Avenged Sevenfold at Mohegan Sun – March 21, 2024

For the first time in a dozen years, Avenged Sevenfold returned to Mohegan Sun on their “Life is but a Dream… Tour.” With support from Poppy and Sullivan King, the Connecticut audience filled the sold out arena on a cold Thursday night.

Avenged Sevenfold came out to a darkly lit stage, as frontman M. Shadows sang “Game Over” from a chair in the center of the stage, while wearing a ski mask. Besides just the first two songs of the show, a third of the band’s set came from last year’s Life is but a Dream… album. The album is a bit divisive among fans, as it’s a bit of a change in sound from the band’s catalog, but the fans in attendance seemed to react really strongly to the new material. Specifically, “We Love You” and “Nobody” both got huge responses.

In the latter half of the set, the band went back to the City of Evil album, and played “Blinded in Chains,” which they brought out this tour for the first time since 2006! As the song finished, Shadows said “Let’s just keep the album playing…” and they played the following track from the album, their breakout hit, “Bat Country.”

Among hits like “Nightmare,” “The Stage” and “Hail to the King,” a highlight for me was the return of Hail to the King‘s opening track, “Shepherd of Fire.” That song was always a highlight for me on the Hail to the King tour, and it’s great to see it back to the set. The only disappointing part is that the band isn’t currently using any pyro, or really any sort of stage production. The rear of the stage was surrounded in three dimensions by screens, with some very intricate visuals. Beyond the video, however, the stage is pretty barebones.

Hopefully Avenged will return to Mohegan in less than 12 years, because the performance the band gave did not leave the audience disappointed! Regardless of where you land on thoughts on their new album, there’s no denying the band puts on a solid performance.