How the heaviest band of the 2000s metalcore scene decided to burn down their own rulebook—and found enlightenment in the wreckage.
For two decades, the Huntington Beach quintet had been the reliable titans of modern heavy metal. From the genre-defining fury of Waking the Fallen to the chart-topping arena anthems of Hail to the King , A7X had built an empire on a formula—soaring vocals, dueling guitar harmonies, double-bass drum barrages, and the late Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan’s manic genius. But with their eighth studio album, Life Is But a Dream , the band didn’t just step outside their comfort zone. They detonated it, took a left turn into a Dadaist funhouse, and invited listeners to either come along for the ride or get left behind.
Not for everyone. Essential for anyone who’s ever wondered what happens when a metal band decides to stop being a metal band. Avenged Sevenfold - Life Is But A Dream -2023- ...
“We were bored,” Shadows told Kerrang! around the album’s release. “Playing ‘Bat Country’ for the ten-thousandth time felt like a museum exhibit. We either had to make something that terrified us, or we had to stop.”
Terrify us, they did. From its first seconds, Life Is But a Dream announces itself as a trickster. The opening title track is a two-minute, solo piano instrumental—a delicate, melancholy waltz that sounds like Debussy scoring a David Lynch film. No guitar heroics. No drums. Just a lonely melody that feels like walking through a dream you can’t wake up from. How the heaviest band of the 2000s metalcore
“We’re not trying to be different for the sake of it,” drummer Brooks Wackerman (a jazz-trained powerhouse who joined in 2015) explained. “We’re trying to be honest. And the truth is, we don’t feel like a heavy metal band anymore. We feel like a band who used to play heavy metal.” Where does Life Is But a Dream rank in Avenged Sevenfold’s catalog? That’s the wrong question. It exists outside the catalog. It’s not a sequel to The Stage or a return to form. It’s a declaration of independence from form itself.
In June 2023, Avenged Sevenfold did something that legacy acts are explicitly told never to do: they alienated their core audience on purpose. But with their eighth studio album, Life Is
“Nobody,” “Cosmic,” “Mattel,” “We Love You”