Absolutely batty! Avenged Sevenfold show that playing it safe isn’t the only way to do things as they smash Kentucky…
“I’ve never felt more free in my entire life,” declares a beaming M. Shadows. “Sometimes setlists can get a bit predictable. You play a deep cut and people are like, ‘What the fuuuuck?’”
Except, weirdly, they’re not. Not anymore. The usual plan of attack for closing out one of the two neighbouring main stages at a fest like Louder Than Life, on the biggest day it’s ever had in its history, and following the rapture of Sleep Token’s colossal set, would be to go for the ol’ reliables, some easy slam dunks. It’s to Avenged Sevenfold’s enormous credit that they’ve chosen this point in their career, when they could cruise into easy wins, to say, ‘Yeah, nah, fuck that.’ Especially when, actually, and against usual gravity, it’s turned out to be a far more successful strategy.
They open with the unhinged, pinballing art-metal of Game Over, with Shadows seated in a chair and sporting a balaclava as he yells his scattergun, Serj Tankian-ish vocals. The liberation of which he speaks echoes through what follows. There’s lesser-spotted cut Gunslinger from 2007’s self-titled ‘White’ album. There’s mad psychedelic projections and Vocoder-ed vocals on the trippy, near-eight minute Cosmic that blossoms blissfully at the halfway point to hit on a mood that once would have been unthinkable from this band. Meanwhile, the weird, soundtrack-y mid-section of Life Is But A Dream… feels positively cinematic here. When it was released, A Little Piece Of Heaven was shot down by one critic as “Danny Elfman panto bullshit”. Tonight, backed by bloody cartoon visuals, its Sweeney Todd vibes makes it a completely appropriate way to tie a bow at the end of the set.
Of course, there are more normal hits as well. Hail To The King is appropriately regal, and Nightmare is absolutely hulking tonight. Not Ready To Die from Call Of Duty gets a huge pit, as on the screens both band and crowd are turned into zombies, and Bat Country is Bat Country. But these moments feel like fenceposts, buttresses in the set to allow the more challenging ideas space to breathe properly.
“You guys are still crowdsurfing and there’s no music!” Shadows exclaims jubilantly at one point. “I like that.” This sort of delight from the frontman just adds to the free and easy vibe. Where once Avenged had been all about domination and attack live, this new mood looks very good on them. Unmasked, Shadows looks relaxed and like he’s having a blast, as does Synyster Gates as he pulls off some of his more peculiar guitar work.
The biggest win is that they’ve done such a good job of shaking things up like this, as witnessed at Download last year. This kind of carry-on is a strategy that hasn’t always worked for every band who try it – both Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins have at times come off as sneering for putting singles on the shelf and focusing on their darker corners. But that felt like a grumpy test of the audience, a mean-spirited game, rather than enthusiastically wanting to just cut loose. What the band do is, like Iron Maiden, treat fans like fans, and with intelligence. Against the usual rules of this stuff, it makes for a crack stadium show. It also makes Avenged Sevenfold the most interesting they’ve ever been.
Read this next:
