The Stage (album)
| The Stage | ||||
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| Studio album by Avenged Sevenfold | ||||
| Released | October 28, 2016 | |||
| Recorded | 2016 at United Recording Studios, Serenity West Recording, Capitol Studios and Joe's House of Compression | |||
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| Length | 73:35 | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
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| Singles from The Stage | ||||
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| Source | Rating |
| Alternative Press |   |
| Metal Injection |  |
| Loud Online |  |
| Live in Limbo |  |
| Ultimate Guitar | |
| AllMusic |  |
| The Sun | |
| Metalholic | |
| NME | |
| The Guardian | |
| PlanetMosh | |
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. 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, who joined the band in late 2014 but wasn't revealed as Arin Ilejay's official replacement until Ilejay's departure in 2015, because the band wanted to find a drummer that would "fit in". The Stage is also 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.
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.
In interviews prior to the album's release, rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance described the album as "pretty much completely aggro". 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 unusual 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.
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