Sounding The Seventh Trumpet (2001) "Turn The Other Way"

[Reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]

Slit my wrists, take away the pain.
Slit my throat, everyone's to blame.
Lost in the fields of confusion.
Restless nights, they're not far away.
I came here for something and I'm not turning back.
A calm piece of mind but you still hold my keys.
Keeping my fate deep within your threshold.
Petty inconvenience but it means the world to me.
You have the power.
To set me free.
Caught in your grasp, how?
Just let me be.
Give me control out.
Out of these depths.
A fiery hell.
I pray for death.
I've been the wrong one time and time again.
Now I'm on my knees forgive me please.
Tore out my heart and handed to me on a silver platter.
Sew up the hole, emptiness in the place of compassion.
You made me this way.
I am the product of your creation.
Look the other way.
Now you've turned your back on me.
You've turned away from me, the future's much to far away to see.
I hope you learn the truth, not the way things were meant to be with me and you.

Who is he singing to? Is it his parents? His lover? His God?

He is torn, and the anguish has brought him to the utter depths. Those who have been here know what it is like to gaze in silence at a razor and, with inner vision, see its thin blade leave red lines on one's wrists. For on the one hand, the pain would cut through the numbness of beyond-pain, and on the other, the ebbing blood would mean rest at last.

Does the poet truly believe that everyone but himself is to blame for the wrestling of his soul? He wants out. He wants the One Who holds him to let him go ~

As the Psalmist said

O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,"
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.

The poet rails against the Lord, blaming God for making him the way he is, accusing God of tearing his heart out, making him void of compassion, only a man with an empty hole where love used to be. He senses God's wrath against him, but instead of owning up to his own choice to embrace evil, he pushes the blame on God, saying He has turned his back on him, yet perversely will not give him the keys to the future he thinks he wants.

He pretends to be on his knees in supplication, but we see that in his heart, in his spirit, he is standing defiantly, shaking his fist at God, all fury and bitterness, an aggrieved accuser.

Somehow the poet's parting shot to God is a final accusation that God is the one living in a fantasy, thinking that this man will be saved (because he was born to a churched family? Because he was baptised as a baby?).

This is A7X's second song, and their debut statement of faith: "We are being held against our wills by a God Who won't let us go."

[From the poet's point of view this is an abusive relationship from which he either doesn't have the courage or the power to leave]

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Sounding The Seventh Trumpet (2001) "To End The Rapture"

[Reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]

The wind of life and air from above smells of death.
Angels sing of the end.
Nothing you say and nothing you try will change time.
Human race prepares to die...

For the believer, the "rapture," as it is referred to, will be a glorious event, indescribably gorgeous. Paul, the apostle, laid it all out to his friends in Thessolonika:

My friends, we want you to understand how it will be for those followers who have already died. Then you won't grieve over them and be like people who don't have any hope. We believe that Jesus died and was raised to life. We also believe that when God brings Jesus back again, he will bring with him all who had faith in Jesus before they died. Our Lord Jesus told us that when he comes, we won't go up to meet him ahead of his followers who have already died.

With a loud command and with the shout of the chief angel and a blast of God's trumpet, the Lord will return from heaven. Then those who had faith in Christ before they died will be raised to life. Next, all of us who are still alive will be taken up into the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the sky. From that time on we will all be with the Lord forever. Encourage each other with these words.

I don't need to write you about the time or date when all this will happen.You surely know that the Lord's return will be as a thief coming at night. People will think they are safe and secure. But destruction will suddenly strike them like the pains of a woman about to give birth. And they won't escape. My dear friends, you don't live in darkness, and so that day won't surprise you like a thief. You belong to the light and live in the day. We don't live in the night or belong to the dark. Others may sleep, but we should stay awake and be alert. People sleep during the night, and some even get drunk. But we belong to the day. So we must stay sober and let our faith and love be like a suit of armor. Our firm hope that we will be saved is our helmet.

God doesn't intend to punish us, but wants us to be saved by our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ died for us, so that we could live with him, whether we are alive or dead when he comes. That's why you must encourage and help each other, just as you are already doing.

But for those who have turned their backs on God, it will indeed bring the smell of death, as Paul explained to his friends in Corinth:

God thinks of us as a perfume that brings Christ to everyone. For people who are being saved, this perfume has a sweet smell and leads them to a better life. But for people who are lost, it has a bad smell and leads them to a horrible death.

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Avenged Sevenfold, "Nightmare" (2010)

The Lyrics: [reprinted as written by the band]

(Now you nightmare comes to life)

Dragged ya down below,
Down to the Devil’s show,
To be his guest forever,
(Peace of mind is less than never)!

Hate to twist you mind,
But God ain’t on your side,
An old acquaintance severed,
(Burn the world, your last endeavor)!

Flesh is burning, you can smell it in the air,
‘cause men like you have such an easy soul to steal.

So stand in line while they ink numbers in your head,
You’re now a slave until the end of time,
Nothing stops the madness turning,
Haunting, Yearning, Pull the trigger!

You should have known, the price of evil,
And it hurts to know that you belong here, yeah
Ooooh, It’s your ******’ Nightmare!
(While your nightmare comes to life)

Can’t wake up in sweat,
‘Cause it ain’t over yet,
Still dancing with you demons,
(Victim of your creation)!

Beyond the will to fight,
Where all that’s wrong is right,
Where hate don’t need a reason
(Loathing self-assassination)!

You’ve been lied to just to rape you of your sight,
And now they have the nerve to tell you how to feel.
So sedated as they medicate your brain and while ya slowly go insane they tall ya:
“Give in with your best intentons, help you with you complications!”

You should have known the price of evil,
And it hurts to know that you belong here, yeah.
No one to call,
Everybody to fear,
Your tragic fate is looking so unclear, yeah.
Ooooh, it’s your ******’ nightmare, ha-ha-ha-ha!

Fight (fight),
Not to fail (fail),
Not to fall (fall),
Or you’ll end up like the others.

Die (die),
Die again (die),
Drenched in sin (sin),
With no respect for another.

Down (down),
Feel the fire (fire),
Feel the hate (hate),
Your pain is what we desire.

Lost (lost),
Hit the wall (wall),
Watch you crawl (crawl),
Such a replaceable liar.

And I know you hear their voices (calling from above),
And I know they may seem real (these signals of love),
But our life’s made up of choices (some without appeal),
They took for granted your soul, and it’s ours now to steal
(as your nightmare comes to life)!

You should have known the price of evil,
And it hurts to know that you belong here, yeah.
No one to call,
Everybody to fear,
Your tragic fate is looking so unclear, yeah…
Ooooh, it’s your ******’ nightmare!

This is the first song that's been released since the band lost their founding member, The Rev, shortly after Christmas, 2009. Is it about him?

No stranger to the excesses of self indulgence, the Rev was honest and upfront about his capacious appetite for drugs and pleasure. Yet all five members of the band grew up inside what is prosaically referred to as "the church." They all knew "the price of evil," and they all have at least a passing acquaintance with the epic story of God's love for His fallen ones, His heroic rescue of those who will love Him back, and the sweeping implications this story has in eternity.

In this song someone has crossed from life to eternity. He is being dragged down to hell, having realized that his passing acquaintance with God was not enough. His exit from life came in one last glorious blaze, but now he discovers that the fire of pleasure has become the burning of his own flesh in hell.

He thought he was powerful, adventurous, he thought he was grander than life, but in reality his soul was easily stolen, for the moment he began involving himself with evil was the moment he paid the price: slavery to sin which ultimately culminates in death and hell.

Somewhere deep inside of himself he feared this. But he would wake up, sweating, shivering in the dead of night, then look around his room to a warming sense of sweet relief, knowing it was all only a fevered nightmare. But now he can no longer wake up. Now he has begun to experience in eternity what the apostle Paul spoke of:

"From heaven God shows how angry he is with all the wicked and evil things that sinful people do to crush the truth. They know everything that can be known about God, because God has shown it all to them. God's eternal power and character cannot be seen. But from the beginning of creation, God has shown what these are like by all he has made. That's why those people don't have any excuse. They know about God, but they don't honor him or even thank him. Their thoughts are useless, and their stupid minds are in the dark. They claim to be wise, but they are fools. They don't worship the glorious and eternal God. Instead, they worship idols that are made to look like humans who cannot live forever, and like birds, animals, and reptiles."

You should have known, the price of evil,

"So God let these people go their own way. They did what they wanted to do, and their filthy thoughts made them do shameful things with their bodies. They gave up the truth about God for a lie, and they worshiped God's creation instead of God, who will be praised forever. Amen.

"God let them follow their own evil desires. Women no longer wanted to have sex in a natural way, and they did things with each other that were not natural. Men behaved in the same way. They stopped wanting to have sex with women and had strong desires for sex with other men. They did shameful things with each other, and what has happened to them is punishment for their foolish deeds.

"Since these people refused even to think about God, he let their useless minds rule over them. That's why they do all sorts of indecent things. They are evil, wicked, and greedy, as well as mean in every possible way. They want what others have, and they murder, argue, cheat, and are hard to get along with. They gossip, say cruel things about others, and hate God. They are proud, conceited, and boastful, always thinking up new ways to do evil.

"These people don't respect their parents. They are stupid, unreliable, and don't have any love or pity for others. They know God has said that anyone who acts this way deserves to die. But they keep on doing evil things, and they even encourage others to do them."

You’ve been lied to just to rape you of your sight,
And now they have the nerve to tell you how to feel.
So sedated as they medicate your brain and while ya slowly go insane they tall ya:
“Give in with your best intentons, help you with you complications!”

In his life there were those who loved him, who prayed for him, who longed for him to come home to Jesus. Perhaps he even went to church as a gesture of kindness and love towards these people (were they his family? His parents?). Maybe they hoped that by going to church, going through the motions of religion, maybe singing hymns and reading the Bible would save him from the penalty of choosing sin. But it could not.

Some choices appear unappealing to those who have embraced the dark pleasures of evil. But in the end, the price is far higher than any earthly reward could ever pretend to match...

And I know you hear their voices (calling from above),
And I know they may seem real (these signals of love),
But our life’s made up of choices (some without appeal),
They took for granted your soul, and it’s ours now to steal
(as your nightmare comes to life)!

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