It's fun how the reviews are either "This is the worst album ever made" or "this is the best album ever made"

Generation Swine Flu is an INCREDIBLE term

I truly do not understand why so many people hated this album, i tought it was very interesting and surprisingly good.

Me: 'Can we have Mr. Bungle?' Mom: 'We have Mr. Bungle at home.' Mr. Bungle at home: Also, you mentioned M. Shadows voice, and yikes, I wanna compare his vocals to late period Danzig, but I feel like that's too insulting... ...to Glenn Danzig, ofc.

I've only listened to the album in its entirety once, but I was pleasantly surprised . I loved all the stylistic changes throughout. I'll agree with you about Shadow's voice on this record, it sounds like he's struggling - but I feel his 'clean' vocals always sounded a bit strained. Musically, I was overwhelmed with the burst of ambition and creativity this band presented. The song Cosmic actually made me feel something. My thoughts may change in 3 months like you said, but as of now this is the best new album I've heard this year so far, and I am very enthusiastic about it.

I actually really, really love this album. I don't know, it just is really enjoyable to me, and it grows more on me with each listen

As an A7X fan, this is personally one of their top 3 albums for me. This to me felt like a complete cohesive project that set out to not be boxed into one genre and they succeeded with that. I give it a 9/10 not flawless but far from bad or mid

4:05 "These synths in mattel are...." not even a synth at all but a guitar lol

Positives: Experimentation is fun The band are fantastic musicians Cons: Everything else

I got trashed for giving it a 3...out of FIVE good luck 🤣

On first listen, I liked this album a lot more than I thought I would. I can see exactly why many people hate it. It needs more listens, after which I will either love it or hate it.

When you try to write Hemispheres but you end up with Caress of Steel…

I will never understand why they chose to produce his vocals like this. I literally saw A7X less than a month ago and he genuinely sounded fantastic. I have no idea wtf he did here

I was quite surprised by how much I love this album. I can understand the mixed reviews but, for me, it's the most interesting and engaging album in the past couple years.

I’m an A7X fan. I love all their albums… except this one😂😂 I’m already waiting for their next album and I’m just gonna ignore this one

I'm not a huge A7X but I love this record. But I'm also a prog fan. I can understand why people don't like it but I think it's great. They do really wear their influences on their sleeve with this album.

The thing is, if you listen to their recent live shows, his voice is in the best shape it has been in years. It was an artistic choice to sing like this. Sometimes it works, and other times it very much doesn't.

I get that this album isnt for everybody but on a deep level this album makes you question things you're afraid to question about yourself. "You walk on water but the water swallows you" isnt a weak lyric at all. Its about looking at people who think they're self righteous. People who think they are just as "perfect" and can "walk on water" just like Jesus himself. But the reality of that person is that if they try to walk on water they'll drown like the rest of us (but the water swallows you).

Thanks for putting my feelings of this album into words. This is the first album this year that has utterly confused me. I respect the ambition and there are moments but there are so many elements that don't work for me. The genre switches are so out there that at times I'd forget I was listening to A7X if it wasn't for Shadows dying whenever he sang. What really gets me is the response. Metacritic's critic rating is insanely high and I've already seen a TON of people including non-fans heralding this as A7X's best album, but at the same time there is just as much pushback. I think you're spot on with this being a base-splitter album. I'm really curious to see how fondly this is remembered once the honeymoon phase is over. Also, I love Little Sweetie and would die for her.

I never liked A7X, I never hated them but their music always rubbed me the wrong way and it just got 100x worse when they turned out to be NFT chuds on top of it. I gotta say though, as someone mostly on the sidelines, this new album being a dud though has been fun to see everyone lose their minds over.

I understand what you mean about the start of game over, but he actually CAN do it live lol! There's a video of him doing it live for the first time and he nails it. He's still doing their old live stuff great as well, so as bad as the artistic choices can be at some times, they were that - choices.

I absolutely LOVE this album! It took me on an amazing trip. I appreciate your review as this album is very polarizing.

The most entertaining train wreck of an album since St. Anger. I really hope they release a behind the scenes doc on this. I need to know how this all came together.

Are you being intentionally dense my guy? The effects on the vocals are a stylistic choice the band said so multiple times. If you listened to Matt live a couple weeks ago he sounded great.

Confusing is exactly the right word. This is FAR from Avenged's best work. Despite not being bored I can't deny the amount of confusion this album gave me.

I'm addicted to your videos about bad records now. The way you express things is so genuine. :o

Ahhhhhhhhhh, Sweetie-chan! Yeah though… Shadows voice is shredded. As a fan of these guys since middle school this sucks to see. They’re coming on tour near me, I’m not going I’d just be sad. Seeing Trivium next week anyways

(O)rdinary sounds like what happens when A7X picks up a copy of Daft Punk's Random Across Memories (RAM) and just decides to take some of the ideas in RAM without knowing the context and the structure of the songs. Rn I can't unlisten to that rhythm guitar session without thinking of Daft Punk 💀 As for (D)eath, it sounds like a Tame Impala song produced through a shoe-box lol

You can immediately tell this was a "fuck around" album that they didn't try to put real effort into, instead just pumping out something completely disjointed with bits and pieces of interesting ideas mashed up into Frankenstein's weird ass monster

Metalheads hate it. Musicheads Love it. I think people will love the songs more if they think of the 3 aspects: Music, Concept, Lyrics Love how they are heavily circling around Absurdism and Existentialism. Here are my short overview for each song. These can still be expounded upon. The lyrics have multiple layers to them : 1. Game Over - Meaninglessness of Life 2. Mattel - Simulation. Much like a continuation to The Stage album concept 3. Nobody - Realization that we are "one with the universe" and a "nobody" in the grand scheme of things 4. We Love You - Most say it's about capitalism. But I interpret the song as representation of human ego and the illusion of choice 5. Cosmic - Cycle of Life and Death. The idea that we are all made up of the same cosmic energy - we do not go away. We just take up a new form or has been in a different form in our past lives. Written in beautiful love song 6. Beautiful Morning - A character who faces an inner struggle and attempt to find meaning. This character they are trying to portray in this song is everyone's worst day of their life. 7. Easier - The same character who wants to Surrender. Suggesting to take the 'easy way out'. Uplifting music but sinister meaning between the lines 8. G - Referencing the story of Creation. And an irritated God is contemplating to just wants to delete what he made and restart. 9. Ordinary - Other songs talk about suicide, emptiness, meaninglessness, hopelessness, etc of human life. This song is an attempt to say that "you got a problem with life? I don't even have one and I desperately want it. you must be lucky to live" from an AI (thus the electronic vibe). This song is perfectly placed in the sequence of the album because right after it, the human in the next song commits suicide nonetheless without regard. 10. Death - The same character from 'Beautiful Morning' and 'Easier' in the end commits suicide 11. LIBAD - Closing the curtains Everything is done with intent. It's chaotically beautiful

I can understand why people wouldn't like this album, but I really enjoyed it! It certainly needs a fair few listens to get used to it. :)

I've said this many times, but this album sounds like it's AI generated. Haven't heard something this bad since that self titled Suicide Silence album, and even that isn't this bad.

This album can (in this case literally) be summed up in 3 Words: “Drugs Were Involved.”

Man all these positive comments are confusing… I know music is subjective but I’m just confused

So I'm a huge A7X fan, I'm not into the album, but I'm glad they tried something original and failed rather than succeeding in making soulless slop, but I'm really interested to see how Shadows sounds live. Shadows got a cyst on his vocal chords that took him out of commission for a while. He says he has a new "technique" for singing, and on parts of this album we hear him screaming again which we haven't really heard since their second record even though he was supposedly still capable. I'm kind of curious what he's going to sound like in his new style. There are some parts of the album, like the chorus in G, where you can hear some of that stuff that he's known for but without the gravel, and no doubt it was that constant strained vocal fry that fucked up his throat. I'm curious how much of his vocals are a lost cause vs a bad experiment.

Man, it’s one thing to come out with an album that kinda makes people hate you. It’s a whole other thing to come out with an album that makes people *worry* about you. It’s like that previous MGK album, I can’t even point and laugh, I just wanna know if the dude’s okay!

I wasn't a fan of the direction they went with Hail to the King + The Stage, so I wasn't really excited for new material from them because I felt disappointed from those two releases. Nobody came out and I still didn't care about the band. But something drove me to check out this new release, and it motivated me and helped me deal with grief. Me personally this release came out- the perfect time in my life- For the longest time, this album was the only thing that made sense to me in my life. and I wonder if this release had an affect on others that are too dealing with loss?

M Shadows sings about walking on water, but going by the title, I'd have thought he would have considered row, row, rowing his boat.

I think Crash got it perfect, I was seeing reviews saying like 7 or 8 out of 10 and wondering like.. I'm I missing something here, listened to it again but felt the same way, I think Nobody and Cosmic were good but yeah not crazy about this one, The Stage was just such a step up and this ones feels like such cliff dive downwards

As a lifelong fan, I love this album. The first half is about exactly what I was expecting after The Stage. The second half is the wacky, experimental section that took a bit to grow on me. I understand why everything going on with the record would repel a lot of people, but I’m just in a spot where I put a lot of value in the unconventional. I’m happy they didn’t give me a predictable product. I also saved this video for later so I can give my thoughts at the end of the year. Will it be an album of the year contender for me? Probably not, but I think I’ll still like, if not love, the album nonetheless.

I don't particularly care for any A7X album other than City of Evil, which I consider a masterpiece and one of my all-time favorite albums. With that said, when I first heard the singles off this new album I thought to myself "yet another AX7 album I wont care for." But something about the polarizing nature of the reviews got me to listen to the album in full. Gotta say, after a few listens it grew on me. Now after several listens, I consider it one of the best albums of the year.

Don’t even know how we’re gonna begin to review this one

As someone who's never had an opinion on A7X before now, I gave this album a listen out of curiosity, and... It was a fascinating listen, I'll give it that much

The way you speak in a forced obviously acting type of way makes it super ironic you criticize anyone’s editing and vocal work. Every sentence ends in a high pitched whiny question.

In my opinion, this is their take on Mr Bungle’s chaotic genrebending style. Bungle has always been an influence on A7X and this album is that taken to the extreme. As a huge Mr. Bungle fan, I love LIBAD. It’s like they took the prog elements from The Stage and turned it up to 11. A lot of your criticisms are the reasons why I love it. I think the rawer production and chaotic arrangement suits them really well. Still a great review and love your stuff as always Crash!

Me after hearing Nobody: "wtf this sounds like a trainwreck" Me after hearing the whole album: "omg they made it sound like a trainwreck! genius!" The Lulu apologist in me is squealing.

why are people so obsessed lately with trying to make it seem like a7x rip off other bands??? the game over/stairway to heaven comparison was so wack

If something interests you in this album, then it only gets better by every listen. If you´re going to hate it, then it´s just not for you. A lot songs i hated at first i have slowly started to like and after watching some interviews, i understand the concept of the album.

I listened to 6 or 7 songs,I wouldn't call it progressive it's sounds like a mess

I loved 'The Stage' and was excited to see that they finally released a follow-up. They had such a compelling template, and was hoping they'd make another Progressive Metal album. Sadly, 'Life Is But A Dream' is an ambitious mixed bag. There are some brilliant moments and it starts well, but the transitions feel clunky and there's a lack of stylistic cohesion, especially around the last third. I can't deny it has charm though, and it's cool to see a mainstream band go Avant-garde. Subverting genre expectations is fine, but you have to develop towards the unexpected elements so it feels natural. Tracks like '(O)rdinary' and '(D)eath' abandon their core sound entirely in favour of new elements which weren't even hinted at until this point, and the album fizzles out in a mess of undercooked ideas. Reintroducing the Thrash/Groove riffing of the first few tracks would have been a good way to finish on a strong note. Look to BTBAM, Kayo Dot and Le Grand Guginol for bands who can pull off genre-switching concept albums with compositional flair. I applaud the band for taking risks and being willing to try lots of new things. This was clearly the product of a free and enthusiastic creative process, and I have hope for the next album if they can streamline the different elements and bring back some of the Prog Metal elements (blastbeats, musical suites).

I’ve been an Avenged fan since the self titled era, and they are a band that I do still really love but am also painfully aware of their faults. And even in spite of this album having those faults on full display, there’s something about it that just clicked for me. Idk exactly what, but the sheer weirdness of it all I find very compelling. Hot take: I like this record more than The Stage, which I felt was well made but somewhat emotionless. I have very little desire to revisit The Stage ever, but LIBAD I’ve been relistening to a lot out of sheer fascination. Its wacky as hell, but for me it strikes a nerve

if you want some music that successfully pulls off this sort of eclecticism (and mr. bungle influence), i would suggest a band called milkcan and their only album, "make it sweet!".

this was actually my first a7x record. i checked it out because i was curious about the polarized reception it got, and i actually ended up on the side of the people who enjoyed it. there are really strange and bad choices all throughout but the overall journey it takes you in is interesting as hell

10:52 - I think the word you're looking for, my friend, is "lost." It's pointed in 50 different directions, as you said, but it has neither the confidence nor the security of taking more than two steps in a direction before backtracking.

I’ve always been aware of A7X, but never a real fan. I decided to plunge into their discography right before this came out to see if I really liked them. As soon as I heard it, I thought “Oh the fans are gonna hate this”. But honestly, it’s been my favorite one I’ve listened to. It’s got major Random Access Memory vibes, which is one of my favorite albums ever, and plenty of Dream Theater inspiration which I’m always down for. It just feels like a band that’s breaking out of the boundaries they’ve been confined to, a band that is transcending to more than a metal band. I hope they continue from here and make even better weird albums

this album was a chore to make it through

You know what, I honestly liked it... Certainly not their best work but it was nice (At least for the first week). But what I am absolutely certain about: You are either gonna love it or absolutely hate it. It's a very polarizing album and I absolutely understand the negative reactions to it. It's no doubt confused and chaotic but... since the main concept of this record is death and the chaos associated with it... I sort of feel it's supposed to be that way. However it also only works as a whole... I don't think the tracks sound good on their own. It really is meant to be listened to all at once. And I admit, I am a way more casual listener so I am willing to look past how rough the vocals are. I'm honestly just glad we get to hear him sing again. I mean the dude almost lost his voice and there was a chance he would never perform again. Overall, The Stage was better but to me it wasn't awful at all. Honestly (and I know you guys are gonna hate me for this)... it felt better than the Sleep Token record? That one felt ACTUALLY confused to me.

some of these snippets sound more like SOAD if they huffed paint and that's saying something knowing SOAD

A7X fan since Waking the Fallen. This album is just not good.

I would say it’s a 5/10 and I’ve never had another 5/10 give me so much to say. That said I don’t see myself revisiting this in the near future.

The new Foo Fighters album tho 👀

I wasnt the biggest fan of the other two albums they made in the last 10 years. I still listen to the old stuff here and there but man its really hard to see where they are going

So the last good song from them was Hail to the King then? Also will this be a Trainerecord episode in the makeing?

I'm totally here for the weird prog stuff. They crammed so many sounds into this album that it's actually impressive. Front to back, you hear a lot of repeated themes and concepts flowing together in the chaos, and that sort of defines life, right?

I can see why people hate this album but I enjoyed it overall. Even the songs that I weren't fond of I can at least appreciate their attempts at trying something different. Still not a fan of (O)ordinary and (D)eath. I've come to appreciate G, though.

I really love this album it’s easily one of my favorites from them.

I've enjoyed it quite a lot, though I see exactly where you're coming from. It's a bizarre trip that, to me, has grown on me with every listen.

I love that Avenged SevenFold tried to make a Dark Side of the Moon/ Abby Road album. I believe this Album should have had more songs. I listened to it twice and ultimately only really like 2 songs. That’s that.

I totally get why some wouldn't like this album, but I personally think it's amazing. Best album I've heard in years! I also think this is the best Shadows voice has sounded.

Is this our first Worst Album of the Year contender?

“This guy cannot sing anymore” - Horrendous take. I think he sounded great, sure, probably a little rougher but your comment tells me that you haven’t seen any of the live clips of A7X performing lately. He hit the note in We love you pretty easily every time. Still can hit the note in so far away, and his voice sounds a lot healthier even than the album, which tells me this was recorded before he healed. Listen to more of his current vocal health before bashing the dude to the point of saying he doesn’t have it anymore. Jesus Christ dude. If people like Corey Taylor and Matt heafy can blow their voices out and destroy their vocal chords like that, M. Shadows has redemption as an option, plus like I said, lots of us loved his voice.

Crash. i hate this album too. if you think that riff sounded like a stairway to heaven rip you are approaching the music in bad faith. That observation of such a hilariously ugly album should not be the start and the condescending punchline fr almost made me turn the video off. In editing you should've noticed that you singing over it destroyed your point. Maybe you just didn't bother syncing them and it would've worked at 1/4th the tempo over 8 bars but at that point, how similar is it really?

Is it too early for Todd to make a Trainwreckords video about this?

I mean to me it sounds like they are trying to be 1991 Mr. Bungle with their own brand of metal mixed in and some conceptual theme weaved into it... but yeah Shadows' vocals really can't keep up with the rest of the band. the experimentation has some cool moments, but also some bad ones.

Maybe we should get the lead singer of Avenged Sevenfold with Glen Danzig and let them record an album.

They took more theatrical approach, they kind of remind me of the Queen with this record (not in a musical way, but more like, taking their philosophy when approaching the song writing) Idk, I liked it, but I like your video regardless 😊

Saying things like when they let brooks play, he delivered. He’s always had that freedom. Love to know what you thought about the stage.

Thought it was okay first listen….now, I LOVE IT! Can’t stop listening to it

Honestly Crash, maybe you should do the same. Sit on this for awhile then listen to it again. See if your view changes. Be interesting to see.

Apparently a lot of A7X fans really like this album.

It seems the one thing everyone can agree on is that no one agrees on whether this album is good or bad

Hello, Lil' Sweetie! Long time, no see!

9:36 Why does this sound like Super Smash Bros. Brawl stage music where they couldn’t get the rights to cover an IP?

Hey it's five months later and wow this album just gets worse every time I attempt to listen to it. I've listened to A7X for yeeeaaaars and HOO BOY I have no idea what they were even trying to do here. The whole album sounds like it was recorded by each individual band member in separate rooms, based on separate ideas, and then thrown together into a blender like a turd smoothie. It's not even so much an album as it is a collection of mashed together sounds. Y'all can get rid of all the silly anti-drug PSAs they play in schools & just show kids this album instead. It'll easily scare them away from anything stronger than a Diet Coke.

Well this album surprised me as I truly loved it and I'm far from being a A7X stan. Been on heavy rotation here since it came out

I'm loving this album, super weird, and wild all through it. So sick hahaha

''oh you fuckers with the lounge shit'' this made my day,,

Overall I didn't care for the album but I did like cosmic

yeah I did not like this record. Pretty much agree with everything you said

Are we hearing the same album cause everything you've said about it that you dislike is what I found exciting about it, especially the structures haha. Very interesting

As a fan, I think it's better than Hail to the King, which is incredibly dull and simple outside of a few tracks, but outside of that, there's not much here I'd go back to. Also, I knew this probably wasn't going to be very good when they got super into NFT's, so you got that whole thing going on. My only solace is that it most definitely could've been worse.

I have no problem with any of the talent of the band, I just think this album was confused and awful. Who is gonna be pumped to hear Ordinary live? Srsly who? Whoever produced this needs to be fired, and if the band self-produced, then they need to hire one.

i own Sleep Token an apology. i really don't like their album, but at least it's still cohesive and makes sense... Damn this album makes ST's album looks like a masterpiece.

I just listened to the whole album the other day. Given the singles, I was going in with the expectations that this album was gonna suck, and **sigh** hoo boy, it turned out to be even worse than I feared. Abysmal production, terrible singing, awful lyrics, bland instrumentals, awkwardly abrupt transitions, an attempt at genre-bending that feels phoned in, and just an overall dull and lifeless sound (especially in the single "Nobody"). As a huge Avenged Sevenfold fan, I feel absolutely betrayed. And honestly, I have no hope for the band going forward, and that sucks to say.

I’m an Avid A7X fan, so much so, they have been in my top artists for hours on Apple Music well before LIBAD dropped. Up there with my 3 deathcore bands and Sevendust lol. At least a year a year ago, A7X told us this would be a wacky album, and anyone who didn’t heed that, it’s on them. I think it’s also important to note that A7X has never been the band to rest on their morals and just put something out that’s safe and universally likable. Ever. Each album is a vast departure from the previous one and each one has people saying negative things, but each album excluding the arbitrary HTTK, done for fun, had some kind of purpose. If you go in LIBAD expecting City Of Evil, Self titled, hell, even the stage as far as sound, you’re going to be greatly disappointed; based on how a lot of people have responded to the album, it’s evident that that’s exactly what people have done. M. Shadows went into full depth about what this album was about and it’s brilliant. It’s jarring sure, but it’s creative and it’s a journey. You’ve got everything on here from Spanish guitars, daft punk, to some jazz and classical elements, to literal funk and some grungy sounding elements as well. This album had EVERYTHING. Sonically I don’t have complaints, but when you have background knowledge of what the album is supposed to be about, it’s even more brilliant. That’s my take on it. I listen to basically any kind of music as long as it sounds good. Corridos, Deathcore, bachata, literally anything as long as it’s sonically pleasing. As strange as this album is, it’s still sonically pleasing to me and I love it.

I believe shadows had some issues with his voice the past few years. Not sure if this is true but i heard that doctors told him that he might not even be able to sing anymore. The fact that he even managed to sing is incredible. Not his best preformance by a long shot but concidering the circumstances i can look past that. Though i do still think that they should have brought the vocals more to the foreground and embrace them instead of trying to over them up. Lyrics are kind of funny😂 As of now i'd give this album a solid 6.5. I enjoy it for what it is and i respect the ambition but I do think that it's a bit of a mess and that the lyrics are kind of lacking in creativity.

best album since self titled in 07. first time they sounded like they have given a shit since the rev passed / nightmare. hell, 'we love you' was the first time since i was like 14 since a song by them got me super excited lmaooo to each their own ig 🤷‍♀️

It’s okay to be wrong sometimes

This album is a single entity - it needs to be listened to when you're in the mood and in a single sitting. The songs make a lot more sense in that context. In a way, I'm glad they didn't try to make another city of evil or something, because it would just be a worse city of evil. Arguably that's the problem with 72 seasons. This is the best album they've released since nightmare

I think theres a million ways you can not like this album but if you want to like it youre going to like it. I think a lot of people are hung up on things they just dont understand which is why opinions are their own. I think its a wonderful album, and my second favorite after waking the fallen. I think if you get it, you get it, if you dont, you dont.