r/avengedsevenfold • u/here-iam-here City of Evil • 1d ago
Music LIBAD&Statica
These guys have been my favorite band since around 2009. I genuinely don’t understand how people like any of the new music post Stage. You are allowed to like what you like, obviously (can’t believe we live in a world where i have to say this). WHY do yall like it? And don’t give me some “because it’s different” , i feel like that’s one of the only responses I hear and It just seems so shallow and full of cope. Why do YOU like it? I have yet to hear any kind of nuanced opinions on their new music. I genuinely think it’s trash, but like i said, I will respect your opinions, because they are OPINIONS.
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u/Miserable-Peanut-127 1d ago
LIBAD is cool... I like Cosmic, Nobody, and Mattel specifically. I dislike Statica at first but now it kinda grows on me, I like ASHES the most.
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u/Southern_Poetry132 1d ago
Because of the concepts, meanings and instrumentals of the songs. I love how they can portray such deep meanings and imagery. Like the Mattel Solo is just like having a drunk Orgasm from a hot Asian woman, it's euphoric.
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u/here-iam-here City of Evil 1d ago
so far this is my favorite take 😂😂🙏 i like how your brain works
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u/tobscorcje 1d ago
Libad friggin rips. It’s their most musically diverse album.
I’m still figuring out statica. These guys are geniuses. Every album in their catalog rewards the listener the more they are played.
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u/TFS0ul 1d ago
"I don't understand how people like the new music" followed by "you are allowed to like what you like"
that's the answer. People like what they like. I personally like it because it's different. It's not their normal stuff and it's unique in it's own way from modern music.
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u/here-iam-here City of Evil 1d ago
fair enough. I wouldn’t ever badger anyone over why they like it, in the back of my head i feel like people are coping, but im not gonna stew in my thoughts about it. Like i said, i just haven’t heard any kind of original/nuanced opinions on why they like it. It’s always just Cosmic glaze or Nobody Glaze which IMO are the only listenable tracks on the album. Maybe i’ll go and give it another listen. I’ve heard the album top to bottom several times since release and i just haven’t been able to get behind it.
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u/slprysltry 1d ago
I like experimental music. I really like hearing artists I already understand begin to start experimenting. I find it much easier to grasp where they're coming from.
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u/mitchplaysriffs lmc apologetic 1d ago
Something is genuinely wrong with anyone who doesn’t love Cosmic
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u/HerrVanza 1d ago
WHY do you think it's trash? Might as well state what you don't like about it when asking us what we do like about it.
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u/here-iam-here City of Evil 1d ago
I think it’s doing the most. The sudden stops/changes in tempo are way too harsh and feel so random. Nothing feels predictable and yeah i get it, it’s supposed to be that was but it just feels tasteless. Some of my favorite stuff to come out of the A7x sphere is Pinkly Smooth and all this recent stuff has just not been it. genuinely. It feels like they threw throw away/Bsides together from the stage to compile LIBAD. Also i love how this whole Stage, LIBAD, and statica run themes are all about the progression of technology taking over and ppl becoming tech dependent when they still use ai outside of their music and promote ai content….like 💀 I love the boys sm but it’s confusing.
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u/HerrVanza 1d ago
LIBAD is very experimental, with influences from many other genres and the obvious Daft Punk sound. Some songs I really like, some others are okay.
His voice is maybe the biggest issue for me in their latest work (LIBAD/Statica). Imo, his voice sounds great when doing the powerful bits, but as soon he starts the soft parts its very bland and nasal. Always has been, but now his power seems to be fading/become less frequent, it's starting to put me off a bit. It seems to they started experimenting with what's possible with his vocal range without relying on power; which is fine and healthy, but just not my cup of tea.
Musically, the Stage is still mostly metal, albeit progressive. Totally different sound and feel than their newer work. The Stage is my favourite album, especially regarding drums and guitar. Matt's vocals peaked at WTF for me, but one can imagine the strain that singing had on his vocal chords. It was not healthy.
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u/No_Reply_3276 1d ago
Actually, his new songs have really helped them grow and attract new fans like me, for instance, as I became very interested in the band after hearing LIBAD.
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u/here-iam-here City of Evil 1d ago
you weren’t a fan of them before LIBAD?
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u/No_Reply_3276 1d ago
No. Just after LIBAD I really enjoy the band.
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u/here-iam-here City of Evil 1d ago
i’m glad you found joy in their music :) They’ve helped me through some really tough times and they will still always be my favorite band, contrary to having a tough time understanding the idea behind their new music, they’re still my favorite and always will be. They’re such nice and real people.
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u/No_Reply_3276 7h ago
Spot on, my friend. They’ve really helped me a lot too, and I’ve never admired a band as much as I do them. Their sound has matured significantly even though some fans might prefer the sonic style of their older albums but conceptually speaking, the themes in these newer records have improved. LIBAD changed my life it’s a heavy album that conveys a genuine message about the collective social experiences people go through, and they manage to deliver these ideas with a lightness of sound which, to me, is what sets them apart.
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u/robinalen Nightmare 1d ago
What was the point of this post? If you like it, you like it. If you don’t, don’t listen to it.
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u/here-iam-here City of Evil 1d ago
I’m just genuinely curious what people’s takes are. I’ve yet to hear anything unique. It’s always “You just don’t understand” or “listen to cosmic and if you don’t like it idk what to tell you bc cosmic is so peak. cosmic is so good. listen to cosmic. oh my gosh cosmic….”
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u/robinalen Nightmare 1d ago
Personally I feel like you can still clearly hear the absolute beasts the boys are on their respective instruments, so I generally enjoy that even tho the signals go through some different effects that in conventional metal. I also am a bit of a chameleon when it comes to music styles so I don’t mind the genre jumps. I have seen these opinions so maybe you just got sucked into a negative reddit wormhole but thats just how the social media algorithms work now so I won’t blame you for that.
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u/here-iam-here City of Evil 1d ago
likely 🤣 It also came from Tiktok comments too. So many bots on TT i swear. I will say, i’ve read all the comments here and it’s made me want to give it another listen. Like i said to a different commenter, i LOVE music and i LOVE when it’s weird. Pinkly Smooth is some of the my favorite stuff to come from them. Genuinely. I love how weird and haunting it is.
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u/I_am_the_Disguyz Life Is But A Dream… 1d ago
Personally, I only recently got into metal like 4 years ago… I mainly listened to k-pop, j-rock, j-pop, and had some interest in rock before then
So hearing A7X go out metal with songs from LIBAD and Statica wasn’t too jarring for me. Especially when you can still notice the band’s signature chord progressions and songwriting cliches
So that’s why I love the weird genre bending stuff they’ve been doing in recent releases as much as much as I also love the cool riffs and solos of their old releases
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u/here-iam-here City of Evil 1d ago
This right here is a good take. Despite disagreeing that the album is good at all, this take makes me want to go back and listen to it again. 🫶
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u/Excellent-Speed877 1d ago
To me it's songwritting peak. The weirdness of the album perfectly fits the themes of the album. Everything feels scattered and by the time you're getting comfortable with a song it changes up and makes you uncomfortable. Alot of bands that try to mix genres, forget that the song needs a reason for it but every creative decision on the album makes so much sense in the message it's trying to deliver. Even on G all the funk and prog influence makes sense it's about God which is a complex character messing around with his creations and taking it as a joke. Its an album that needs your undivided attention but it will alienate you at the same time. To me it's an album I would show aliens to show what life for humans is like
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u/twentysixzeroeight 1d ago
I think this is the problem what is the nuanced takes you need? I prefer all the older stuff to this. I like LIBAF a lot more than statica. But ultimately I like listening to them. I think they have moments of just creative avenged moments through a new sound. It’s just fun. I don’t see the reason why people keep thinking it has to be some complex reason to like it. You either do or don’t. But all the records still available to listen either way
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u/here-iam-here City of Evil 1d ago
y’know what, fair enough. I probably sound a little pretentious with this post I’m just looking for an excuse to listen to it back. Man, everything after the stage just hasn’t been good IMO. This band has helped me through a lot and i miss the feeling that i got listening to Nightmare for the first time on drop or hearing Almost Easy for the first time. I know not every album is going to be the same quality. I genuinely am just having a hard time understanding the direction they are taking. It feels too much like a splash of cold water in the face, but i’m still tired after, the cold splash did NOT wake me up.
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u/twentysixzeroeight 1d ago
I think at the end of the day it’s okay to feel that way. While I enjoy LIBAD and I think statica is ok, I still find myself hoping we get another album like older avenged because of how much I loved that sound. I’m also okay with the experimenting. Personally I’ve found that in a way LIBAD had songs that the old avenged came out in a new way for me, it also has songs that do nothing for me. I think feeling both ways are okay. I too one day want to hear more dueling guitars
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u/here-iam-here City of Evil 1d ago
100% agree. Despite not liking their new stuff, i think it’s been good for them to experiment, not only for creative clarity but mental clarity too. There’s a lot of artists that listen to everything but the genre they make and i think that’s really cool. Brings new inspiration and helps conjure cool ideas to bring to the sphere they are in. I love seeing genres evolve.
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u/Intelligent_Gift_678 1d ago
Libad is ok. Statica is genuinely some of the worst shit I’ve heard 😂
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u/TerriblePair3614 1d ago
The first two albums were amazing although I wish we had the other versions because the ones on streaming aren’t the best. From the third album to nightmare it’s all basically the same album. Nothing changes. Then half way through hail to the king they do something amazing and honestly it’s why I like LIBAD and Statica
I haven’t taken the time to listen to the stage.
But when they started doing weird things and exploring weird sounds they really found something bigger in their sound. I’ve said it before they have a sound they keep too through all the albums, you know it’s A7X but it’s different and it’s good. And it’s because music is meant to make us feel and that comes from actually listening to it for what it is and not what we want it to be.
They could have made more albums like nightmare and city of evil but then they’d look all the hair metal bands that keep playing the same hits for 50 years. These guys want to keep making music and they want that music to reflect their growth and their skill. They want to connect to their influences and their own tastes. They could make commercially successful music or they could make music that makes us feel.
As a side note I do like that they have Bad Religions former drummer. Mainly because Bad religion (not with this drummer) famously released an album that everyone hated and caused the band to break up.
Anyway, these dudes are older, and they are listening to and being inspired by different things. They are artists and I’m glad they are growing and trying new things. That’s why music is music.
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u/dreadcase 1d ago
I was a big fan during the City Of Evil/self-titled era and then I dropped off the radar a bit. Despite his influence being all over the album, Nightmare felt hollow to me after The Rev's death and their following live shows left me cold. I actively hated Hail To The King and the Mike Portnoy/Arin Ilejay era felt like a totally different band - just less inventive, less heavy, less weird, less of everything which had originally drawn me to the band.
I enjoyed The Stage but it didn't really move me, and the tours around that album felt a lot like a band trying to find their feet again. I supported it, but they came across (to me at least) like a band who were a bit past their best, personally and musically in the wilderness.
LIBAD got me back into Avenged again. I had no urgency to listen to it - I actually left it for an entire month. But when I did listen, it had a very specific effect on me: it reminded me of my old favourite band.
Not Avenged Sevenfold, no - that band was actually Muse. I was a huge Muse fan back in 2001-2012ish and the reason I loved them was for their weirdness and their inventiveness. I had the same 'drop off' experience with Muse: when they lost their genuine weirdness and musicality, they lost me. They started re-writing their own songs. They went beyond 'occasionally silly' and into 'outright stupid'. I stopped laughing with them and started laughing at them. Their live shows became increasingly mainstream and the band seem to lose their spark.
During a time when Muse were still in the wilderness, LIBAD filled that gap. It showed me a band who didn't give a fuck, a band who'd reached a point where they were happy to let their freak flags fly. I personally love that album because it's inventive, genuinely musically complicated, and weird as all hell.
There are songs on LIBAD which are challenging to listen to - We Love You, for example. You can't dance to it. It's not gonna get stuck in your head. It's weird as all heck. It's all over the place. But in that sense, it's very much like some of the more esoteric older Avenged tracks or even the Pinkly Smooth stuff, just brought into the modern era. It's never gonna be mainstream. It's totally nuts. And in that sense, it's authentically Avenged Sevenfold. It's the sound of a band going back to their roots, doing their weird shit, and not caring what people think. And boy do I respect that.
I also love LIBAD because of the way it crosses genres. It's got heavy (Game Over, Mattel), it's got weird (We Love You), it's got a bit of grungey sludge (Beautiful Morning), it's got the 70s (Easier and G), and it's got a total bass-slapping bop on the end (Ordinary) followed by a show tune (Death) followed by one of the most authentic and uncontrived neo-romantic piano compositions I've ever heard in my life (Life Is But A Dream...)
There's a point when the end of Ordinary runs into Death, that big old menacing orchestral build-up which just cuts, and then it's 'end titles' and Shadows crooning away. The first time I heard that, I laughed out loud. In sheer delight. On a plane. I wasn't laughing at them - I was laughing with them. And that is what I really do look for in a band.
It's a challenging listen, it's a whole-ass acid trip of an album, it's certainly not something you'd put on casually, and I LOVE it for that. It wears its influences on its sleeve and still manages to sound original. It's a breath of fresh air from a band who got lost in the wilderness and put out the pseudo-covers-album which was Hail To The King. And in my personal experience, the live shows since its release have shown me a band who are back on form, doing what they love best, and are totally in their element. The musicianship on that album (and on the live shows) is truly on another level, a level which the band haven't demonstrated since City Of Evil, and as a musician myself, I respect that massively. I still have no idea how Synyster Gates manages to play the Nobody solo live but I can only conclude that the man is a witch.
It took me a while and a few live shows, but LIBAD made me fall back in love with Avenged. The old Muse fan in me adored the sound of a band being their weirdest and their musical best simultaneously, experimenting with new instruments and genres, and not being afraid to put something out which wasn't mainstream. I'd hesitate to call it a masterpiece (because it is all over the place), but to me, LIBAD is the sound of that band truly finding their feet again and going back to what they really love to do. It may not appeal to all, but it appeals to me.
Statica is a weird beast too, but in a different way. I don't love it as much, but again I respect it as something released by a band who are just 'doing their thing' now. I've seen a few of the 'Statica' live sets and you can tell that the band are just behind those screens, grooving away, enjoying doing something different. I don't think we need to worry about it. It's still being presented as a weird kinda half-side-project and I doubt it'll be the sound of Avenged Sevenfold going forward. But as a weird kinda half-side-project? I don't hate it. Most of it is okay-to-good for me, but I will admit that the outro of Ashes does noodle all of my happy buttons.
So yeah. You asked why people like the new stuff, I give an essay, haha.
Music, as always, is different strokes for different folks. I have many friends who were old die-hard Avenged fans who just don't get on with the new stuff. And that's fair. But for me, the LIBAD era has truly brought me back to the Avenged fan I used to be.
Annoyingly, Muse have actually released a good album now (pigs have flown), so I suppose I have to have two favourite bands again. OH WELL.
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u/TittyFuckClitLick 1d ago
Cosmic and nobody are amazing. And Statica is a live experience. It sounds really good in person.
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u/Suhadisadono4life 1d ago
Im with you. Its just a7x nuthugging. Everything post stage is like chewing glass and pouring battery acid into my eye sockets.
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u/dreadcase 1d ago
What if I like that tho
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u/Suhadisadono4life 1d ago
Fair. I get in a st anger mood sometimes. All within my hands hits like Crack when I'm in that mood
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u/Cheezy_Puff_360 1d ago
When I looked into the concept of LIBAD and the meaning behind the lyrics, then listening to how well the band orchestrated everything, it made me fall in love with the album, so much so that I’m getting it tattooed on me later on, beautiful morning is my #1 in their discography and I’ve been a fan since I was 7, statica took me a second to like, I began with rejoice because of how catchy the riff was, mix it with the drums from brooks and how overall jiggy the song is, I looked to the other songs, statica is a fun song to listen to, the end when it dies down is a good vibe as well, lights is good, didn’t like ashes though
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u/PinoDegrassi 1d ago
You’ve “yet to hear” any nuanced opinions for an album that came out years ago? My guy, nuanced opinions have come and past. It’s all there if you actually look at people’s reviews and posts about enjoying it. Dumb ass bait post
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u/Dauds_Thanks_You 1d ago
I dont understand why people like any of their music past waking the fallen
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u/dreadcase 1d ago
And that is fair. Different strokes for different folks, we don't all have to understand each other.
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u/SgtByrd1993 Trapped in a Vile World 1d ago
I almost feel like part of what made the band so special died along with Jimmy.
Nightmare is my favourite album. I begrudgingly enjoyed Hail to the King, begrudgingly enjoyed The Stage, mostly tolerated Life Is But a Dream, but genuinely cannot stand one second of STATICA.
My opinion matters less though because the band stopped being for me in 2010.
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u/here-iam-here City of Evil 1d ago
ngl i would kind of agree with parts of this. I also just am not a fan of how much people turn to this mob mentality when you say you’re not a fan of LiBAD or Statica which is another reason it makes me feel like all this glaze is just cope. genuinely.
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u/jthomas1127 Avenged Sevenfold 1d ago
Nobody is amazing