Nightmare (Avenged Sevenfold album)

Nightmare
Studio album by Avenged Sevenfold
Released July 27, 2010 (2010-07-27)
Recorded November 2009 – April 21, 2010
Studio The Pass and Phantom Studios
Genre Heavy metal, hard rock
Length 66:49
Label Warner Bros.
Producer Mike Elizondo
Avenged Sevenfold chronology
Live in the LBC & Diamonds in the Rough
(2008)Live in the LBC & Diamonds in the Rough2008
Nightmare
(2010)
Hail to the King
(2013)Hail to the King2013
Singles from Nightmare
  1. "Nightmare"
    Released: May 18, 2010
  2. "Welcome to the Family"
    Released: October 19, 2010
  3. "So Far Away"
    Released: April 5, 2011
  4. "Buried Alive"
    Released: September 20, 2011

Nightmare is the fifth studio album by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. It was released on July 27, 2010 through Warner Bros. Records. It was produced by Mike Elizondo and mixed in New York City by noted engineer Andy Wallace.[1] Nightmare is the first Avenged Sevenfold record without James "The Rev" Sullivan performing drums on all the songs due to his death in December 2009; however he did write parts that were used for the final recordings, making this the last album he would write on,[2] The Rev's vocals are still on the album as a tribute to him.[1] This is the only album to feature ex-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, who performed as the drummer for the album in his place, also played with the band for all their tours through the end of 2010, due to his separation with Dream Theater. They then hired drummer Arin Ilejay, who played with the band for the next four years. The album has been certified Gold by the RIAA in the United States. The album debuted at number 1 in the Billboard 200. As of December 2016 the album has sold 964,000 copies in the United States.[3]

Writing and recording

In late 2009, two years after Avenged Sevenfold released their self-titled album, and four years after they had issued their breakthrough studio set, 2005's City of Evil, the band started working on their next record, their "most personal and epic that will definitely take you on a very dark journey."[4] Around late 2009, the band worked on the album's production until the death of their drummer.

On December 28, 2009 the body of James "The Rev" Sullivan was discovered inside his home. This incident made the band suspend work on the album for some time.[5][6] In the later months, Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater (a major influence on The Rev and the rest of the band) agreed to finish recording the drum tracks for the album:

After a couple of months, more notices about the album became available; a short message from Zacky Vengeance was posted on the official Avenged Sevenfold Twitter on April 17, 2010: "Tracking is complete. There are no words that will ever describe the feeling of listening to this album while driving home alone at 4 am."[9]

Johnny Christ stated in an interview with Ultimate Guitar about the writing process and subject matter of Nightmare:

M. Shadows and Synyster Gates, in an interview with The Pulse of Radio, confirmed The Rev's special appearance in the record. According to the band members, he left a couple of vocals (to their fortune, clear and in key) before his death, which they used on the record. With his drum fills and vocals intact, the record shows itself like the band's last record with their drummer.[1] The same band members revealed some details about the new record in an interview to Hard Drive radio:

Release and promotion

The first single, "Nightmare", was released digitally on May 18, 2010.[7][12] A preview for the song was released on May 6, 2010 on Amazon.com, but was removed soon after for unknown reasons;[12] however, on May 10, 2010, a 30-second audio uncensored sample was again revealed, but this time at SoundCloud and on the band's official website. The band also posted, the same day, a video of the song on their official YouTube channel with animated lyrics, which received over 275,000 plays in 24 hours.[13][14][15]

On June 3, 2010, the band revealed a "Limited Edition" of Nightmare for pre-order available only on their website, which contains:

Since May 27, 2010, the band revealed the album cover piece by piece like a jigsaw puzzle over a period of eighteen days, revealing the complete cover on June 14, 2010, along with the track listing.[18][19][20]

On June 29, 2010, the band made available an iTunes pre-order of the album, which contains:

[21][22]

The song "Buried Alive" was posted on the band's Facebook page on July 14, 2010, but experienced loading issues due to a large number of users trying to access the video, and was briefly taken down. The problem was resolved on July 15, 2010, and was posted on YouTube as a lyric video which also contained a small animation.[23]

On July 21, 2010 the song "So Far Away" was released by KROQ radio exclusively for one day.[24]

On October 19, 2010, the single "Welcome to the Family" was released.

On April 5, 2011, "So Far Away" was released, followed by the music video.

In September 2011, the band announced plans for a music video for their next single, "Buried Alive".[25] They tried to get Rob Zombie to direct the video, but he declined due to being focused on another project.[25]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic62/100[26]
Review scores
SourceRating
411Mania.com[27]
Allmusic[28]
The A.V. ClubC− [29]
Kerrang![30]
Metal Hammer [31]
Rock Sound[32]
Sputnikmusic [33]
USA Today[34]

Nightmare received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 62, based on 7 professional reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".[35]

In the August 2010 issue of Metal Hammer, Terry Beezer rated the album an eight out of ten.[36] In his review he had praised the band members for their courage despite of the death of The Rev and called it "the ultimate tribute to a fallen friend." He also praised Mike Portnoy for his part in the album and found him a fitting stand-in for The Rev. 411 Mania gave the record a lengthy but highly positive review by giving it a score of 9.0/10. As a conclusion they stated, "If you’re a fan of Avenged Sevenfold, Nightmare is a must-have for you. This album is incredibly moving and is better than any tribute to the late Rev I could have possibly imagined."[37] Kerrang! gave the album 4 K's out of 5 concluding: "Where Avenged [Sevenfold] go from here is still in the lap of the gods. Whatever their future, though, Nightmare marks the point at which the Huntington Beach crew put away childish things and became men. Wherever he is now, their brother must be immensely proud."[38]

Accolades

Year Nominated work Award Result
2010 The Rev on Nightmare Golden God Awards: Best Drummer Won
2011 Mike Portnoy on Nightmare Golden God Awards: Best Drummer[39] Won
Synyster Gates & Zacky Vengeance on Nightmare Golden God Awards: Best Guitarists[39] Won
M. Shadows on Nightmare Golden God Awards: Best Vocalist[39] Won
Nightmare Golden God Awards: Album of the Year[39] Won
"Buried Alive" Revolver Magazine's Song of the Year 2011[40] Nominated

Track listing

All songs credited to Avenged Sevenfold. Actual songwriters are listed below.

Standard Single Disc Edition[19][20]
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Nightmare"M. Shadows6:15
2."Welcome to the Family"The Rev4:05
3."Danger Line"Johnny Christ, Vengeance5:28
4."Buried Alive"Shadows6:44
5."Natural Born Killer"Rev5:15
6."So Far Away"Synyster Gates5:26
7."God Hates Us"Shadows5:19
8."Victim"Gates, Vengeance, Christ7:29
9."Tonight the World Dies"Christ, Rev4:41
10."Fiction"Rev5:18
11."Save Me"Shadows, Rev10:57
Total length:66:56

Personnel

Charts

Chart (2010) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[41] 9
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[42] 33
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[43] 67
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[44] 87
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[45] 2
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[46] 47
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[47] 1
French Albums (SNEP)[48] 136
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[49] 36
Italian Albums (FIMI)[50] 47
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[51] 12
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[52] 2
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[53] 14
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[54] 65
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[55] 9
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[56] 57
UK Albums (OCC)[57] 5
US Billboard 200[58] 1

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/Sales
Canada (Music Canada)[59] Platinum 80,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[60] Gold 100,000^
United States (RIAA)[61] Gold 500,000^

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone

Release history

CD

Region Date
Austria, Switzerland July 23, 2010
New Zealand, United Kingdom, Sweden July 26, 2010
United States, Canada, France July 27, 2010
Malaysia, Japan July 28, 2010
Australia July 30, 2010
Italy, Spain August 1, 2010
Taiwan August 17, 2010
Germany, Brazil August 27, 2010

References

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  2. Karan, Tim (May 17, 2010). "AVENGED SEVENFOLD ANNOUNCE TITLE, RELEASE DATE FOR ALBUM". Alternative Press. Retrieved May 18, 2010.
  3. "Avenged Sevenfold vs. Warner Bros.: Inside the Potentially History-Making Legal Showdown". Retrieved July 12, 2017.
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Preceded by
Recovery by Eminem
U.S. Billboard 200 number-one album
August 14, 2010
Succeeded by
The Suburbs by Arcade Fire
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