I remember really grappling with Avenged
Sevenfold’s 2002 debut, “Sounding the Seventh Trumpet”,
trying to figure out if it was all some elaborate goof, nu-punks slapping
together an ungainly stew of death, black, progressive metal…and fuckin’
emo, and serving it up to the Warped tour crowd with big ol’
grins on their faces. Well, turns out these cats were serious about the
whole trip, as “Waken the Fallen” is just as straight-faced,
and just as metal. They’re still keeping the tight black t-shirts and
black number 1 dye jobs, of course- AFI is big these days, and all-
but the over-reaching goth elements of “Trumpets” are kept
to a minimum here, replaced with chugging metal riffs and twin guitar
melodies that sound more like vintage Jag Panzer than anything
else. Most of the time, “Waken the Fallen” sounds like At the Gates,
or Nightwish, or some such melodic Swedish power/death metal band,
and when it doesn’t, it sounds like Metallica. An awfully
sensitive Metallica, but still. I’m still not sure how this all came
together, but here it is, and fans of epic, soaring metal with truly
stellar musicianship should really check these cats out- you might look a
little out of place wearing bullet belts and corpsepaint at the Warped
tour, but hell, is there any right place to wear corspepaint,
really?Buy Waking the Fallen from Amazon for only $13.98!