Sounding The Seventh Trumpet | Forgotten Beginnings

Avenged Sevenfold over the decades has become a household name, to some representing a champion of modern rock, others a sham of modern metal. Yet, while the future albums are contested amongst the fanbase, STST is left forgotten and left in the dust.

As opposed to the universal praise of WTF or the widespread hatred of HTTK, STST is just ignored entirely usually. Fans outside of the sub typically do not even know it exists. So, I encourage everyone to give the entire album a listen. Now, on with the review.

Analysis:

If there's one thing people do usually love about STST, it's the drums. It's the Rev, of course it's fantastic. Impressive, as it was all recorded in one take, with the rest of the band placing their parts over it.

First above the drums is the bass guitar, which was not done by Johnny Christ, but by Justin Sane (The inspiration for IWSYT). The bass is decent, and can get pretty complex at times, but it's definitely not what you're buying the album for, it's a background element. The most impressive thing here is that you can actually hear the bass in an A7X album, something you can't say about future albums.

Next up is the guitar. Now, don't go crazy just yet, but there's basically no lead guitar. Brian was only involved in TETR, the rest is all Zacky. Luckily, that means if you're a riff fanatic, you'll really enjoy the guitarwork. These are some of Zacky's best riffs, finding the balance between the likes of Poison the Well, Hatebreed, and Exodus.

But next, is the most divisive thing about the album: The vocals. Matt uses a garbled scream that can rarely be understood. Fans of more extreme metal and in particular early 2000s Metalcore, like myself, won't find too much of a problem in this, it's essentially Bleeding Through but higher pitched. Others, however, see this as the thing that kills the album. And from an objective standpoint, I don't really blame them. Even from a standpoint of early Metalcore, he was a weaker vocalist. When cohesive yells such as Chad Gilbert's and deeper growls like Micheal Crafter's existed, the garbled screech used here had no excuse to sound like that. But at the end of the day, it gets the job done, this is a riff album, not a vocal one. On the other end of the spectrum though, are Matt's cleans, which sound as though he's chewing while singing. They suck, and I say that as a diehard fan of this album. It's by far the weakest aspect of the album.

My final thing to analyze here is the production. Like the vocals, some love it, some hate it. Raw production is always a positive to me, but others might prefer something more clean. If anything, it's just another punk aspect to the album, and rawer production was common in Metallic Hardcore in the early 2000s.

Track-by-track:

Now it's time to lose all objectivity people! Ready for some intense bias? WELL I AM!

Side A immediately starts off with 4 great tracks. TETR is a nice intro and the only song with Brian on it. Turn The Other Way brings the breakdowns in. More and more it reminds me of Earth Crisis' Destroy the Machines, but with more of a thrash element than a Death Metal one. Darkness Surrounding, ooh boy this song is incredible. The drum solo is fantastic, the riffs are Thrashy, and that ending is probably the best clean vocal section in the album with one exception. The song just kicks ass, and the lyrics are also pretty good. Finally, The Art Of Subconscious Illusion brings a very Hardcore Punk touch to the album, reminiscent of early Hatebreed. Not to mention Val screams better than Matt himself, and there are some Death Growls that are rumored to be The Rev's.

Side B follows up perfectly beginning with We Come Out At Night. Fantastically meshing Overcast with Shai Hulud with Poison the Well, it's one of the most well known from the album. Then comes my all time favorite from this album: Lips Of Deceit. I made a Bleeding Through comparison earlier, and that definitely rings true here, having by far the most Gothenburg influence of the album, the riff just sounds straight out of Slaughter of the Soul. Then, overrated mediocrity: Warmness On The Soul. Why does everyone love this song so much? It's so generic and boring, and even Zacky's solo can't save it.

Next is Side C. An Epic Of Time Wasted is great, it's got some very Melodeathy guitar work, a catchy breakdown, though the second half of the song kinda falls flat compared to the first half. The cleans are probably at some of their worst here as well. Breaking Their Hold starts off getting me thinking we're getting into some Kill 'Em All type shit and then descends into boring breakdowns and absolute garbage riffs. Forgotten Faces luckily kicks in to save the album, like Lips of Deceit it brings in the Melodeath influence and hints at Waking The Fallen, though it also pays tribute to early Converge.

Finally, the end is here. Thick And Thin absolutely crushes it with a fantastically executed breakdown, positive lyrics reminding me of Hatebreed, and a general sound that had to be the inspiration for Easycore. Streets is straight up punk. Makes sense to bring it back live now that we have a punk drummer. Finally, Shattered By Broken Dreams. It begins as an acoustic ballad with Matt's best cleans of the album before transitioning into Jane Doe-esque chaos, only to end as melodic hardcore punk, before the album closes just the way it began, on the sound of a storm.

1. Lips of Deceit.
2. Darkness Surrounding.
3. Shattered By Broken Dreams.
4. Forgotten Faces.
5. The Art of Subconscious Illusion.
6. We Come Out At Night.
7. Thick and Thin.
8. Turn the Other Way.
9. An Epic of Time Wasted.
10. Streets.
11. To End The Rapture.
12. Breaking Their Hold.
13. Warmness On The Soul.

Conclusion:

Unlike most of their albums, there isn't quite a clear answer as to this album's objective quality. I can say with certainty that WTF is objectively a masterpiece and HTTK is objectively a ripoff-infested commercial garbage pile. I guess it's just one of those albums. The albums that people will never agree on, that is love or hate it despite its objective quality falling in line with the rest of the genre. I guess it's objective quality is whatever the quality of late 90s/early 2000s Metalcore is, which itself still divides people. To some it was the last time Metalcore was Metal AND Hardcore, to others it was a rough beta of what metalcore would become. Yet, on that note, I still do think that it's one of the best early Metalcore albums. Sure, it's not Heart Once Filled With Hope And Compassion or Jane Doe levels, but it at least beats out early Integrity and Earth Crisis for me. A solid 8.5/10.