The Stage (album)

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Stage is the seventh studio album by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, released on October 28, 2016 by Capitol Records after a live streaming event on the band's Facebook page. This is the first Avenged Sevenfold album featuring Brooks Wackerman on drums, which joins the band by the end of 2014 but is not revealed as the official replacement of Arin Ilejay until Ilejay's departure in 2015, as the band wants to find a drummer that will "fit". The Stage is also the band's first album to be released via Capitol Records.

Written and recorded throughout 2016, the Stage is musically different for the band, marking progressive metal sound. It was a surprise release, becoming the first mainstream heavy metal album without any promotion. This is Avenged Sevenfold's first conceptual album, with its main theme based on artificial intelligence and self-destruction. The album was also the longest studio album in the 73rd and 35th minute, thus beating City of Evil almost a minute. In addition to being their longest album, The Stage show their longest song to date, "Exist", with run-time 15 minutes and 41 seconds.

Once released, the album received critical acclaim. It debuted at number four on Billboard 200. The title-song was nominated at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards in the "Best Rock Song" category.

Video The Stage (album)

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In March 2016, Avenged Sevenfold held a "March Mania", a tournament to find the most beloved fans of Avenged Sevenfold songs chosen each week by fans. On March 31, 2016, Avenged Sevenfold released a video on their YouTube channel and announced "A Little Piece of Heaven" was the winner, then gave an update on the new album, even giving a small clip of the new song, "Exist".

In October 2016, the band's logo, Deathbat, was projected in major buildings around the world that eventually led to the release of their first single titled "The Stage" along with music video.

Maps The Stage (album)

Music styles

In an interview before the album's release, rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance described the album as "pretty much aggro". The band continued to experiment with The Stage , "Sunny Disposition" featuring sections accompanied by brass instruments, "God Damn" is one of the heaviest songs on the album, and has one of the most aggressive and fast thrash metal riff. The song also has a melody bridge led by an acoustic guitar, with the aggressive vocal style of M. Shadows on it, creating a contrast. "Creating God" using the D major scale during minor development D to provide a unique sound chorus. In choruses, M. Shadows sings a vocal line around the main D scale, while Synyster Gates plays guitar riffs around the minor D harmonic scale. The technique is then used again in Gates solo, where it mimics the vocal lines sung by Shadows in the chorus. This song is in D minor key. "Roman Sky" includes some settings that are arranged, similar to those in the various songs that appear in "City of Evil". "High" is one of the most melodic and progressive songs on the album, featuring a women's choir near the end creating a very unusual outro and harmonious atmosphere with synthetizers, pianos and bass drifting lines. The band's longest song to date is "Exist", in which Neil deGrasse Tyson makes an audio-spoken appearance at the end, which he writes exclusively for the album, featuring further band experiments in progressive metal. Other songs also feature thrash metal and progressive metal elements, with some songs using fast drum patterns, explosive beats and fast riff structures, along with thrash-style shouting at some point. The album also includes influences from their early metalcore styles, including metalcore style riffs and damage, with "Paradigm" as far as inserting screaming vocals. The song "Fermi Paradox" has a black metal influence on the instrumental, with explosive beats and guitar work, but the band chose to put clean vocals on it.

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Theme concept and lyrics

The Stage is the first conceptual album Avenged Sevenfold (2010's Nightmare is planned to be a concept note, but such a plan was nixed after the death of The Rev). The concept of the album is based on artificial intelligence and self-destruction of society, including various science-driven themes including nuclear war ("Bright Disposition"), failed NASA tests ("High"), the death penalty of Giordano Bruno ("Roman Sky" ), space exploration ("Fermi Paradox"), simulation hypothesis ("Simulation") and religion ("God Damn", "Angels"), all the themes and events that occur on the same "stage": Earth. Thematically, the album discusses human relationships with technology. The lyrics content of the album is inspired by the writings of Carl Sagan and Elon Musk.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, vocalist M. Shadows commented for example: "The song" Paradigm "talks about nanobots - and how they are potentially used to cure illness and help you live forever But how many humans will You are at that point? If you are 70 percent of machines and 30 percent of people, would you lose yourself or a song like "Creating God" - computers become smarter and smarter, and all of a sudden they become your gods, smarter than you, you look like apes to them, or ants.

The title song "The Stage" speaks of humanity and the way people treat each other throughout history. It speaks from the perspective of a man who grows and realizes world corruption.

The cover song "Exist" was created as a band approach to sonically representing The Big Bang, with the instrumental part in the first part (0: 00-6: 55) representing the creation of the universe and the second part (6: 56- 15:41) of the song which represents the creation of the Earth.

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Release and promotion

On October 28, 2016, the album was available for purchase on iTunes and for streaming on Spotify, following live band live performances on the roof of the Capitol Records Building. Specialized album bundles are also available on the band's webstore.

The band decided not to announce the album prior to its release, as vocalist M. Shadows stated "it completely eliminates the mystique of the record" in an interview with Rolling Stone. The Stage is the first heavy metal album released without promotion, and also the first album in general to be released without promotion in a physical format.

It was also announced on Chris Jericho's podcast "Talk is Jericho" that 7 new songs will be added through the streaming service at some point. In subsequent interviews with Kerrang !, the band says that 6 songs is a cover song, while there is one unfinished original song for the album.

The first addition song, the cover version of the Mexican folk song, "MalagueÃÆ' Â ± a Salerosa" aired on Sirius XM Octane on June 8, 2017. The second song, the cover of "Bungtigo" Bungle was released on June 30, 2017. The third song "Dose" an original song, was released on July 12, 2017 as part of the Easter Egg Dungeon Hunter 5. On 4 August 2017, the cover of "Runaway" Del Shannon was released. The song features rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance on the main vocals, and The Vandals guitarist Warren Fitzgerald on additional guitars. The cover version of The Beach Boys 'God Only Knows' was released on August 25, 2017. The cover version of The Rolling Stones hit song "As Tears Go By" was released on September 8, 2017.

Along with the launch of Pink Floyd's song "Wish You Were Here" on October 6, 2017, the band announced a deluxe edition of the album covering all the additional tracks and 4 live songs, scheduled for December 15th, Release 2017. The release was then encouraged back to December 22, 2017 due to unforeseen circumstances.

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Critical reception

Stage has received a positive review. At Metacritic, which gives a normalized ranking of 100 to reviews from mainstream music critics, the album received an average score of 74, based on 9 reviews, showing "favorable public reviews". Music critics praised the newly adopted progressive style. The album is described as a mixture of anthemic style Iron Maiden and Dream Theater's progressive songwriting. Ultimate Guitar writes "with a new focus on sonic experiments, fast metal riffs, and a deeper lyrical theme, Avenged Sevenfold released a very good record with" The Stage. "

Metal Injection goes on to say that The Stage is a "masterpiece", stating "with a brilliant composition, vast and powerful sound collection, this is Avenged Sevenfold's brightest shining record among the stars. not just a big step from their previous work, but a great addition to the metal and rock halls that will always be remembered. '

"What they do is hold on to their weapons, and when the old guard from the arena of filling up the hard rockers starts to wane (physically, artistically), it's good to know there's someone dedicated to keeping the bar high." quoting Jason Pettigrew for Alternative Press. Anita Bhagwandas from NME wrote that "clearly the band has started a new phase in which they appreciate rather than be their influence.They have really arrived."

The album is also praised for its dynamic range and quality of mastery. Angry Metal-Fi named The Stage "best metal record of 2016", noting how Avenged Sevenfold managed to break free from violent war.

In a mixed review, Chris Conaton of PopMatters writes "Though being a concept album, The Stage has not solved many new places for Avenged Sevenfold - they sound like the same band did the same thing." Also in a mixed review, Exclaim! 'S Bradley Zorgdrager cited "Although Hail to the King fails to meet the hopes of a titular camouflage kingdom, The Stage's grandiosity smells overcompensation; Avenged Sevenfold's crown lies somewhere in between."

Accolades

"-": shows a list that has no rank

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Commercial performance

Despite the surprise release, The Stage debuted at number four on Billboard 200 with 76,000 units, with 72,000 of that number being pure album sales. Until January 2017, the album sold over 170,000 copies in the US alone.

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Track list

All songs are written and composed by Avenged Sevenfold, unless otherwise noted.

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Personnel

Avenged Sevenfold

• M. Shadow - main vocal
• Zacky Vengeance - rhythm guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Runaway", co-lead vocals
Synyster Gates - main guitar, backing vocals, co-lead vocalist "As Tears Go By", acoustic guitar on "The Stage", 12 guitar strings on "Wish You Were Here"
• Johnny Christ - bass guitar, backing vocals
• Brooks Wackerman - drum

Musicians session

• Papa Gates - solo outro (track 6)
• Jason Freese - keyboard (track 1, 2, 8, 10, 11)
• Brian Kilgore - percussion (tracks 4, 8, 9)
• Eric Gorfain - string (track 5)
• James Sanders River, Tennessee James Baker - backing vocals (track 7)
• Valary Sanders - nurse (track 7)
• Michael Suarez - additional sound effects (track 7)
• Angelo Moore, Walter Kibby - extra horn (track 3)
• Neil deGrasse Tyson - spoken word (track 11)
• Warren Fitzgerald - additional guitar ("Runaway")
• John Krovoza - cello
• Ian Walker - kontrabas
• Stephanie O'Keefe - French horn
• David Ralicke, Nick Daley - trombone
• Jordan Kats - trumpet
• Leah Katz - viola
• Daphne Chen - violin

Production

• Joe Barresi and Avenged Sevenfold - production
• Andy Wallace, Josh Wilbur - mixing
• Bob Ludwig - master
• Paul Suarez - mixing engineer
• Ignacio Lecumberri - mixing engineer's assistant
• Nick Fainbarg - technical engineer

Management and labels

• Larry Jacobson - management
• Samantha Tripses - management
• Mitra Darab - Marketing Capitol Records
• Hannah Keefe - Capitol Records Marketing

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Diagram

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References

Source of the article : Wikipedia