Almost Easy

Infobox Single
Name = Almost Easy


Artist = Avenged Sevenfold
from Album = Avenged Sevenfold
Released = September 18 2007
Format = Digital Download, 7" vinyl
Genre = Hard rock
Heavy metal
Length = 3:54
Label = Warner Bros. Records
Last single = "Critical Acclaim"
(2007)
This single = "Almost Easy"
(2007)
Next single = "Afterlife"
(2008)"Almost Easy" is a song by American hard rock band Avenged Sevenfold. The song appears on their new self-titled album where it was the first single from the album released to mainstream rock radio. The song was premiered at a concert in Indonesia. The song was originally planned to be on the but it was not finished in time.

Background

The song was officially released on September 18 2007 through online music stores like iTunes, URGE.

This song was written by the band's drummer, James "The Rev" Sullivan. The song is about forgiveness and how it is easy to say sorry and forgive someone, but how difficult it really is to mean it. Also, in the chorus of this song, for the second time (First Strength of the World) the whole band sang simultaneously - All 5 members combined their voices for more of a choir sound, which was shown in the MVI that came with the new album.

The song was premiered in Jakarta and Singapore during Avenged Sevenfold's 2007 Southeast Asian Tour. Videos of the performance in Singapore can be found on YouTube.

The song is on the ' soundtrack (altered version), and was released as a part of a downloadable "modern metal" song pack for the music video game ' on March 6, 2008. The song is also featured in Konami's "Guitar Freaks V5 and DrumMania V5 Rock to Infinity". The song is part of the setlist of "Rock Band 2".

Lyrical Meanings

This song is about a relationship where the singer is in some way abusive towards his partner, primarily when he doesn't get his own way.:

"I feel insane every single time, I'm asked to compromise."

He understands at least part of the reason why he acts so rashly, but he seems to accept it."'"Cause I'm afraid, and stuck in my ways, and that's the way it stays..."

This behavior and it's effect on his personal relationships is obviously something he is not only aware of, but used to:

"So how long did I expect love to outwieght ignorance? From that look on your face, I may have forced the scale to tip... "

The title, appears to spawn from the fact that despite his admission to his behaviors and the reasons behind them, and his swings between the abuse and his own guilt, he manages to turn it all around and place at least some degree of blame on his partner:

"But the fact remains, that this is nothing new..."

The key is found in the progression of the chorus:

First time we have:

"(Mother...) Come back to me, it's almost easy. (said it all...) Come back again it's almost easy."

This is followed by his admissions of guilt, which quickly begin to turn towards blame and fades back towards admission of guilt, and repetition in claiming "I'm not insane, I'm not insane" (with laughter) before it leads to the second chorus string:

"(Mother...) Come back to me, it's almost easy. (said it all...) Come back again it's almost easy. (You'll learn your lesson...) Come back to me, it's almost easy. (But first you fall...) Come back again it's almost easy."

He loses his partner and though he makes one last attempt to reconcile the relationship, he is still irrational continues with the previous claims that he is not insane, and in the final chorus, he clarifies that because she keeps coming back to him, it's her fault that it all keeps happening:

"(Mother...) Come back to me, it's almost easy. (Said it all...) Come back again it's almost easy. (You'll learn your lesson...) Come back to me, it's almost easy. (But first you fall...) Come back again it's almost easy."

Formats and track listings

#Almost Easy [Main Version]
#Almost Easy [Live Version]
#Almost Easy [Radio Edit]

Music video

The band released a video for "Almost Easy" with director P.R. Brown (Mötley Crüe, Marilyn Manson). The video debuted on Fuse's The Sauce on September 24 2007 and MTV2's Unleashed on October 1 2007.

The video shows the band playing on a barren wasteland whilst they appear to be aflame. Over a ridge, a huge crowd of hundreds of people appear, walking in a zombie-like fashion towards the band, only to stop at a large gaping hole and jump downwards, into, what one can only suppose, is Hell. Special effects show some parts where the people have skulls for faces and demonic faces.

At the end of the video, when the last person jumps down the cavern, the camera zooms out from the band, showing that the hole the people were jumping into was actually the eye of the demonic figure pictured on the artwork of "Avenged Sevenfold", the "death bat". The band stated in an interview with FUSE host Steven Smith on Steven's Untitled Rock Show that the inspiration for the video came from a Wendy's commercial they saw in Asia in which a large crowd is running toward the same hamburger.

M. Shadows then said "wouldn't it be cool if we (Avenged Sevenfold) were playing in a fiery blaze and a bunch of people were running towards us" an idea that eventually became the video for "Almost Easy." The band has posted a video of "Almost Easy" live at Warped Tour on their Myspace blog.

Charts

References