Jump to content

The Stage (album)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Zaruyache (talk | contribs) at 15:40, 13 December 2016 (→Reception). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Untitled

The Stage is the seventh studio album by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. It is a concept album about artificial intelligence and self-destruction of society.[1][2] It was released on October 28, 2016 after a live stream event on the band's Facebook page. The Stage is the first Avenged Sevenfold album to feature Brooks Wackerman on drums, after the departure of Arin Ilejay in July 2015, and the band's first album to be released through Capitol Records. It is also the band's longest studio album at 73 minutes and 35 seconds, thus beating City of Evil by almost a minute. The album also features their longest song to date, "Exist", with a run-time of 15 minutes and 41 seconds.

Background

In March 2016, Avenged Sevenfold held "March Mania"—a tournament to find the most fan loved Avenged Sevenfold song voted 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 a new song, "Exist". In October 2016, their logo, the Deathbat, was projected on major buildings around the world eventually leading up to the release of the first single entitled "The Stage" along with the music video. Deathbot was also released during this time, a link to a website with only a robot that gives certain answers to questions you may have in regards to the album. It was deathbot who first revealed that on October 27, 2016 Avenged Sevenfold was going to release information on the album. This was later confirmed by the band themselves posting on social media sites that they would perform a "must-see event" on that date and live stream it on their Facebook page in which the band gave a global, 3D, 360-degree, live-streamed virtual reality performance.

Musical style

In interviews prior to the album's release, rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance described the album as "pretty much completely aggro".[3] The band continued to experiment with The Stage, "Sunny Disposition" features a section accompanied with brass instruments, "God Damn" is one of the heaviest tracks on the album, and has one of the most aggressive and fast-paced thrash metal riffs. The song also has a melodic bridge led by acoustic guitars, with M. Shadows' aggressive vocal style over it, creating a contrast. "Roman Sky" includes several orchestrated arrangements, similar to the ones throughout various songs appearing on "City of Evil". "Higher" is one of the album's most melodic and progressive tracks, it features a female choir near the end creating a very unique and atmospheric outro harmonized with synthetizers, piano and a drifting bass line. The band's longest song to date "Exist", in which Neil deGrasse Tyson makes an audio spoken word appearance at the end, which he wrote specifically for the album, showcases the band's further experimentation in progressive metal. Other songs also show elements of thrash metal and progressive metal, with some songs using fast drum patterns, blast beats and rapid riff structure, along with thrash-style shouting at some points. The album also includes an influence from their earlier metalcore style, including metalcore-style riffs and breakdowns, with "Paradigm" going as far as to include screamed vocals. The song "Fermi Paradox" has a black metal influence in the instrumental, with the blast beats and guitar work, but the band chose to put clean vocals over it.[4]

Concept and lyrical themes

The Stage is Avenged Sevenfold's first conceptual album. The album's concept is based on artificial intelligence and self-destruction of society, it englobes a variety of science-driven themes including nuclear warfare ("Sunny Disposition"), a failed NASA test ("Higher"), Giordano Bruno's death sentence ("Roman Sky"), space exploration ("Fermi Paradox"), simulation hypothesis ("Simulation") and religion ("God Damn", "Angels"), all of these themes and events taking place on the same "stage"; the Earth. Overall it aims at the future of mankind taking in consideration the advance of technology, its estrangement and the unpredictability of future regarding life and its long lasting evolution. Lyrical content of the album was inspired by the writings of Carl Sagan and Elon Musk.[5]

In an interview with Rolling Stone vocalist M. Shadows commented as examples: "The song "Paradigm" talks about nanobots – and how they can potentially be used to cure diseases and help you live forever. But how much of a human being would you be at that point? If you're 70 percent machine and 30 percent human, are you going to lose yourself? Or a song like "Creating God" – computers are getting smarter and smarter, and all of a sudden they're becoming your god; they're so much more intelligent than you, you seem like apes to them, or ants".[6]

The title-track "The Stage" talks about humanity and the way people have treated each other throughout history.

Closing track "Exist" was made as the band's approach to sonically represent The Big Bang, with the instrumental part in the first 7 and a half minutes representing creation of the universe and middle section of the song representing creation of Earth.[7]

Release and promotion

On October 28, 2016, the album was available for purchase on iTunes and for streaming on Spotify, following the band's live-streamed performance at the rooftop of the Capitol Records Building. Special bundles of the album were also made available on the band's webstore.

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

It was also announced on Chris Jericho's podcast "Talk is Jericho" that 7 new songs would be added via streaming services at some point.[8] In a later interview with Kerrang!, the band said that 6 songs are cover songs, while there is one original song that was unfinished for the album.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
MusicReviewRadar[9]
Alternative Press[10]
Metal Injection[11]
Loud Online[12]
Live in Limbo[13]
Ultimate Guitar[14]
AllMusic[15]
The Sun[16]
Metalholic[17]
Sputnikmusic[18]

The Stage received widespread acclaim from critics, who praised the new progressive style adopted. MusicReviewRadar wrote that in The Stage ‘Avenged Sevenfold follow an intellectual and progressive approach and step into dangerous territory where other groups (…) have been playing for a long time’ and ‘In the end, Avenged Sevenfold seem to be more mature after the uninspired ‘Hail to the King’ and produced their most diverse (and probably their most unapproachable) album so far’.[19]

Live in Limbo wrote 'there is so much going on within each song; the more you listen to it the more you appreciate it as you start to pick out little gems that you missed on the previous time listening to it'.[20]

Metal Injection even went on to say that The Stage is a "masterpiece".[21]

Accolades

Publication Accolade Year Rank
Revolver Magazine Top 20 Albums of 2016 2016
3[22]
Loudwire 20 Best Metal Albums of 2016 2016
8[23]

Commercial performance

Despite being a surprise release, The Stage debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 with 76,000 units, with 72,000 of that figure being pure album sales.[24]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Avenged Sevenfold.

No.TitleLength
1."The Stage"8:32
2."Paradigm"4:18
3."Sunny Disposition"6:41
4."God Damn"3:41
5."Creating God"5:34
6."Angels"5:40
7."Simulation"5:30
8."Higher"6:28
9."Roman Sky"5:00
10."Fermi Paradox"6:30
11."Exist"15:41
Total length:73:35

Personnel

Avenged Sevenfold
Session musicians
Production
Management and label
  • Larry Jacobson – management
  • Samantha Tripses – management
  • Mitra Darab – Capitol Records marketing
  • Hannah Keefe – Capitol Records marketing

Charts

Chart (2016) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[27] 4
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[28] 10
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[29] 79
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[30] 85
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[31] 1
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[32] 68
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[33] 10
French Albums (SNEP)[34] 47
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[35] 14
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[36] 40
Irish Albums (IRMA)[37] 16
Italian Albums (FIMI)[38] 35
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[39] 42
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[40] 9
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[41] 16
Portuguese Albums (AFP)[42] 6
Scottish Albums (OCC)[43] 12
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[44] 36
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[45] 37
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[46] 17
UK Albums (OCC)[47] 13
US Billboard 200[48] 4
US Top Alternative Albums (Billboard)[49] 1
US Top Hard Rock Albums (Billboard)[50] 1
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[51] 1

References

  1. ^ "Avenged Sevenfold Talk Wild New AI-Themed LP, Neil deGrasse Tyson Cameo". Retrieved November 3, 2016.
  2. ^ "The Stage by Avenged Sevenfold on Apple Music". Retrieved November 3, 2016.
  3. ^ "Avenged Sevenfold Guitarist Says New Material is 'Aggro'". Retrieved November 3, 2016.
  4. ^ http://loudwire.com/avenged-sevenfold-m-shadows-the-stage-album-artificial-intelligence-pushing-boundaries/
  5. ^ "Listen to Avenged Sevenfold's New Album 'The Stage'". Retrieved November 3, 2016.
  6. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/avenged-sevenfold-talk-wild-new-ai-themed-album-the-stage-w446962
  7. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/avenged-sevenfold-talk-wild-new-ai-themed-album-the-stage-w446962
  8. ^ Jericho, Chris. "Avenged Sevenfold - The Stage - on Talk Is Jericho - EP295 - Talk Is Jericho". Retrieved November 3, 2016.
  9. ^ "Are Avenged Sevenfold back to The Stage?". Retrieved 3 November 2016.
  10. ^ http://www.altpress.com/reviews/entry/avenged_sevenfolds_sci_fi_tinged_the_stage_keeps_the_bar_high_for_hard_rock
  11. ^ http://www.metalinjection.net/reviews/avenged-sevenfold-the-stage
  12. ^ http://avengedsevenfold.com/news/loud-online-avenged-sevenfold-deserve-praise-get-stage/
  13. ^ http://avengedsevenfold.com/news/live-in-limbo-rate-the-stage-a-9-5-out-of-10/
  14. ^ https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/reviews/compact_discs/avenged_sevenfold/the_stage/index.html
  15. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-stage-mw0002993358
  16. ^ https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/2122637/avenged-sevenfold-urge-people-to-educate-themselves-before-they-vote-as-they-discuss-politically-motivated-new-album/
  17. ^ http://metalholic.com/cd-review-avenged-sevenfold-stage/
  18. ^ http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/72110/Avenged-Sevenfold-The-Stage//
  19. ^ "Are Avenged Sevenfold back to The Stage?". MusicReviewRadar. 2016-11-02. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  20. ^ http://avengedsevenfold.com/news/live-in-limbo-rate-the-stage-a-9-5-out-of-10/
  21. ^ http://www.metalinjection.net/reviews/avenged-sevenfold-the-stage
  22. ^ "Top 20 Albums of 2016". Revolver Magazine. December 7, 2016. Retrieved December 7, 2016.
  23. ^ "20 Best Metal Albums of 2016". Loudwire. December 8, 2016. Retrieved December 8, 2016.
  24. ^ Caulfield, Keith (November 7, 2016). "Jeezy Earns His Third No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart With 'Trap or Die 3'". Billboard. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
  25. ^ "Brian Haner - Timeline - Facebook". Retrieved November 3, 2016.
  26. ^ "Avenged Sevenfold - The Stage". Retrieved 3 November 2016.
  27. ^ "Australiancharts.com – Avenged Sevenfold – The Stage". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
  28. ^ "Austriancharts.at – Avenged Sevenfold – The Stage" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  29. ^ "Ultratop.be – Avenged Sevenfold – The Stage" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
  30. ^ "Ultratop.be – Avenged Sevenfold – The Stage" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
  31. ^ "Avenged Sevenfold Chart History (Canadian Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved November 8, 2016.
  32. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Avenged Sevenfold – The Stage" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
  33. ^ "Avenged Sevenfold: The Stage" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved November 6, 2016.
  34. ^ "Lescharts.com – Avenged Sevenfold – The Stage". Hung Medien. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
  35. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Avenged Sevenfold – The Stage" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
  36. ^ "Album Top 40 slágerlista – 2016. 46. hét" (in Hungarian). MAHASZ. Retrieved November 25, 2016.
  37. ^ "GFK Chart-Track Albums: Week 44, 2016". Chart-Track. IRMA. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
  38. ^ "Italiancharts.com – Avenged Sevenfold – The Stage". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
  39. ^ "Oricon Top 50 Albums: 2016-11-14" (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
  40. ^ "Charts.nz – Avenged Sevenfold – The Stage". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 4, 2016.
  41. ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Avenged Sevenfold – The Stage". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
  42. ^ "Portuguesecharts.com – Avenged Sevenfold – The Stage". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  43. ^ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
  44. ^ "Spanishcharts.com – Avenged Sevenfold – The Stage". Hung Medien. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
  45. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Avenged Sevenfold – The Stage". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
  46. ^ "Swisscharts.com – Avenged Sevenfold – The Stage". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  47. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
  48. ^ "Avenged Sevenfold Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
  49. ^ "Avenged Sevenfold Chart History (Top Alternative Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
  50. ^ "Avenged Sevenfold Chart History (Top Hard Rock Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
  51. ^ "Avenged Sevenfold Chart History (Top Rock Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Stage_(album)&oldid=754608259"