Sounding The Seventh Trumpet (2001) "Shattered By Broken Dreams"

[Reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]

I see you fading away from us.
I'll miss you very much.
Room with empty bottles, broken dreams, and pride still running high, always on your side.
But I wanted more for you.
You can't go on this way.
And now I see it all fall through.
We pray for better days.
Stuck alone and scared.
Throw your life away and now choking on your pride may be the only way.
I don't want to see you like this.
We all tried to save you but missed.
I still feel the hope on your road.
Now come back to us like the days of the old.
I still feel you there, trying to get on top.
You'll always have my support, in my heart.
People you've hurt.
Friends that you've lied to.
But we understand, and that s not (you) can see the end of the road,
I can see it too, for you, I'm scared, if I lose you, I'm not prepared.
This time, if you die.
I watch you, right before my eyes.
Just trust me, and listen.
You have no self control.
This will take your life.
Overdose and then indulge until you die.
Pondering, we all ask the question why.
Broken home, and then abandoned by your dad.
And we are left the only family that you've ever had.
Help you see it through.
Fight this me and you.
Reaching deep inside.
Problems not just you is what we find.
Our friendship makes it mine.

Many of us have lived this poem, watching someone we love very much destroying their life. There are always reasons, aren't there. Broken home, abandonment, pride that won't admit there's a problem, broken dreams that turn the hopeful idealist into a bitter cynic who would rather numb the pain with a drink, or a toke, or a hit.

How do we love each other through something like this?

My friends, you were chosen to be free. So don't use your freedom as an excuse to do anything you want. Use it as an opportunity to serve each other with love. All that the Law says can be summed up in the command to love others as much as you love yourself.

If you are guided by the Spirit, you won't obey your selfish desires.

God's Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. There is no law against behaving in any of these ways. And because we belong to Christ Jesus, we have killed our selfish feelings and desires. God's Spirit has given us life, and so we should follow the Spirit.

My friends, you are spiritual. So if someone is trapped in sin, you should gently lead that person back to the right path. But watch out, and don't be tempted yourself. You obey the law of Christ when you offer each other a helping hand.

If you think you are better than others, when you really aren't, you are wrong. Do your own work well, and then you will have something to be proud of. But don't compare yourself with others. We each must carry our own load.

Share every good thing you have

So said the apostle Paul, thinking about Jesus Who loves us through every problem. Because Jesus sings this poem to you and me, we can say to each other

Help you see it through.
Fight this me and you.
Reaching deep inside.
Problems not just you is what we find.
Our friendship makes it mine

[This poem was written about Justin Sane who attempted suicide and suffered severe brain damage. A victim of deep depression, this song describes his desire for help and his fear that he will hurt himself]

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Sounding The Seventh Trumpet (2001) "Streets"

[Reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]

You live your whole life staring at a wall, your mind goes blank sooner now you will fall.
You never learned the things you say to know now, but how?
There seems to be a difference, two different types of kids.
The ones who go out and the ones that are taught to live.
One groups taught how and the other group is taught why.
There's no need to tell you what's in my mind, but in the game of life I'm doing fine.
No reason to tell you which way to be.
Cause the streets have opened my eyes to see.
Look what's happening now.
What are the reasons why and how?
And don't you think it sounds stupid when someone's treated
different cause they're not the same as me or you?

Who's better than who? The scholar or the street fighter? The college grad, or the guy who started working at 16 and never looked back? The one with the manual, or the one who goes by intuition?

Secretly, we play the comparison game all the time. We think the way we are is better, that's why we're doing life the way we're doing it. If we thought there was a better way than the one we've chosen, then we'd pick that other way. But guess what. The people over there think they're better than you and me. That's because the way they've chosen is different than ours, and they think it's better. And so it goes.

Two thousand years ago it was all the same thing. The apostle Paul was compared to the apostle Peter and showed up rather poorly, actually. Paul had all the book learning and certificates, while Peter had three years in the streets with Jesus. Who was better?

"You judge by appearances. If any of you think you are the only ones who belong to Christ, then think again. We belong to Christ as much as you do,"

Paul told his detractors in Corinth.

"We won't dare compare ourselves with those who think so much of themselves. But they are foolish to compare themselves with themselves."

Jesus' brother James knew what it was like to be at the bottom of the pile. Until Jesus rose from the dead, James was a hardened cynic. He openly scorned his brother for being touched in the head with illusions of grandeur. After Jesus rose from the dead, James became a believer, and who wouldn't, coming face to face with God in the flesh, dead and now alive.

"You will do all right, if you obey the most important law in the Scriptures. It is the law that commands us to love others as much as we love ourselves. But if you treat some people better than others, you have done wrong, and the Scriptures teach that you have sinned."

James said.

And don't you think it sounds stupid when someone's treated
different cause they're not the same as me or you?

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Sounding The Seventh Trumpet (2001) "Thick And Thin"

[Reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]

I don't want to know.
And I don't want to see you in this place.
Your kind is a disgrace as I spit in your face.
And I don't want to hear anymore.
A friend is f****d with while he's having fun on the dance floor.
Get the f**k out of here now.
Come on you kids, stand your ground.
This is your show, it s your family.
All of my friends there for me.
There's four-hundred more of us then them.
So kick them out.
Keep it positive.
Keep it real. Keep it true.
Together with my friends.
I'll be there for you.
Through the problems thick and thin and problems we'll fight through.
This is to my brothers, I ll be there for you.
Through the problems thick and thin and problems we'll fight through.
This is to my family.
I'll be there for you.

As in several of his works, the poet brings in two voices. The first voice is all approbation, the classic pointy-finger. Suddenly, mid-sentence, the other voice takes over, angry, defiant, while he's having fun on the dance floor

On the surface level, this song pits youthful excess against the stereotype of disapproving parents. 400 dancers with their loud music can drown and kick out those finger pointers. Poignantly, however, the disapproving voice has the last say when this poem is sung.

On a deeper level, the poet has shifted allegiance from his genetic family to his spiritual family. Something has brought these 400 together that makes them brothers who are willing to go through thick and thin together, to be there for each other. As the ancient wisdom literature says,

...there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

So it truly is, on the spiritual plane. Some people will say that blood runs thicker than water, and there's certainly truth to that. Yet it is even truer to say that Spirit runs deeper than blood. Those who are spiritually united with each other know the difference.

This is why Jesus offered His life, represented in His poured out blood, so that by rising again from the dead He could join together those who love Him, with His Spirit.

In Jesus' day there were the pointy finger disapprovers, professional religious types, promoting their institutions and hating Jesus for refusing to conform to their rules. They were the few and the powerful, but Jesus sang to the ones who followed Him

This is to my brothers, I ll be there for you.
Through the problems thick and thin and problems we'll fight through.
This is to my family.
I'll be there for you

[the main theme in this song is about the importance of friendship]

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Sounding The Seventh Trumpet (2001) "Forgotten Faces"

[Reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]

Forgotten faces.
Lost in yesterdays realm.
Drained with confusion.
Where did it all go?
Look into the past, look into their faces.
Never, the thought of being time f****d.
But now they're all gone and all that's left is this blank faced picture.
Ninety percent, nothing was done, nothing accomplished,
coasting through life didn't seize the day.
No one ever realized that they're already dead.
By the time you realize, you'll be dead too.
Without another chance to save the world, these things they're gone, your gone, forgotten.
Now your face in my picture frame. It's gone, forever.
Right before my very eyes.
And just when I thought I made light of things.
It slips away, into darkness.
My life passes now I see.
Just what this world does hold for me.
It's getting hard, harder to breathe.
Am I out of time is that what this means?
Well that's what it means.
That's what it means, you and me try to breathe.
Now you. Realize.
Your life, flies by.
Now I. Realize.
My life, I die.

As I listened to the poet sing this song, another song interwove with it, in my inner ear. Another poet from ancient times...

Forgotten faces.
Lost in yesterdays realm.
Drained with confusion.

Everything is nonsense.
I have seen it all--
nothing makes sense!
What is there to show
for all of our hard work
here on this earth?
People come, and people go,

Where did it all go?
Look into the past, look into their faces.
Never, the thought of being time f****d.
But now they're all gone and all that's left is this blank faced picture.

No one who lived in the past
is remembered anymore,
and everyone yet to be born
will be forgotten too.

Ninety percent, nothing was done, nothing accomplished,
coasting through life didn't seize the day.
No one ever realized that they're already dead.
By the time you realize, you'll be dead too.
Without another chance to save the world, these things they're gone, your gone, forgotten.

I turned my head and saw yet another wisp of smoke on its way
to nothingness: a solitary person, completely alone—
no children, no family, no friends—
yet working obsessively late into the night, compulsively greedy
for more and more, never bothering to ask,
"Why am I working like a dog, never having any fun? And who cares?"
More smoke. A bad business

Now your face in my picture frame. It's gone, forever.
Right before my very eyes.
And just when I thought I made light of things.
It slips away, into darkness.
My life passes now I see.
Just what this world does hold for me.
It's getting hard, harder to breathe.
Am I out of time is that what this means?

Life is short and meaningless, and it fades away like a shadow.
Who knows what is best for us?
Who knows what will happen after we are gone?

Well that's what it means.
That's what it means, you and me try to breathe.
Now you. Realize.
Your life, flies by.
Now I. Realize.
My life, I die

It's better to have a partner than go it alone.
Share the work, share the wealth.
And if one falls down, the other helps,
But if there's no one to help, tough!

Two in a bed warm each other.
Alone, you shiver all night.

By yourself you're unprotected.
With a friend you can face the worst.
Can you round up a third?
A three-stranded rope isn't easily snapped

The ancient poet thought about the meaning of life, and all the things we think bring life meaning -- changing the world, being remembered, having wealth, working hard and making a lasting monument to ourselves, being powerful...Then I thought about everything I had done, including the hard work, and it was simply chasing the wind. Nothing on earth is worth the trouble.

Both poets, ancient and metal, have come to the same conclusion. Meaning is found in relationship, in the love that brings union, to breathe together, go through life together, and even beyond that, going through death to new life.

Only one Person can breathe this meaning into life, Whose love reaches even beyond death. His breath is His Spirit, and His Spirit is life, light and love.

[The poet intends for us to see that most people waste their lives, but will not truly see it until they look back from the perspective of death]

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Sounding The Seventh Trumpet (2001) "Breaking Their Hold"

[Reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]

When you see them coming in form.
And they say they do what's best for you.
Fighting for one total control.
They are planned and organized for you.
Breaking their hold. Breaking their hold of control they strive.
To keep you down, behind your back, the time has come, the end is near.
It's when you sleep, so late at night, and in the light, getting prepared.
It's not to help you, but help their cause, under one system, you wont exist.
They are the few, with all the power, our system screams, we can't let them tear our hearts out.
Screaming, pulling on our pride. Stand together for the right cause, one system to our demise

Who are they in this poem?

Are they overly controlling parents, seeking to force their son or daughter to fulfill the parents' dreams at the expense of their own?

Are they representative of the supra culture which formulates the life path of "acceptable," looking and acting, and voting a certain way?

Are they the school system, which inculcates each new batch of children not only with knowledge, but a particular worldview?

Are they representative of religion, where the form is all important, but the insides are hollow?

Are they the rule makers and rule enforcers, who crush the poet and his friends into a certain mold?

One thing is sure, this piece is about refusing to allow the deadening affect that can happen when a a person is institutionalized. Protect your personal boundaries, and refuse to conform to the demands of society, the corporation, the culture. Make a contract with yourself to be true to yourself, to who you are. Check your thoughts and actions against your own internal, personal code.

The poet cries out for individuality, not one system that grinds all people to its own shape.

Unity is not the same as conformity. Unity, at the heart of community, is about many different kinds of people cooperating with each other in love. The apostle Paul likened this to the complexity of a living body,

I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.

But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"?

As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?

The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

You are Christ's body—that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything. You're familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his "body"...

But it's obvious by now, isn't it, that Christ's church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, unidimensional Part?

In fact, a rock band is a vibrant example of this principle. Each player has a vital part, the band reels without even just one of its members. Together they create something bigger than the sum of their individual contributions. This is beautiful community that institutions so often try to mimic and recreate, but fail terribly. Community is alive, it's organic.

Institutions are often not alive, they are usually mechanical.

we can't let them tear our hearts out.

[the institution the poet was writing about was breaking free from parents and gaining control over one's life]

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Sounding The Seventh Trumpet (2001) "Epic Of Time Wasted"

[Reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]

So much time I've wasted.
I can truly say I never thought it would come to this.
Never would I doubt you, but the truth kept smacking me in the face.
Reality. You never stopped to think and you ripped us apart.
How could you? Now our time is gone but it's still breaking my heart.
Tears run down as I think of the days we've had, and the memories will last forever,
but you and I have died and gone our separate ways.
You are the one.
You are the wrong one.
Breaking the mold.
Going your own way.
All I feel, betrayal.
So much time I've wasted, and I never thought it'd come to this.
Apology.
We had something great, then it was washed away.
We had something more, then I can explain.
I'm sorry. No! We had something great, then it was washed away.
No! Not all friendships last, the genuine are harder to take.
No! Time to start again, hope someday you'll think of me.
No! The end reality, I know someday I'll think of you.

Maybe this is the poet's dialogue with himself. Maybe he is singing to the the one who was, but is no longer, the love of his life. Filled with sorrow, masked by a bravado that is intended to cover and protect the vulnerability of his broken heart, he sings of the beauty of love which is now shredded by betrayal. As king David once sorrowed over in his own song of lament,

Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me

At the end of this poem two voices sing, one is plaintive, mourning what has been lost, the other is angry and defiant.

Sometimes it feels like this. Anyone who has ever gone through the heart wrenching ending of a meaningful relationship, certain that this person was the one, where the love was genuine, understands the pathos of this poem. The poet's muse was not who he trusted her to be.

Never would I doubt you, but the truth kept smacking me in the face.
Reality.

We don't know his part in this breakup, but we do sense that it is she who initiated the parting. His lover abandons him. Unthinkingly, she has broken the mold of their union to go her own way, betraying the trust he had put in her faithfulness to him.

And now we know who the two voices are. She gives him her apology, she tries to justify her faithlessness, she encourages him to start over. And all he can cry out, scalded to the bone, is "No!"

The ancient prophet Ezekiel also tells a story of love, union and betrayal

When you were born, no one cut you loose from your mother or washed your body. No one rubbed your skin with salt and olive oil, and wrapped you in warm blankets. Not one person loved you enough to do any of these things, and no one even felt sorry for you. You were despised, thrown into a field, and forgotten. I saw you lying there, rolling around in your own blood, and I couldn't let you die. I took care of you, like someone caring for a tender, young plant. You grew up to be a beautiful young woman with perfect breasts and long hair, but you were still naked.

When I saw you again, you were old enough to have sex. So I covered your naked body with my own robe. Then I solemnly promised that you would belong to me and that I, the LORD God, would take care of you. I washed the blood off you and rubbed your skin with olive oil. I gave you the finest clothes and the most expensive robes, as well as sandals made from the best leather.

I gave you bracelets, a necklace, a ring for your nose, some earrings, and a beautiful crown. Your jewelry was gold and silver, and your clothes were made of only the finest material and embroidered linen. Your bread was baked from fine flour, and you ate honey and olive oil. You were as beautiful as a queen, and everyone on earth knew it. I, the LORD God, had helped you become a lovely young woman.

You learned that you were attractive enough to have any man you wanted, so you offered yourself to every passerby.

You made shrines for yourself and decorated them with some of your clothes. That's where you took your visitors to have sex with them. These things should never have happened! You made idols out of the gold and silver jewelry I gave you, then you sinned by worshiping those idols. You dressed them in the clothes you got from me, and you offered them the olive oil and incense I gave you. I supplied you with fine flour, olive oil, and honey, but you sacrificed it all as offerings to please those idols.

I, the LORD God, watched this happen. But you did something even worse than that--you sacrificed your own children to those idols! You slaughtered my children, so you could offer them as sacrifices. You were so busy sinning and being a prostitute that you refused to think about the days when you were young and were rolling around naked in your own blood...

Even God knows what it is to have a broken heart. Having made Himself vulnerable to love and be loved, He knows what it is to let someone into His inward being, to give someone the keys to His heart, and yet to be rejected and betrayed by the one He loves.

Yet even here, God holds out both of His arms and cries,

You deserve to be punished, because you broke your promises and ignored our agreement. But I remember the agreement I made with you when you were young, and so I will make you a promise that will last forever...

I will keep this solemn promise, and you will know that I am the LORD. I will forgive you...

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Sounding The Seventh Trumpet (2001) "Warmness On The Soul"

[Reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]

Your hazel green tint eyes watching every move I make.
And that feeling of doubt, it's erased.
I'll never feel alone again with you by my side.
You're the one, and in you I confide. And we have gone through good and bad times.
But your unconditional love was always on my mind.
You've been there from the start for me.
And your loves always been true as can be.
I give my heart to you.
I give my heart, cause nothing can compare in this world to you.

In all these songs, so far, I see a spiritual layer. Whether or not the poet intended these meanings is a good question -- and yet artists understand that truly good art carries its freight in meaning. It carries the artist's voice, yet it is expansive enough to resonate with many voices and many meanings. Good art speaks to you.

There is no question that these lyrics carry Biblical imagery, and the poets themselves freely admit to that. Yet tucked in amongst heavy laden poems of anguish and anger is this warm and sensuous gem of love.

Is there a hidden meaning in finding unconditional love, and a deep union of hearts, between cries of rage and betrayal, between the torn souls of those who fear they are damned yet long for redemption from the One under whose wrath they defiantly choose to remain?

All of us long to be truly known and loved, all of us long for the faithfulness of someone who will always be there for us, who will always be on our side, who will love us at our filthiest, who will forgive us every time, who will believe the best in us and defend us to the end. The lover of our soul, that's who we want.

Who loves you like that? Who do you love like that?

None of us is capable of it without help. Supernatural help.

[Many believe this song was written by Matt (M Shadow) for his long term girlfriend: Valary Di Benedetto, whom he's been dating since the 6th grade

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Sounding The Seventh Trumpet (2001) "Lips Of Deceit"

[Reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]

The mark I breathe on you.
It's burning through your soul.
The breath I waste.
Losing control.
I bleed in pain.
Testing what I know.
Lips soaked in deceit.
Pull me from here.
No one s innocent.
So why do I feel bad?
But guilt keeps creeping, creeping up on me.
Guilt. Tearing me up inside.
The innocent.
An evil in disguise.
The face of beauty to fall for.
I fall to my knees, deceitful.
Brought down by feelings of regret.
Again your mind has failed the test.
Not everyone feels the same.
Pacifist blinded by the game.
Stand tall. They'll break your heart.
Stand tall. They'll smash your ego.
Stand tall. They'll tear you down.
Stand tall. Scar your soul.
Break your thought.
F**k your mind.
The mark I breathe on you.
It s burning through your soul.
The breath I waste.
Losing control.
I bleed in pain.
Testing what I know.
Lips soaked in deceit.
Pull me from this hole.

As in many of his poems, there are layers of meaning. The poet finds someone beautiful and seemingly innocent, yet that is a disguise for the evil hidden inside. This person is able to break his heart, smash his ego, tear him down and scar his soul. There are lies on both sides of this relationship, in the poet's mind. He expected purity, but he got deceit. Now he is retaliating.

Who is this person? Is it the poet's lover? His muse? His ideal?

In keeping with the theme of this album, there is the screaming rage, yet a sense of anguish along with the anger. There is evil disguised as innocence, worshiping love that is not really what it seems to be, and the poet derides himself for his own deceitful lips, he understands that his words have such power they will burn through another's soul, and I get the sense that he's talking from experience. Words are like that, they do burn, as Jesus' brother James once commented,

It takes only a spark to start a forest fire! The tongue is like a spark. It is an evil power that dirties the rest of the body and sets a person's entire life on fire with flames that come from hell itself. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures can be tamed and have been tamed. But our tongues get out of control. They are restless and evil, and always spreading deadly poison.

My dear friends, with our tongues we speak both praises and curses. We praise our Lord and Father, and we curse people who were created to be like God, and this isn't right. Can clean water and dirty water both flow from the same spring? Can a fig tree produce olives or a grapevine produce figs? Does fresh water come from a well full of salt water?

He knows what he's doing, and he's doing it anyway, he's testing what he knows. Some part of him doesn't want to do this, he wants to be rescued. Does that get him off the hook? He's sure wishing it could -- nobody's innocent, this is how the world is, so why does he feel guilty about it? The inner struggle hurts, and he can sense a loss of control over his words and actions.

He's a liar, and he knows it. But what would happen if he admitted it to somebody else besides himself? What if he were to admit that it's a life habit of his, to be deceitful?

And who is he lying to that makes him so uncomfortable about lying? Is it his muse, in the next song in this set? What would she think of his words of love, if she knew that lies come from the same mouth?

[The poet was writing about the truth that what you sow you will reap]

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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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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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