Sounding The Seventh Trumpet (2001) "We Come Out At Night"

[Reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]

Black and gray clouds willow in the balance as the sun falls.
Rain plays a heart warming tune, on the pavement.
Emotions stir.
A feeling of warmness, compassion, fullness, I feel at home.
Disguised by surroundings.
As the torn and left in the gutter seek vengeance on their mistreated lives.
As the torn and left in the cold, seek vengeance on mistreated lives.
A silhouette stands still.
A cactus on a warm summer night.
But the rain falls cold and the moon shines bright.
Black as night.
Cold as ice.
Warm as home.
Ready to live.
Stars they shoot.
In a clear.
Across the sky.
As does my time.
Waiting, wanting, feeling, emotion.
Crying, breaking, loving, nothing.
Clouds swallow the moon, and I'm alone, thinking good times, and why'd they go?
Falling down, breaking down parts of me.
F**k. I need this place to get away from you.

The poet sings in two voices, one of anguished and defiant fury, the other in a melancholy sorrow. He is both torn and left in the gutter, and also the cactus, with drops of rain catching the moonbeams on its tines.

The California desert at dusk is both a beautiful and desolate scape, and it's here that the poet invites us to be still and "empathically" experience both sides of his emotion.

He feels at home here, where all is quiet. Something about it warms his soul as he gazes with a sense of anticipation, desire and hope. But alongside the hope comes a sense of helpless rage, for what he longs for is also the source of his pain.

Jeremiah, famous for his song "Lamentations," also found himself in this strange place of longing, yet feeling betrayed

See, O LORD, how distressed I am!
I am in torment within,
and in my heart I am disturbed,
for I have been most rebellious.
Outside, the sword bereaves;
inside, there is only death.

People have heard my groaning,
but there is no one to comfort me...

He [God] attacked like an enemy
with a bow and arrows,
killing our loved ones.
He has burned to the ground
the homes on Mount Zion. The Lord was like an enemy!
He left Israel in ruins
with its palaces
and fortresses destroyed,
and with everyone in Judah
moaning and weeping.

The night, the desert, the lookout point where the poet has parked his car to sit and ponder, the moon and spring rain, this is a tranquil place. Who has he retreated from? Who is a he trying to get away from? Because even here, this person is somehow present, the poet has brought Him with him.

[This song was written about a creature of the night. Some might say a vampire, but others would go deeper and say someone who has embraced the darkness]

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