A concept album about space and artificial intelligence. Alright, so this has to be the dreamchild of some stoner doom band right – some The Lord Weird Slough Feg influenced piece of work whose only link to its supposed concept being some spacey album art and liner notes that tell us the vocalists moans and screams are about the great star filled void? Nope, Avenged Sevenfold, the maestro’s who brought us the classic anthem “Beast and the Harlot” and “Bat Country.” With that said, calm your excitement, put your bongs back down and get ready for some confusion.

Remember a few sentences back where I mentioned this album is about space and AI? Well, nothing solidifies and communicates your concept like setting the video for the first single in a circus tent. I mean, when I think of space or thinking machines I picture entering a poorly made CGI canvas tent, only to be greeted by wood slat chairs and a dirt floor. Know what gets my brain thinking about space and AI even more than layers of pin-striped canvas and dirt floors? Puppet shows! Yeah, I couldn’t even begin to tell you what this shit is about. It would appear a history lesson is in order – with a very strange, very poppy-full war segment in the middle – that ends in a Alex Jones-esque message that “We’re all just puppets, man” which still doesn’t match up with either space or AI criteria. Forget what i said about putting down your bongs, pick ‘em up and draw deep as that’s the only way you’re going to make it through this 8 minute monster. You read that right, 8 minutes of M. Shadows and crew, crooning away about Jesus and lawyers and time and nuclear war and *snooooooooorrrre*….

“So I arrived, naked and cold
A welcomed change from the abeyance of a ghost town catacomb
No need for counsel, I appreciate the time I’m not alone
(Why don’t you get my lawyer on the phone?)

There were days these child eyes
Would overlook the ugliness and fantasize
I found my heart for the first time and I awakened in me
I left myself to navigate… and oh I felt control
(It seems these sheep have quite an appetite)

Who is the crowd that peers through the cage,
As we perform here upon the stage?

As the boy became a man
In came a calm sophistication I can hardly understand
So lost in ego, didn’t notice when the time had slipped away
(Yeah, everybody’s got a sob story)

Jesus Christ was born to die
Leave it to man to levitate his own to idolize
We’re simply sociopaths with no communication baby
I see your angle but we differ from our points of view
(So tell me, what’s your cross to bear?)

Who is the crowd that peers through the cage,
As we perform here upon the stage?
Tell me a lie in a beautiful way
I believe in answers, just not today

Hope my wheels don’t abandon me now,
Seeing that I’m out here alone
I’m running out of fight
And the wind speaks a comforting voice,
Guiding me to her arms
Mother, I’m alright

It took the birth of sin to snake-rattle the mind
Before a blow to the head by the gavel of time
To wake up
Won’t you wake up?
When did the walking apes decide that nuclear war
Was the only solution for them keeping the score?
Just wake up
Can’t you wake up?
(You do know this is just a simulation, don’t you?)

Who is the crowd that peers through the cage,
As we perform here upon the stage?
Tell me a lie in a beautiful way
I believe in answers, just not today”

– Scotty (@drunkgraveyard)