HYLI Vol. LIII - Avenged Sevenfold and Purple Mountains
Andy sends Patrick some 2000s buttrock and Patrick sends Andy something emotionally devastating. Another week!
Welcome to a new edition of the Hope You Like It Newsletter! We hope you're having a great start to the year! Today, we want to highlight two things that are close to our hearts: movies and music (Andy: am I doing a good job with the intro Patrick) (Patrick: every effort from you is a treat).
First, I highly recommend you watch the movie "Babylon." It's a must-see and we promise it won't disappoint. Or maybe it will. I don’t really know your take on 3 hour cinema love letters. But we both loved it and are annoyed that the Academy isn’t giving it the recognition it deserves. Or not. The academy can suck one (Patrick: I stand by loving it in the theater but maintaining that maybe it won’t hold up at all at home, who knows).
I wrote the first paragraph with ChatGPT (Patrick: jesus fucking christ) in hopes I could outsource my entire existence to it but it isn’t quite there yet so I guess you’re stuck with me for the foreseeable future. Sorry (Patrick: Hope You Like It?).
Avenged Sevenfold - Waking the Fallen
Andy: Hey, it’s me, the guy who begs you every week to listen to metal while also being like “please you’ll love this bluegrass-inspired black metal album” or “I’m sure you’ll love this technical death metal album just try it” and without ever giving you a break. Well, I guess I’m gonna kinda give you a break this week. You know Avenged Sevenfold? The multiple platinum billion-selling arena rock band? Them? Well, regardless of what you think of them now (they’re boring), their original sound was pretty different (it wasn’t boring, it ruled). I guess it was the 20-year anniversary of their debut album this last week, so this week I chose Waking the Fallen cause its a better album and I can do whatever I want (Patrick: flex, king).
I don’t trust anyone our age who got into metal and just skipped all this stuff and went straight to the timeless bands or the extreme metal. You needed to pay your dues with A7X and Godsmack and Disturbed. Some myspace metalcore and other “I’d never listen to this today” type of stuff. It molds you into your true self. I liked and still like all that stuff. It’s good when you’re a young angsty teen and it holds up when you’re an old dad.
Fun guitar work here. Good riffs and some fun solos. Vocally, M. Shadows (lol) starts his transition from screaming to singing (a-la City of Evil) and he does a good enough job to let everyone have some fun. RIP the Rev an all-time drummer. Really steals the show on the entire album. “Unholy Confessions” rules, really an all-time teenage track. “Eternal Rest” and “Chapter Four” rock. I love “I Won’t See You Tonight” (I’m predicting Patrick won’t) (Patrick: 😊). Hope You Like It.
Patrick: So, it wasn’t that this was bad. There have been far, farrrrrrr, faaaaarrrrrrr worse albums that Andy has made me listen to in the course of this newsletter. It’s just that it kinda washed over me without any sort of real effect.
The closest comparison of the newsletter albums that I can make is probably the Static-X record. That’s another one that was fun and, at a certain point in my life, might have been huge for me. But, like, I’m not listening to … 10 Years anymore either lol (Andy: “Change my attempt… good intentions”). It’s just a little bit way too much butt-rock for me at this point as a 33-year-old man who doesn’t have a goatee or chain wallet (Andy: I mean, I very much agree, this is still fully a nostalgia pick).
But to be charitable a bit, while I didn’t really care for the way this album began or ended, the middle stretch is kinda fun. “Chapter Four” has a great chorus hook. “Remenissions” has some sick riffs and solo parts. The drumming and screaming vocals on “Desecrate Through Reverance” are sick, brother. Monster Energy Drink in song form. I kinda wish the dude screamed more (Andy: I agree). His screaming voice isn’t super unique but it’s good, whereas his singing sounds like every alternative rock guy from the mid-2000s. PTSD of Three Days Grace and Finger Eleven on 104.9 WXRX. Pain. In any case, I enjoyed myself and had fun, but it isn’t something I’ll probably revisit much ever again. Just the wrong time and place.
Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains
Patrick: Well, this one’s brutal. What is the antithesis of Monster Energy Drink music? What is the liquid equivalent of Purple Mountains? Bacardi 151?? Straight poison?
This is in the canon of HYLI albums that I pick for Andy that are more lyrically focused. I don’t typically give a shit about lyrics but when I do, I really do. And boy could David Berman write some lyrics. While I typically prefer music where the lyrics are in service of the guitars or drums, the opposite is true here. Berman would perform actual poetry shit and you can tell that by listening to his albums. He has a … bard-like quality lol. This album, his last, came out 11 years after his prior album, under the band name Silver Jews, and less than a month before he would kill himself. A lot of the lyrics feel like something from a guy … going through it.
Songs like “That’s Just the Way That I Feel” and “Maybe I’m the Only One for Me” touch on his divorce after nearly 20 years of marriage. “All My Happiness is Gone” … yeesh. “Margaritas at the Mall” hits home when you’re feeling existential dread. And “I Loved Being My Mother’s Son” discusses Berman reacting to his mother’s death. If you’re wondering how I feel about that topic, feel free to read the volumes of HYLI on The Antlers and Mount Eerie lol. Berman was, for lack of a better word, one of the few “real” songwriters out there that just waylayed me on nearly every song, all while managing to wrap the lyrics around insane-level hooks. “That’s Just the Way That I Feel” might be a top whatever song for me from the last decade. Just beautiful. Hope You Like It.
Andy: Pat is trying his hardest to get me into singer/songwriters and I am doing my best to get into them but I’m just so bad at it. It never clicks. I’m sorry.
Patrick said it already, but this feels like poetry. It is poetry. For me, I think it would exist better in that medium. The lyrics feel like such a huge step above the musicianship in terms of quality and, frankly, just being interesting. The music here does nothing for me. Heartbreaking, dynamic, and honest lyrics sitting on a boring, safe, nothingburger of music (Patrick: jesus). The lyrics ache, the music exists. For me, just a huge gap in the effectiveness of the two. I’m giving the lyrics/vocals an 8 or 9 and the music a 3 or 4?
Pat had the audacity to ask me if I thought that this album would be the exception to the rule “all things are better with blast beats” and then cried when I told him no. It’s more of a law than a rule. But it’s true for me. If you put these lyrics, even with the vocals as is, over some other music I feel like it would be so much more effective. I wonder how much Patrick has yelled at me for this take. Saying stuff like I’m whining like a baby or whatever. But I honestly really liked it. I feel as if it was held back from being great by some snoozy musicianship. I don’t often vibe with lyrics so maybe that’s why it was impacting me so much.
Where is my screamo cover of “All My Happiness Is Gone?” Where is my black metal cover of “Darkness and Cold?” I’m here, Patrick. I’m truly doing my best. I Loved It (Minus The Music).