They have 2 good albums, City of Evil, and Nightmare. Everything else is generic dogie doo doo (save for a few decent tracks on the self-titled).
Well for one, Shadows has the most annoying voice I've ever heard in my god damn life. Anytime I hear So Far Away (right?) I wanna slam my car into a fucking wall. After that it's just like, the worst of metal all brought into one band. Cheesy writing, sometimes I can let this one go if everything else is good. Breakdowns, Jesus H. Christ, will these fucking metalcore bands get over their breakdowns? The new album was practically a covers album, only not so that's not good lol. Plus, have you looked at them? Lmao I'll the devil his due and say the guitarist can write a mean hook and decent solo's. I think the rest of em might just be phoning it in lol.
Hail to the King is SO BAD. It's like they're not even TRYING to mask that the majority of the songs on the album are rip-offs.
I like "So Far Away". The rest I've heard of them doesn't particularly make me want to check them out.
I loved the concept behind Hail to the King. That said, I feel like the band is going that route for the wrong reasons. They've stated multiple times that they strive to head the "metal" world, and to me it seems a little cheesy and like selling-out. There were definitely songs on their last album that felt like mockeries of other bands. I mean...it's no secret that This Means War's intro is basically a copy/paste of Metallica's Sad But True. It's a great sounding album, but it doesn't necessarily seem like it's in the true spirit of A7X. Their best songs and albums have always been the far-out and fucked up ones. A Little Piece of Heaven is one of the greatest songs ever, and even Nightmare has way more variety and creativity than Hail to the King. They're a talented group of guys, though. Syn is a monster, and despite what some of you have said, Shadows has got a really strong voice. Compare his metal growls to Chester's on GATS, and it's a night and day difference. As much as I love Chester, he doesn't nearly have the power that Shadows has. It's insane.
I love how every A7x fan's defense for Hail to the King is "EMEGERD READ THE TITLE, it's Hail to the King, they're paying homage to the Kings!" Seriously, shut the fuck up (not you Ben, you're fine). There's a very fine line between taking influence/paying homage to the groups you love, and blatantly ripping them off. They COMPLETELY cross that line. Not to mention, A7x have ripped off artists before. The last portion of Buried Alive = Ride the Lightning. Don't even get me started A7x's Metalcore days. Jesus, those albums are horrible.
Love the Selftitled Album, especially A Little Piece of Heaven. Maybe nt the best Metal band out there, but not bad. Like them.
I've heard Nightmare and a few other songs by them. They're alright, but a lot of their music just feels unenthusiastic and bored. I wouldn't actively listen to them, and I don't. I like M. Shadows. He has a decent and unique voice, but he can sound like shit. Depends on the song. Like that So Far Away song. His voice does not help that shitty song at all
I like AX7, they're good at showing their influences of old school metal with a modern twist musically after they left their original roots. If there's one band that should be considered the Judas Priest of now to the masses. These guys might be the closest they can get. HTTK was good, but it would've been a bit better if some of the songs' structures and the riffs were less similar to songs by other bands. I can understand they were trying to throw in much authentic sounds of classic metal as possible, but just to show a bit of honesty and have no problems being critical constructively, This Means Wars was a bit too much of a "Sad But True" copy.
Woah, homes. Ax7 is far from Judas Priest. JP (along with Sabbath) basically made an entirely new genre from scratch. Ax7 is practically a cover band these days. I mean, the only thing in common is Ax7 has a JP sized fanbase. JP was cutting edge and pretty controversial. The last band to do what JP did (this is gonna sound crazy, but stick with me) is Meshuggah. They were the last band to make an entirely new genre (well, sub genre) and a whole generation of kids apeing of their music. Ax7 is that generation only to bands like Metallica and Priest.
lmao whatever, they still made a million kids in tight pants want to go play an 8 string guitar in the most generic way possible.
Nightmare is a pretty great album. And like 50% of their self titled was good. City Of Angels is a very good album IMO. I never have had a problem with M. Shadows voice - it's actually really beautiful if you ask me. I can't understand why they got so much hate pre-HTK