In 2023, Avenged Sevenfold is playing like it has something to prove.
The metal quintet — singer M. Shadows, rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance, lead guitarist Synyster Gates, bassist Johnny Christ and drummer Brooks Wackerman — released its first new record in seven years on June 2, “Life Is but a Dream…” This project, the group’s eighth full-length, pushes proggier instincts to the surface, in a departure from the more straightforward work that brought them millions of listeners and a reputation for an energy-forward live act.
When Avenged Sevenfold hit Madison Square Garden on Friday night, it was only the band’s fifth show since 2018. But the rockers rose to the occasion, not only delivering a bruising set of mosh-pit classics, but bringing riskier new material into clearer focus with a live spark.
Starting with “Dream” openers “Game Over” and “Mattel,” the band added enough stomp and grit to the tracks to keep energy high, as it quickly followed with booming back catalogue songs “Afterlife” and crowd-favorite “Hail to the King.” Despite the group’s physical makeover — trading in their mostly-black get-ups for more vibrant duds, as well as a different set of hairstyles — they didn’t lose a beat in their roles. Shadows is comfortable as the ringleader, working the crowd while focusing on his deep bellow, Wackerman spent an outrageous amount of time playing his double bass drum to preserve the metal feel, and Gates did his rock-star posing on lead, while Christ and Vengeance held the fort down.
The standouts of the new material were first single “Nobody,” with its lurching guitars and unconventional structure, and “We Love You,” a hypnotizing anti-capitalism anthem with its propulsive lyrics running over the giant screens: “More power, more pace / More money, more taste / More sex, more pills / More skin, more shills / Build tall, build higher.” The screens added a fun texture to the night, mixing great closeups of the musicians with some wonderfully METAL imagery, such as burning houses, band members caught on fire, cartoon lovers killing each other and, incredibly, a skeleton playing saxophone.
For the last stretch of their set, Avenged Sevenfold pummeled the crowd with classic after classic: The shredfest “Nightmare,” early hits “Bat Country” and “Unholy Confessions,” and the closing eight-minute rock opera “A Little Piece of Heaven.” In lieu of stage pyrotechnics, the crowd was always most vocal in the moments when Vengeance and Gates went back-to-back and ripped guitar harmonies, with Gates taking the solo home with plenty of dramatic tapping and technique.
Perhaps the night’s only misstep was the sequencing of the encore, which only consisted of the new three-song suite “G,” “(O)rdinary” and “(D)eath” from “Dream.” After the blistering fan service of the latter half of their set, the relatively low-key, moderately-paced cluster of songs was the only new material that felt othered from the rest of the Avenged Sevenfold songbook, and it ended the night on a bit of a whimper, with fans confused once the band left the stage and the instrumental “Dream” title track piped in through the speakers for several minutes.
Luckily as the audience exited into the Manhattan summer, they were squarely focused on the many high points, air-guitaring away into the night.
