The Stage

The Stage is the seventh album, on which Avenged Sevenfold turns themes of artificial intelligence and society's self-destruction into complex, dramatic progressive metal. It is the first album with Brooks Wackerman, surprise-released without prior announcement after a move to Capitol. It is the band's first concept album and, at over seventy-three minutes, its longest studio record. Detailed riffs, long solos and varied rhythms support a cosmic, contemplative world. The title track "The Stage" opens grandly, and "Paradigm" and "God Damn" bind aggression and construction at high density. From the lyricism of "Roman Sky" to the grand development of the fifteen-minute closer "Exist," a will to reach for scale stays consistent. Preserving some of the band's catchy hard-rock instinct while stepping toward broader structural beauty, it drew mixed opinion, but it is an ambitious record for savoring the band's daring and technique.