Afterlife (Avenged Sevenfold song)

Infobox Single
Name = Afterlife


Artist = Avenged Sevenfold
from Album = Avenged Sevenfold
Genre = Hard rock
Heavy metal
Format = Digital Download, CD single
Length = 5:52
Video Edit = 4:01
Label = Warner Bros. Records
Last single = "Almost Easy" (2007)
This single = "Afterlife" (2008)
Next single = "Scream" (2008)"Afterlife" is a single by the American rock band Avenged Sevenfold. The song is the fourth on their self-titled album and features a string orchestra. It was written by the band's drummer, The Rev. It was voted the best song of the new album on the band's homepage. The single and a live-action music video were released early in 2008 [ [http://www.bluescarface.blogspot.com/2007/12/avenged-sevenfold-films-afterlife-video.html metal band |free MP3 metal download|metal news ] ] . The music video is directed by Wayne Isham who has shot videos for bands like Bon Jovi, Judas Priest and Motley Crue.

"Afterlife" is available as downloadable content for the music video game Rock Band, along with "Critical Acclaim". This song is also featured on the soundtrack to EA Sports NHL 09. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHL_09#Soundtrack]

Music video

The music video (legally released on March 12 by Avenged Sevenfold and Warner Bros.) consists of the band performing, on a small stage and shows clips of M. Shadows running, Zacky V. ballroom dancing with his girlfriend, Synyster Gates in a candle-lit room with a skull in his hand, Johnny Christ holding and then releasing several doves, and The Rev lying down with a tarantula crawling across his face and body.

Lyrical Meaning

The song is about someone's entrance into the afterlife (presumably heaven, because of his conversation with a GOD [ Expressed as a HE in the Bible but represented as a female here. ] ). But, the lyricist "metaphorically" uses the Afterlife to represent complacency, or stagnancy, to express the lyricist's need for change, or the need to challenge himself. He is apparently unhappy in "...a place of hope and no pain, perfect skies and no rain," and desires a life in which not everything is provided for him.

The lyrics describe a man's realizations that though he is in a relationship that most would consider perfect (the afterlife is metaphor for heaven), he has not experienced life itself enough to choose to settle down in that relationship - "But girl this can't be right...Such a surreal place to see... So, how did this come to be - arrived too early?"

He has to leave the relationship to assure that it is what he perceives it to be... "Give me your hand, but realize I just want to say goodbye. Please understand I have to leave and carry on my own life."

However, he expresses his love and faith in their 'afterlife' As he leaves her: "Got nothing against you, and surely, I'll miss you... This place full of peace and light. And I'd hoped you'd might, take me back inside, when the time is right..."

Formats and track listings

#Afterlife [Album Version]
#Critical Acclaim [Live Version] [Live In Hollywood]

Chart positions

This is so far the highest charting single released after the first singles from both albums, Bat Country and Almost Easy, by charting in the top 20 on both rock charts.

References