Avenged Sevenfold finally released the video for “Hail to the King,” the title track to their forthcoming sixth studio album. The album drops on August 27th, and there’s no doubt in my mind that thousands of fans will rush out to get it or press “purchase” on their computers. Hail to the King will be the first album not to include The Rev in the writing credits.
“Hail to the King” is a mid-tempo track that’s devoid of inspiration. It stars out promising, but in the end it’s just repetitive, enough so to put the guitars on a loop… until the solo, which is mediocre at best. Honestly, I don’t get how people praise Synyster Gates as some sort of guitar mastermind. Then there’s the chorus, which tries very hard to be catchy. Avenged Sevenfold must have realized that it’s probably unlikely that people are gonna sing, “Hail to the King, Hail to the One, Kneel to the Crown, stand in the sun” so they shoved in a few “Hey, hey, heys” for good measure. I’d comment on the generic bass line and drumming, but I think they just picked those out of a sampler.
Then there’s the bloody video. Medieval imagery and matching lyrics don’t make you progressive; hell, not even having Mike Portnoy in your band makes you progressive. The video and lyrics actually remind me of a bad interpretation of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure… “off with their heads!” While the content of the video is questionably cheesy, the shots are beautiful. The video was directed by Syndrome (Imagine Dragons, Eminem, etc.) and produced by Michelle Larkin with Simon Thirlaway (Carrie Underwood, Paramore, Kanye West, etc.) as director of photography.
I hate pissing down Avenged Sevenfold’s back since they sound like competent people and musicians in the video below. They certainly know what they’re doing and have very loyal fans, which is something notable and speaks to what this band is. I just can’t get behind it.
Rock Hard \m/
