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Avenged Sevenfold 3/21/24
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Written & Edited By Camera Trixy(Daneille Blanchette)  &  Lady Rose (Christina Blardo)

Avenged Sevenfold At Mohegan Sun 3/21/24

Hailing To “Life Is But A Dream Tour”

Life Is But A Dream Review

   The Avenged  Sevenfold,  “Life Is But A Dream" tour held at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville 3/21/2024 was anything but an ordinary concert night out . This was personal for me, I have been a fan since day one and still stand solid on my passion for this band’s sound,  & all they represent.

   

   I know this is supposed to be a review about the band 's concert but a little back story on how we all including Metal Fortress Radio got to this show is fitting with the name of the tour in some ironic way. Let me first explain what led up to this emotional day with my friends and the feeling while watching the show and its spectacular production.

   I had a close friend bring me years ago, on our first and only date to Avenged Sevenfold and when I first met him he was wearing this gray cut off Avenged Sevenfold vest, looking like the singer M Shadows, himself. His name was Frank Morin who was in a Connecticut based  band called Enemy Remains. It turns out Frank was the biggest Avenged fan I have ever met. When you watch Frank’s performances in any video with Enemy you can surely realize Frank studied “M Shadows” closely with his moves and presentation of a singer with his own twist of M Shadow’s vocal styles in which Frank literally idolized him for.

   Frank  ended up passing away with an Overdose in July 2023 unexpectedly which left his bandmates and family in shock, the band will honor Frank  & raise mental awareness by releasing the last track Frank sang & recorded coming this summer. Before Frank died, Frank gave me his vest to keep as  it was an honor receiving such an item just like the girlfriend with the high school jacket from her boyfriend. I held onto it  dearly in hopes I would be able to someday photograph Avenged wearing it.

 The decision to give it to his sister the day of Avenged was only fitting ,she has had a lot of death of her family surrounding her and being that this was Frank’s favorite band it was an honor to carry on Frank's legacy. She will now be included in the band  Enemy Remains writing of their songs and hopefully sing on tracks in the near future. The experience of this was surreal. As I got to the casino arena I met them all outside the merch area where they showed me the major purchases of many items from the band. I walked up and surprised her with the vest knowing it wasn’t my final goodbye and I would see his vest in the band room someday at practice or a meeting. I’m sure it was in the right hands, I was supposed to shoot the band that night and I had opted out the day before for personal reasons.  I just didn’t believe I deserved it as I felt guilty for Frank and I parting ways when he couldn’t handle the loss of his mother ‘s passing. I was at a loss still without Frank being alive here to share this experience today.      

   Fortress’s Tommy The Beast, also Enemy Remains core member and  lead guitarist, one of Frank's best friends, would take the reins of the photo pit. We worked together as a unit  looking at the best ways to take the photos, how he would stand and where to take the perfect photos. I handed him my beloved Nikon camera for the night, guaranteeing we could get solid shots of the band and M Shadows . We all walked into the Arena watching how many seats were full. It was for sure a sold out show. Everybody took their seats while Tommy left for the pit front and center. I couldn’t help but notice Frank’s friends were all together excited to see what he always told them was a sure honor of a band. Many tears began to fall as the show started the feeling that Frank’s spirit was for sure felt.

  Avenge’s production on stage had these massive LED displays with intricate moving parts within the screen displays almost making it look three dimensional watching as it played along with familiar tracks from the famous “Nightmare” album, “Nightmare” the entire crowd would start the song in melodic unison while the melody played  loud to M Shadows. The screens behind the band changed their formation to skulls and reaped a sick intense view from the pits. “Hail To The King '' was a kind of dark nightmare itself projecting onto these massive screens and just luring you into its madness almost exactly like a bad trip.  The new tracks off of “Life Is But A Dream '' album were reassessed for the older fans, these are not the typical melodic dramatic sounds as they were used to, it was much more instrumental and in depth letting your imagination do the rest where lyrics were absent. A sudden healing as you will, came over us all , maybe that's where music when changed sees a different perspective. You could feel the intensity and the drops of the highs and the euphoric notes coming from Synyster Gates guitar riffs. You would have thought  it was a weekend with an absolute release as I looked at my now family watching the band on stage. You look around the place and see other bonding and shedding of tears over our lost friend, a memory of those who couldn’t be with us. It was as if we were fulfilling our fallen comrade’s dreams, this rang true the statement of the tour “Life Is But A Dream”.

The following day as we said our goodbyes and reflected with friends still hyped about the concert, we parted ways, while Beast and Lady Rose stayed another day. I would receive a call from her excitedly while crying.  Our own Lady Rose of Fortress Radio had bumped into M Shadows not realizing who he was. She sat down to play a casino table next to a guy with the mullet looking similar to how Frank wore his. It kinda spooked her as it reminded her of Frank. Little did she know she was playing with M Shadows himself. For hours they talked and played a friendly game, she didn’t even know it was him as she said I don’t know much about the band just knowing all the times Frank talked of the band. She said we do play them on the station. She loved the music but wasn’t high strung about them like Frank was. Frank always ranked her about it. It was only after Frank’s passing she began diving into his interests, checking them out.  She would religiously listen to their albums, she even has their very first album that was Frank’s. She has never seen or met them in person so it was but a strike of luck or maybe a little push from the other side to put these two together. At one point she mentioned that Tommy said when he glanced back at the both of them  he said it looked like his singer and Chrissy were together again talking high fiving each other, that he choked up seeing this again.  Miracles do happen Lady Rose sat and shared memories of her singer with Frank's idol. It was as if Frank pulled strings from heaven to make this meeting happen.

  If you're an Avenged  Sevenfold fan then you know the years of ups and downs with this band, their own tragedies and triumphs pushing along to keep striving all they have endured themselves.  It didn’t dawn on Lady Rose their own loss too until she came home reading more about it. What are the chances that maybe a drummer from Avenge and a singer from Enemy would bring two people together to remind themselves that life is just a dream…

Photo: Drumeo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=bt3BuTnmzN0          Photo: Friskette Photos:Frank Morin of Enemy Remains 2017

  The passion that not only drives these musicians to keep producing incredibly relevant and just beautiful music is also  that which helps heal the most broken of souls drive you to be in one with their music.  Then you know their shows are never a disappointment because it’s Avenged.