'Welcome to the Family' - Avenged Sevenfold Review.

Do I Have Your Attention?

Welcome to the family! I write this review with the start of a new college year and also a lot of new arrivals at this college, and to those new arrivals who remember their induction days then you will remember Pauline Hagen mentioning that we are a family, I remember that after hearing it four times within the space of two days. If you think this has nothing to do with a music review, then it’s time you heard the epic ‘Welcome To The Family’ by none other than Avenged Sevenfold (I will later refer to them as A7X, for those who don’t understand the abbreviations). The first time I heard this song was when I was at my (Non-biological) little brother’s house. It was a fitting moment as his older sister had just brought home her newborn son. For amusement, and also because it was fitting to the situation, we stood at either side of the front door as she entered playing that very song. ‘Welcome To The Family’ is the second single on the fifth studio album from A7X, second to the single that shares the same name of the album, ‘Nightmare’.

On a number of occasions the song seems to be directed at the listener with loud exclamations such as ‘HEY!’ It’s the sort of song that, because you heard the first few seconds, you feel as if you need to hear the rest of the track, just to find out what the story has in store for the kid mentioned at the outset. The song demonstrates that, alone, you cannot accomplish much, but together, and as a family, you can do a lot more, and even if you still don‘t succeed then you have comfort in the family:

“I can see you’re a king who’s been dethroned,
Cast out in a world you’ve never known,
Stand down, place your weapons by your side,
It’s our war, in the end we’ll surely lose but that’s alright”
Not only does this show dedication to one-another, but it also shows unification that, through thick and thin, we are all a family.

There is so much depth to this song and I can’t start to go into every little detail, but what I can at least scratch the surface of is the music. After the tragic loss of Jimmy ‘The Rev’ Sullivan, A7X decided that they would call upon the help of The Rev’s idol, Mike Portnoy, to complete the album, including this song. The first thing you hear (other that the vocals) are the guitar riffs of Synyster Gates. Throughout this song, you can hear how much Synyster puts into it, as he always does.

I honestly wish I could go into so much more detail on this but I am writing this at midnight and I would take too much room on any format if I went into detail on everything.
Again, I have to give this song a rating, and that would have to be DDDDD! There is but one last thing to say here, and this is to all of the new year 12 students “Welcome to the family.”

Nathan "Dobby" Dobson

Four Ds for 'The Ballad of Mona Lisa'

Hey everyone,

I've been pretty bored recently and planned to do this at the beginning of the year. I plan to do a regular music review on new, old, and just plain classics. What I ask is that, if there is a new piece of music out, or just a song you really like, or even just something you want to mess me about with, that you tell me the song and the artist and I shall review it for you. All I will say about my reasons for doing this is because I really like music, that’s all you’ll get out of me and I will be happy to answer questions.

Now the first song I will review is one that is eagerly anticipated, it is the new single from Panic! At The Disco (yes, they have brought the exclamation mark back) called “The Ballad Of Mona Lisa!” It really is a good thing for me because it gave us a taste of what the new album will be like, and what they have is all good. It’s also good to know that they have come back to the same style of “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out”, released in 2005, because that is what they are best at: hard, well-sung truths about sex, marriage, religion, sin, and other such things.

It starts off light but then, after about fifteen seconds, kicks in dark and gloomy with the vocals. The doom lasts for another thirty seconds and then rips up into a heavy chorus. The lyrics of the chorus are:
Say what you mean
Tell me I’m right
And let the sun rain down on me
Give me a sign
I wanna believe
Whoa Mona Lisa, you’re guaranteed to run this town
Whoa Mona Lisa I’d pay to see you frown

The entire song carries on in the same way until 2:12 into the song, when it goes all quiet and light, but the lyrics are very powerful, in the sense that you feel how Brendon Boyd Urie feels as he sings. Now, the end of this song is very powerful. All it says is a statement made a couple of times that you may have heard:
There’s nothing wrong with just a taste of what you paid for.
This links to the majority of songs from A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out because a lot of those songs are about the good behind sins.

I’d like to thank you for taking out the time to read this and, if you are interested, here is the link to The Ballad Of Mona Lisa - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6coqkaaQYG8

All in all, I would give this DDDD (Taken from Kerrang’s ‘K’ system - the D here is for “Dobby). It’s a good listen and very addictive.

Nathan “Dobby” Dobson

Hello!

Hello and welcome to the first ever blog post here at Working Title! Here you'll be able to find articles from members of the NCP Working Title team, as well as any guest articles we happen to come across. Working Title is NEW College Pontefract's only student magazine that was launched in May and will relaunch in September.

That's all from us for now, we'll be back soon with more from the Working Title team.

Happy reading!

The Editorial Team :)