Chapter Four. "You took his side, you took his gift, feel the power of a fallen man, crestfallen man... " I remember feeling really smart when I thought the song sounded like Cain and Abel, so I grabbed a Bible, and sure enough, Cain and Abel was in Genesis, chapter 4.
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Post by dablueboy on Apr 25, 2011 19:30:01 GMT -5
one of my mates from when i was working in a cinema got me into a7x, ive listened to stuff from their earlier albums but only physically have the self titled and nightmare albums
seize the day and beast and the harlot are two of my absolute favourite songs of all time
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Phosphor Glow
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Post by Phosphor Glow on Apr 25, 2011 19:32:35 GMT -5
one of my mates from when i was working in a cinema got me into a7x, ive listened to stuff from their earlier albums but only physically have the self titled and nightmare albums seize the day and beast and the harlot are two of my absolute favourite songs of all time Beast and the Harlot is one of my favorite A7X songs, and is one of the very few good tracks on City of Evil, in my opinion. Always hated Seize the Day, but that's me.
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theryno665
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Post by theryno665 on Apr 25, 2011 19:34:58 GMT -5
I used to love Avenged Sevenfold (though it seemingly took me forever to find Sounding The Seventh Trumpet, for some reason). Even with the changes, I still wanted to remain a fan as City of Evil wasn't horrible. But by the time the self-titled album came out, I didn't care anymore.
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Post by alabastergrim on Apr 25, 2011 23:11:54 GMT -5
I like it when a band evolves and I really don't mind A7X's change in their music. I think "Nightmare" is a fantastic album and personally....I'm sure this will be unpopular....I think it's a lot better than Sounding The Seventh Trumpet. I do still like certain songs from that album but there's a lot that doesn't hold up well on it, especially Shadows' piss poor vocals in "Warmness on the Soul". "We Come Out At Night" is still great though.
Their self-titled I thought was really good if it ended after "A Little Piece of Heaven" but "Dear God" had to go in there and basically ruin the whole thing. I also wasn't into "Lost" due to the auto-tuned vocals.
"Nightmare" I thought was a great redemption album though and with songs like "God Hates Us" kind of blended all their styles together into a cohesive sound. "Waking The Fallen" is still their best album though, no doubt about that.
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Phosphor Glow
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Post by Phosphor Glow on Apr 26, 2011 2:06:35 GMT -5
I like it when a band evolves and I really don't mind A7X's change in their music. I think "Nightmare" is a fantastic album and personally....I'm sure this will be unpopular....I think it's a lot better than Sounding The Seventh Trumpet. I do still like certain songs from that album but there's a lot that doesn't hold up well on it, especially Shadows' piss poor vocals in "Warmness on the Soul". "We Come Out At Night" is still great though. Their self-titled I thought was really good if it ended after "A Little Piece of Heaven" but "Dear God" had to go in there and basically ruin the whole thing. I also wasn't into "Lost" due to the auto-tuned vocals. "Nightmare" I thought was a great redemption album though and with songs like "God Hates Us" kind of blended all their styles together into a cohesive sound. "Waking The Fallen" is still their best album though, no doubt about that. Oh hell yes. "God Hates Us" is another one of those weird situations where it's on an album I'm not really fond of, but is one of my favorite songs of theirs. It's SO badass.
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Post by El Cokehead del Knife Fight on Apr 26, 2011 2:20:09 GMT -5
Probably my second favorite of theirs behind M.I.A. I just kind of love the jumps in tempo and such through it which makes it seem fairly epic.
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