My First A7X Analysis! Bass Teacher REACTS to "The Wicked End" - Avenged Sevenfold

[@Docthecowboyoperator]

Ah man no one ever reacts to this song. Whole City of Evil album is a masterpiece. Great video

[@treysword1443]

It’s still probably my favorite album of all time

[@MehMah83]

CoE is A7X at their peak.

[@brianplatte8748]

Save Me would be another great A7X bass track

[@jacobjaramillo3192]

I was just listening to that today. That song is a mastapiece 👨‍🍳

[@mburke0330]

What I came here to say! Johnny’s talent really shines through the intro! Love it!

[@sladelius6174]

Best song on Nightmare.

[@manoi8]

YES, another epic piece too

[@NataXano]

My favorite! 🖤

[@spoonerluv]

A7X is a band that has a few radio ready songs per album, and the rest are a deep exploration of their songwriting ability. This is one off my favorite songs of theirs, it's got everything.

[@HeFoundAgartha]

Perfectly said

[@ldmb1966]

My absolute favorite band. Love you're doing a deep cut rather than their typical hits. Their catalogue is as deep and expansive as it gets. would love to see you do something off their last two albums too! Thanks for this! And btw, after seeing them many times live, Johnny switches between pick and finger a lot depending on the song. Hard to tell for album recordings.

[@LowEndUniversity]

Thanks as well, appreciate you! Always down for some deep cuts. And yeah, the intro sounded sort of fingerstyle-ish to me, but hard to tell in heavier music a lot of the time. Cheers!

[@_WeDontKnow_]

Always enjoy seeing love for LIBAD. That album is amazing

[@Robhunter94]

What makes it even better is the fact that Johnny used an EMG81 guitar pickup in the neck position for that meaty ass tone 👌

[@kwakba]

The entire back half of City of Evil, in particular the trio of Sidewinder/The Wicked End/Strength of the World is what still draws me to this album after all these years. If you dug the interlude for The Wicked End, you'll definitely appreciate the directions the other two songs go in

[@LowEndUniversity]

Interesting! There are so many bands like A7X that I wrote off really early on, wish I hadn’t.

[@kwakba]

@@LowEndUniversity it happens, we have the power of hindsight and the internet now! Funnily enough, Trivium was the band from that time I wrote off and now I can't get enough of them.

[@jacobjaramillo3192]

That flamenco sounding guitar solo in sidewinder is one of my favorite solos.

[@flonkas]

The entire city of evil album is an absolute masterpiece. A7x at their peak. There will never be another album like it.

[@dellebelphine-moralez3510]

Johnny Christ is one of the most talented bassists of all time. Huge respect to that OG right here for sure

[@LowEndUniversity]

I need to explore more of their work!

[@dellebelphine-moralez3510]

@@LowEndUniversity true. I mean just by listening to some of his basslines (especially when I was new to bass), I can tell this dude is probably one crazy dude on the bass. Even watching your EMG live bass playthrough made me think you’re one of these crazy bassists with superpowers too (in case you couldn’t tell, aside from Johnny Christ, Arif Mirabdolbaghi, Dan Briggs, and Fieldy, you’re one of my idols for bass as well and y’all are crazy talented)

[@MasterOfTitties74]

Hes talented with songwriting for sure. He writes good complimentary licks to go with the guitar riffs buts doesn't mirror the rhythm guitar, kind of a lost art in modern metal

[@alexberube5269]

I'd say that's a bit of a stretch. He's a fine bassist but he's nowhere near an all time level

[@FamineWolf]

@@alexberube5269 yeah, agreed. He's great, but he's nowhere near the top tier. And that's fine, because I'm even farther away from top tier. lmfao

[@xerodelacroix5552]

Oh man, wait until you get to Life Is But A Dream..., this was Johnny self admittedly trying to keep up with Syn and Jimmy. Now their whole sound hinges on how tight of a player he is.

[@a7xdunc72]

More Avenged please! Sidewinder off the same album is also a good surprising song 😎

[@sephiroth7818]

@0:45 i'm 40 now and was into metalcore back then. I think City of Evil is their best sound and feel.

[@EatYourOwnBacon]

I used to not like his voice, a little too axl rose like- but still love it. I would die to hear these songs with matts current voice.

[@sephiroth7818]

@@EatYourOwnBacon there are two videos from the American tour from last year on my channel. Maybe poor quality but one of the videos is Nightmare.

[@snitchex5087]

why this band is my favourite is because they are never scared of trying new stuff, no matter audience likes it at first or not, that's why almost every album sounds different from each other, but when you listen to their songs from different albums you still can notice similarities that defines this band's sound and their uniqueness. this whole album is like this, very unexpected changes throughout the song, changes in tempo, choirs coming in and one word to describe this whole album is "epic", kinda like power metal meets symphonic metal, definitely suggest reacting to more songs from this album like: blinded in chains burn it down bat country beast and the harlot trashed and scattered sidewinder

[@Anewlevel0091]

This was Johnny's first album where he really learned how to create a solid bottom end. They talk about him working tirelessly with their producer Mudrock to really get things right in their all excess DVD. Such a talented band. Their newest album almost feels like a part 2 to this one honestly, all over the place in very controlled purposeful way.

[@edwardrummer]

Always loved johnnys bass tone on “Tension” , nice and clanky great interplay with the Rev , i think there’s even a sneaky slap riff before the chorus? Could be wrong though it’s been a while Great to see Johnny get some love in the channel though! 👏

[@_WeDontKnow_]

This was enjoyable from start to finish, was super cool watching you comfortably improvise with the song less than 20 minutes after first hearing it. Us mortals who lean on guitar tabs are impressed with what you do hahah

[@LowEndUniversity]

Aw, shucks man! Really appreciate you stopping by! 🙏🏼

[@doorkman13]

After their first album being 95% screaming and their second being about half, M. Shadows sing this kind of song is just crazy. I can definitely see why he wanted to do just singing, his voice was almost wasted by just screaming. It also takes major balls to go from heavy metal/metalcore into this album and be confident you can pull it off.

[@95_nishanraisulkarim62]

Favourite band❤ More A7x analysis please!

[@cjbrett89]

Holy crap someone actually did my favourite A7X song! Love this!

[@jeremy7383]

Johnny has a podcast. Would be cool to see you guys hook up!

[@LowEndUniversity]

I've heard about that from time to time, I'd love to!

[@jeremy7383]

@@LowEndUniversity @drinkswithjohnny !

[@aareeninccoc22423]

Avenged Sevenfold is one of the most talented metal bands in the modern era, Johnny Christ is an underrated bass guitarist, it's just like Greenday's Mike Dirnt that we don't really recognize that they're actually great bass players.

[@SlimJimJoey]

My dude. The Wicked End is an all time favorite of mine from Avenged. I’ll hit the subscribe, but I wanna see more love for Johnny C. I know I’m not the only one. 🤘🏼

[@arynirmalaart4938]

me too

[@deedsdilla]

This is a masterpiece, top a7x song for me. They haven't played it live since 05, there is no live videos of it on KZbin, which is a damn shame. Heres hoping they break it out someday like they did blinded in chains.

[@undertheinfluence1654]

There’s like 1 or 2!

[@deedsdilla]

@undertheinfluence1654 there's an audio and a very low quality video of like half the song. No full videos. If you know of one post that link!

[@Wilbur58]

Yesss I love any reaction or review of the wicked end

[@jeremy7383]

Growing up my bff showed me awaken the fallen and sounding the seventh trumpet which opened the floodgates to metal for me. Then city of evil came out and I was super turned off a7x from that point in 2004 or whatever it was. Until this year! I dove deep into the band and what they were and always wanted to be and now I’m kinda hooked honestly. The switch from metalcore to this album was tough but looking back you can see their trajectory. I have chewed through the whole discography and honestly the musicianship is awesome. Mix is always great too. Self titled and Nightmare are probably may favorite albums.

[@romannosov1791]

I love how you came up with a bassline almost out of the blue at 7:44. It fitted very well.

[@AtomizedSound]

Great band overall….Their latest album “Life Is But A Dream” is my favorite with all kinds of styles and influences on it, but still hits hard in areas the band is known for. Give it a listen if not, good bass lines on it too.

[@w122ArD]

Something off of Life is But a Dream would be cool. Love that album🔥

[@MikeNevill3]

That album is amazing

[@felps6072]

​@@w122ArD 1000% agreed

[@darthkso3745]

This whole album is epic

[@flonkas]

💯

[@flynnwatson5971]

This whole album has amazing melodic bass lines, had to transcribe them all for a college project

[@GameDevMadeEasy]

This was my absolute favorite song off this album from A7x. I am glad it is starting to get the love it undoubtedly deserves. I've actually been trying to learn this song using Rocksmith 2014 with the Ignition DLC mod. It is definitely a song on bass that is above my skill level with the instrument, but it has been instrumental with teaching me more about how to approach bass lines with songs. Edit: I see comments talking about Johnny's playing abilities. I remember reading an article or watching a documentary where Johnny talked about when he joined the band (Waking the Fallen album era) and he didn't really know how to play the bass for Unholy Confessions. If I remember correctly, when he joined the band, he really didn't know how to play the bass at the time. But if you listen to his bass lines from Waking the Fallen up to the current album, you can really see that he has put in the work and has become a master class bassist. I can't say for certain how much of the bass lines are written by him as the main composers for the band are Brian (Synyster Gates) and James (The Rev) RIP. I do remember in one of the documentaries that Matt (Singer) will come up with song part ideas, like the main riff from Scream, was all his idea. I don't know if their approach to composition has changed over the years, I'm pretty sure it has.

[@wehaveafax5798]

He definitely knew how to play bass. In the documentary they talk about him coming up to their garage and jamming Primus with the Rev.

[@GameDevMadeEasy]

@@wehaveafax5798 I guess I was wrong with that part of the story, I guess he only had the issue with figuring out what to play for Unholy Confessions.

[@chardeemacdennis3852]

My favorite song off an album of favorites

[@jprobertson-e1j]

For so reason, I used to overlook this track on the album when it came out, but you re-listening it in this video makes me really appreciate its dynamic nature.

[@Hazelteecs]

Their Song Gunslinger has Johnny doing some amazing stuff....best song for the bass to shine in my opinion..johnny out did himself

[@brysonrichey6707]

6:49 - He almost recreates Strobe by Deadmau5

[@andhedrewbees]

Great Video! It's nice to see Johnny getting his dues, as I feel the basslines of A7X are often overlooked. If you're interested in some other A7X basslines, I'd recommend "Scream" from their 2007 self titled album. A great and more groove focused track where Johnny lays down a solid rhythm.

[@Moocow3166]

This is one of my favorite songs. It's awesome seeing your reaction to it, feeling all the same things i do wherever i hear it

[@jamestown57]

Bat country was what turned me on to them

[@wjackter]

Bat Country has a great bass line

[@harrydbz123]

blinded in chains, the god trilogy, or mattel!!!

[@w122ArD]

The solo section in Nobody has a great bass line as well. Game over has great bass as well. Honestly the whole album has great bass and drums. Self-titled has great bass parts too.

[@ferdiantamanda59]

Don't forget "Save Me" too!!

[@barstowbear4232]

My favorite A7X song. Best guitar solo

[@megadeth8592]

easily their best album imo. Trivium has some cool bass stuff on songs like Becoming the Dragon and Torn between Scylla and Charybdis

[@puppetmaster8551]

2 of the best trivium songs ever, the ending of becoming the dragon is so fire

[@BattleBean762]

this was fantastic!! More Avenged please!!!!

[@plumblum2045]

This was amazing. Thanks for this deep cut. Such an underrated track, probably my favorite from them. Their latest album has some great bass lines if you wanna check it out as well.

[@LowEndUniversity]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@bobunitone]

My favorite track on City of Evil!

[@timetounwind9687]

Buried Alive & Save Me are two of my favorite songs to check out by Avenged Sevenfold.

[@PigglyWigglyDeluxe]

Playing this song is tricky as hell, I love playing it

[@jonniechrist]

I'm Jonnie Christ and I approve this message!

[@wesleystoughton7720]

This is my absolute favourite song of all time. Great video

[@LowEndUniversity]

Appreciate you!

[@musicdude0814]

Dude, you'll love some of their newer stuff. Specifically bass wise, the ending to Nobody, the beginning of We Love You, G, and the whole back half of (O)rdinary are all spectacular

[@langadubazana]

Great review! The bass intro does come back but in the guitars instead and it's harmonised. Straight after the interlude when they build up the energy 16:55 . Great compositional IQ!

[@patsgarage8593]

Man I haven't listened to these guys in ages!! Awesome!!

[@LowEndUniversity]

You and me both!

[@synysterj8990]

I love your knowledge about music and bass makes me proud to play bass thx for the great content!

[@LowEndUniversity]

My pleasure!

[@bASS227]

Blinded in Chains also has a great bassline

[@boocemaster5746]

another really neat tidbit about johnny he uses a guitar pickup in his basses which gives it that really trebleish tone

[@raphalbq]

please do more avenged sevenfold. Save me is a master piece.

[@a7thvengeancex]

Blinded in chains off the same album. Great bass riff in the bridge

[@FlopperExoo11]

i'm not a bass player bbut a drrummerr, and i have always been curious as to what the bass does during Avenged Sevenffold - brompton cocktail. maybe fun to do a video on that one or on Avenged Sevenfold - Wilde Ride or Sidewinder. very intrresting pieces of music. Love this vid keep it up!

[@LowEndUniversity]

Thanks for the suggestion!!

[@puppetmaster8551]

City of evil is a legendary record and this is an incredible song that does get a whole lot of attention, good stuff man

[@santi141414]

Johnny uses both, fingers and pick, on this one he's using fingerstyle. He is a really excellent bassist, his basslines are amazing. Two songs from A7X with awasome bass lines are Blinded in Chains and Save Me, please check more from them

[@raleighsantana9358]

just so you know, this Avenged Sevenfold review made me subscribe. all time favorite band. I love the way you were able to dissect the song. im not a bass player, I play the drums and piano, but I loved it. you should definitely do some more Avenged.

[@LowEndUniversity]

Thanks for the kind words, I plan to come back soon! I need to make up for my lost time with these guys.

[@ramawahyu7501]

I really like your videos bro, especially discussing and exploring songs from avenged sevenfold, more videos about avenged sevenfold bro, good job 😁👍🏻

[@ygortavares4685]

Waking the Fallen + City of Evil + Self Titled + Diamonds in The Rough + Nightmare. If you considere Hail To The King just as a tribute to the roots of metal ok, but all the albuns I've listed have a bunch of good songs and ideas. A7X is a great band with a lot of influences and every album feels different.

[@patricklosiniecki8503]

This whole album is covered in sick bass parts. They even said when recording it that it was going to be way more bass driven. I think he used like 9 basses to record this record. A Ric, acoustic, fretless jazz, P, an 8 string Schecter, and of course his Stingray, almong others. Dude is a bass wizard.

[@harrydbz123]

LETS FUCKING GOOOOO!!!

[@Scarz1991]

The early days Johnny did use a pick in Avenged. He started finger picking on the White album which came after City of Evil. And i think he might still use a pick on certain songs, but primarily finger picks now from clips of them live i’ve seen along with that Vr thing they did.

[@jameskuehl2963]

Would highly recommend Exist, very cinematic track and Johnny's got some great bass parts on there.

[@agilariadiasmoaji8523]

city of evil is truly a musical experience, call it a masterpiece

[@edwardmoisei]

tension has a great bass track

[@aaronangga12]

Save Me from Nightmare album is more Dream Theater-ish & please do react to it. ❤

[@delix787]

I will never understand why Johnny’s bass is always hidden in production and it’s been like that for years. 🫠

[@flonkas]

Not sure if you already have done it but blinded in chains has some incredible bass lines

[@edwinacosta1354]

Brompton Cocktail from the 2007 album also has a great bass line! Simple yet really gritty!

[@indigoiozzi]

Avenged Sevenfold has a lot of those "10 seconds of bass being upfront" moments, but the bass usually doesn't shine that much into the mix. One song that has a moment like this is Blinded In Chains, from the same album. Except this time is in the middle/near the end of the song

[@colonizetheocean]

old A7X had some epic endings, HUUUGE Avenged fan and while Waking The Fallen may be my fav album, their new stuff is still amazing.

[@Eagle-vd7yq]

You should check blinded in chains it has cool bass lines. And if you like trivium you should check bullet for my valentine. Edit: if you happen to check out bullet for my valentine I suggest the songs "under again" and "I can't escape the waves".

[@bava67]

Have you heard of The Bouncing Souls by any chance? Maybe check them out. True Believers would be a good song to start with

[@LoSTRaMaiR]

You played like 2 notes that reminded me of part of a Less Than Jake song (Gainesville Rock City) and I was going to recommend them but then I remembered that you mentioned you were already familiar Edit: around 18:00 Edit 2: I wasn’t necessarily going to recommend Gainesville Rock City. LTJ / NOFX were my favorite bands growing up. A7X is nowadays and in the past couple years I fell in love with this album and this song

[@parh_tv]

A song from them called Sidewinder would be difficult bass line

[@flonkas]

Man. I love how you shouted out trivium. The crusade is my favorite trivium album.

[@LowEndUniversity]

Mine too! By far.

[@diabeticmonkey]

@@LowEndUniversity Y'all two are some of the only people I've seen say that. It was a great album but can't say it's my personal favorite.

[@LowEndUniversity]

Yeah, I also eventually realized how uncommon it is, haha. It just came at the perfect time in my life when I was getting into modern metal, preferred my vocals clean, but was warming up to the idea of harsher styles, really liked The Black Album...and then a friend gave me The Crusade. It was just what I needed to hear right then, and it's one of the albums I credit for warming me up to screaming styles. Had I first heard "Ascendancy", I probably would've written the band off immediately. It's sort of what happened with A7X, in a way. Nowadays, I usually pull up "Ascendancy" or "Shogun" first over any others, but "The Crusade" is still up there and in regular rotation when I'm in the mood for metal.

[@flonkas]

@@diabeticmonkey i have a similar story as him! It just happened to come into my life at the right time when I was transitioning to heavier music but still wanted awesome melodies. I hold onto that album because it's my introduction to them and irs what made me a fan.

[@outlawwarriorjr2777]

More often than not, up until 2006 Johnny mainly played with a pick. As the story goes, A7X was on tour with Metallica in 06 and Johnny was captivated by Robert’s tone from playing with his fingers.

[@ChristopherLacy-e9h]

Suggestions for future videos, pushit by tool, eulogy by tool, H by tool, got the time by anthrax, blind by Korn, usung by helmet,

[@alamson20]

You would love Prayer position-periphery bass playthrough

[@LowEndUniversity]

Actually doing that one soon!

[@bassplayer2011ify]

Oh and the entire band are huge Oingo Boingo fans. So expect anything and everything.

[@PigglyWigglyDeluxe]

6:21 yep that’s a E flat, which goes against the whole D minor vibe. That Eb and a Db and Ab really make the song way more interesting because otherwise it would be a plain D minor. The whole record is like that

[@tunizra]

Thank you lyle rath

[@Osoch]

If you haven't done yet, check out Nuclear Power Trio

[@linktechjjb]

I keep hoping that enough Coheed and Cambria fans request songs to get you to look at Zach Cooper. My recommendation is The Joke. Killer bass line.

[@UnknownUserX75]

Would you mind explaining bass line in Mudvayne - Severed. Sorry I'm a bass newb

[@skipadbutton7526]

You could do every A7X song and I’d watch every video

[@LowEndUniversity]

I’ll be back to them! Don’t worry! 😎

[@flynnwatson5971]

9:52 he pedalled on the Dm for the first 2 bars instead of following the usual progression

[@pvtnewb]

I think they went hard on their bass on HTTK, but their basswork since CoE has been excellent

[@cream_cheesedapex1658]

Very enjoyable watch would love to see you react to save me by them

[@LowEndUniversity]

Thanks, I plan on it!

[@ludwigvanpeterson]

I went the Gallien-Krueger route because of Johnny. This one made me happy. 🤘🏼

[@LowEndUniversity]

I played GK for sooo many years. It’s probably the first brand I’ll go back to if I ever don’t run direct on stage. Cheers!

[@dingleberryhandpump802]

If you want bass sweeping check out Your Treachery Will Die With You by Dying Fetus. Sean Beasley is just unreal!

[@mendronesg]

their deep cuts always get the cake, at least for me.

[@Naetamus]

Check out Rivers Nihil, where owls know my name or A Home

[@sinichikudo9567]

Strenght of the world please😊

[@sladelius6174]

Johnny Christ doesn't get enough credit, honestly. Man is a monster.

[@joshnoe5523]

Also, he normally picks. But, he can do and does do many different styles

[@fharidvalencia2068]

It's like an overture but reversed, almost like a wicked end, hell yeah

[@hansfredin5812]

Mendez from Opeth made a play video from a tune from Opets new album great stuff😂

[@mmmfungus]

PLEASE do G off of their newest album Life Is But A Dream, the bass is super weird and cool and almost early dream theatre like