M Shadows explains what ‘Afterlife’ was about

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Avenged Sevenfold is among my favorite bands of all time. Their song Afterlife is one of their best songs in my opinion. It is the third single from their self titled album ‘Afterlife’ and was released on 29th January 2008.

Song Meaning

The song ‘Afterlife’ is the experience of a guy who is dead and has reached heaven. Even though he finds the experience of heaven blissful and devoid of suffering he still yearns to go back on earth because he has unfinished business.

It’s about looking into a reflection of yourself. It uses the sort of metaphor of falling into the afterlife and arguing with the gods and realizing you kinda left too soon and didn’t do the things you needed to do. You didn’t get to make up with your father; you didn’t get to let the ones that you love know that you love them. It’s kinda saying live in the moment and be the person you want to be now before it’s too late.

M Shadows

The person seems to have died young and when he reaches afterlife, he thinks about the family he has left behind that is crying for him. He longs to be with them again. He even feels that there are certain things that he wanted to accomplish but wasn’t able to do so.

The underlying message from the song is that life is short and one has a limited time period to accomplish the things that one intends to. It is basically saying that life is short and do the things that you want to do.

Song Review

Avenged Sevenfold performs Afterlife Live

Afterlife is quite an intense song. The heavy metal mixed with orchestration sounds really amazing. Synyster Gates does a great job with guitar solo too and M. Shadows hits the vocal notes perfectly.

If you like alternative rock or heavy metal then this song is one that you’ll definitely like. The rhythm is amazing and you don’t miss anything eithe in vocals or the guitar solo despite the song having so many instruments playing together. You really feel the emotion that they want to make you feel perfectly.

Definitely one of their best songs in my opinion. Let me know your opinions on the song in the comment section. Have fun take care.


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