For those who don't know, Aveneged Sevenfold SURPRISE RELEASED this CD (the first of it's king and other artists surprise releases were all digital) without any announcement, and I believe that excitement went to fans' heads. I mean don't get me wrong, what they did was a feat worthy of commendation, but that doesn't automatically make the album solid gold. For me, I found this album to be a little bit meh. Some fans were saying it was “a return to form” and “like their old stuff” but I don't get that at all. It's not exactly the same as their usual style but it's absolutely nothing like the scrwamo, extreme rock roots of ‘Waking the Fallen’. Anyway, fan reactions aside, for me this album has some good stuff but after listening to it a few times, very few of the tracks are memorable. Sure I remember ‘The Stage’ as it is a great track, but it's probably because it's the title song and the only one available prior to release. People claim to admire the ‘deep meaning’ to this album, and although I can see the merit, it's nothing new and Ax7 especially have way more meaningful songs in their catalog. Another downer for me personally is that every now and then in an album there'll be a song you actually dislike, like there's one on ‘Nightmare’ I actually hate. But on this album there are 3 TRACKS I despise. It's a personal thing sure but when songs are between 5–8 minutes long having three of them in a huge detriment to my enjoyment of this album. THAT aside I still find this a good bunch of new Avenged Sevenfold songs, but as an album I find it average. I would sit it under ‘Nightmare’ and ‘City of Evil’ (my 2 middle albums) but maybe this one just needs more time to grow on me, but as is it's pretty ok. Maybe I'm just not overly amazed with this album because some of my other favourite bands like Bastille, Panic! At the Disco and Bon Jovi have all had STELLAR releases this year, which all gripped me from the start with how good they are, whereas this left me indifferent.