If I could describe how I feel about this album in one word, that word would be…disappointed.
This is not to say that this is the worst album of all time, but for this band, it surely is not their best and it shows how much creativity that the REV (R.I.P.) brought to this band. One of the great things about this band is how atmospheric their albums have been. They are dark, brooding, have amazing solos, have meaningful lyrics and all of them seem to tell tales of epic proportions. This album fails to do that. It doesn’t really give off any kind of atmosphere and lacks the punch that made the previous albums so great. The album just sounds like a Metallica tribute and sadly I kinda figured this is where they were going when they did Nightmare, where the riffs, drums and vocals had a kind of Metallica sound to them, but at the time it hadn’t taken over their style. The Avenged style was still there, but this album is where they have lost most of that style/sound that made them at least relatively unique.
Despite the fact that the album disappoints, there are a few good songs worth noting. Hail To The King was good, same with Doing Time, and Heretic. These songs felt a little more like the Avenged Sevenfold sound that I know and love. However, I feel that they have let their influences take over their sound and this album is no better than Diamonds In The Rough, which was just a mediocre album in itself. Maybe I need a little more time for the album to sink in, but at the moment, this album is mediocre and hopefully, time will change my mind. As it stands, I’m gonna give this album a 6.5/10.
-Steven
You know, I really gave up on them after City of Evil, even that one was tough to get through. Waking the Fallen is a masterpiece, their best album and they can never reach that status again unfortunately. Unholy Confessions: unholy shit!
I completely agree. Waking The Fallen was a perfect mash up of their Metal and Hard Rock roots. I place it in my top 10 favorite albums of all time. Damn near perfect. I liked their self titled album better than City Of Evil, but like you said, nothing tops Waking The Fallen.