Avenged Sevenfold’s Nobody: A Metal Guitar Masterclass

After seven years Avenged Sevenfold has come out with a blistering new record, Life is but a Dream. There is some searing guitar, trippy fuzzed out riffs and some epic metal vocals. It is a more modern metal sound than previous records, which leaned into more early 2000s thrash and Korn / System of a Down type vocals and arrangements. This shows that the band can evolve without totally leaving their metal roots behind. The third track Nobody is a perfect example of how a band can remain relevant in modern music, but still give its hardcore fans what they are looking for.

Vocally this track has what you are after in a traditional metal track. Post production manipulation and effects are there, but they play more of a secondary role on the margins of the track. The track’s core is M. Shadow’s, Bruce Dickinson – esque deep growl, which gives throwback hints to the early metal of the 80s without being gimmicky. His raw sounding vocal has a one take vibe to it, which gives the track an honesty as well as some metal street cred. Lyrically, the track goes into isolation, identity and feeling lost in modern society. M. Shadows sings about contradictions, “I’m alive / I’m the dead” as well as being both everything and nobody. There is a darkness that hangs over this track, which gives it that sense of dread you are looking for in a metal track.

Having said all that about the vocal, this track excels in the rhythm and lead guitars. This is a metal guitar masterclass that overshadows the vocal and percussion with its excellence. The track begins with this fuzzed out ripping guitar drone that cuts through you like a dentist’s drill. You get some 80s style glittery metal guitar flourishes from the lead, but this is all an appetiser for what will happen at minute 4:30 of this 5 minute plus epic. The lead guitar erupts like a sleeping volcano and explodes into this high pitched Eddie Van Halen lightening flourish, which acts as a great foil to the destructive metal root canal by the rhythm. Zacky Vengeance is both rhythm and lead guitar and is a metal god in this track.

Some songs I listen to for the chorus, some songs I listen to for the writing and some songs I listen to because they are fun. I listen to Nobody for the electric guitar onslaught that cuts into my soul each time I hit play. I find the guitar fresh and modern, while also harkening back to the 80s and 90s metal that made the genre popular. Zacky Vengeance is a god and you owe it to him to listen to this track.

Listen to Nobody