"WILDLY UNPREDICTABLE IN THE BEST OF WAYS"

Avenged Sevenfold: Life Is But A Dream... track by track

-  Amit Sharma

Californian heavy metal stars Avenged Sevenfold introduced a progressive edge to their sound on the 2016 album The Stage, but that was a drop in the ocean compared to the mind-melting sonic evolution of Life Is But A Dream... - the band's most creatively ambitious record to date. In between their seemingly impossible transitions into jazz, classical and electronica, guitarists Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance prove yet again that they are one of the finest guitar duos working in modern metal, pairing razor-sharp riffing with the kind of arpeggios typified by shred masters like John Petrucci and Paul Gilbert.

1 GAME OVER

The album kicks off with a mellifluous flamenco-style lullaby before erupting into a hellish symphony of distorted guitars and pounding drums. A minute later arrives the first solo from Synyster Gates - a smorgasbord of E minor blues licks, screaming Slayer-style harmonics and frenzied tapping. And it's at this point halfway into the track where everything calms down and cuts into an almost Sinatraesque ballad section that confirms the next hour or so is, indeed, going to be something of a wild ride. Bring it on!

2 MATTEL

From its opening palm-muted low D chug to the heavily effected rhythms in the verse sections, Mattel is also full of surprises - including the Radiohead-ish moments where M. Shadows sings: 'Now I know this might sound crazy, but I've smelled the plastic daisies! Some glitchy effects are employed to disguise some of Gates' leads in amongst the synths, giving the song a very futuristic feel until its dramatic outro, which pairs the sounds of jazz piano with drum loops.

3 NOBODY