Its that time of year, the shopping season is upon us, perhaps explaining why we see an increase in bands dropping EPs in the months leading up to Christmas. Avenged have scraped the barrel for a B-Side in the instrumental Jade Helm track. Its a strange track of build ups and grooves that have these awful pauses, lasting too long to keep time of the beat and anticipate its return. Maybe vocal rhythms would of tied this space over but without them the song sounds like a bunch of sub par riffs stitched together with shuffling, over involved drum patterns, things left out from other songs.
Before it three songs play that fans may be familiar with. Turns out Avenged have been collaborating with the Call Of Duty franchise for a few years and these songs are from the successive soundtracks of the Black Ops games. The first track Mad Hatter being the most recent stands out as a firm favorite. Its their only new material since the magnificent The Stage, can barely believe its been two years already! The singing style, composition and quality of riffs really reflects the maturity of that record and so we receive a well written track with a luminous mid-tempo break in the middle. It cruises from acoustic guitars into an epic guitar solo, shredding heights and erupting back into the song main riff, riding it like a wave.
I can't speak too highly of the other two tracks, they are from further back in time when Avenged where less appealing to me. A couple of moments appease but what I like of their sound is only present in fractions. If anything the one song is a good sign that they are keeping on track and capable of continuing to write on form. As for the record itself, its simply a stitching of extra songs to promote the new single.
Favorite Track: Mad Hatter
Rating: 4/10