Words & Photos by Marco Denzer
Avenged Sevenfold put on one hell of a show and rocked the house at Prudential Center in Newark, NJ in
support of their latest album “Life Is But A Dream” – on Easter Sunday no less! The album, released in June of last year, is an excellent production from the quintet comprised by M. Shadows (vocals, Synyster Gates (guitar), Zacky Vengeance (guitar), Johnny Christ (bass), and Brooks Wackerman (drums). It marks a considerable step forward in the evolution of the band’s sound and compositional style, as it combines a variety of musical influences while retaining the hard-edged metal sound that characterizes the group. A point clearly reflected in the setlist they performed in concert.
The show began with M. Shadows wearing a black balaclava, with the words “We Love You” embroidered
on it, while seated center stage singing “Game Over”. The tune is the opening song on Life Is But A Dream, that features Gates playing beautiful classical influenced guitar riffs. From there the musicians worked through a heart pounding list of tunes that included recent titles like “Mattel”, “We Love You”,
and “Nobody” in addition to previous hits like “Hail To The King”, “The Stage”, and “Shepherd Of Fire”.
Their performance was extremely dynamic and entertaining. Band members constantly moved about on
stage and interacted with the audience, and the audience loved i. The crowd was on their feet and having a blast, reciprocating by singing and tirelessly running in a big circle pit in the middle of the floor. Brooks and Johnny laid down an amazing rhythm foundation for Zacky, Shadows, and Gates to play their respective parts. They rocked the crowd with prodigious guitar shredding, dual guitar lead harmonies, and singing double and triple vocal harmonies in many of the songs. Gates played some Daft Punk-influenced guitar arpeggios during their performance of “Nobody” that were on another level – it all worked and flowed very well from one song to the next. It’s also worth noting that the entire show was played in perfect sync with a visual media presentation that highlighted the paintings of Wes Lang, the artist featured on the band’s latest album cover. It was the touch that elevated the night from a rock concert to a multidimensional experience.
Setlist:
Game Over
Mattel
Afterlife
Hail To The King
We Love You
Shepherd Of Fire
The Stage
Roman Sky
Blinded In Chains
Bat Country
Nobody
Nightmare
Unholy Confessions
Save Me
Cosmic
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TheWaster.com | Newark
4.12.24
