For the sixth installment of Avenged Sevenfold's "Breakdown" series, M. Shadows and Synyster Gates take on the band's sweeping, ballad-like song "Acid Rain," the closing track from their 2013 effort Hail to the King. Beginning with "a rumble," the cut is a melodic ode that draws influence from artists such as Tom Petty and Elton John. As Shadows explains, the song also plays off of "Planets," the track before it on the LP, which is about the destruction of the universe, while "Acid Rain" is "basically the love song watching it all fall apart."
The song notably features a live string section — Shadows says the band "felt that the real players bring something really organic and special to the performance." He also points out his favorite vocal part in the song, in which his trailing voice was treated with an effect that makes it sound like it is quietly taking off into space, similar to an effect used in Elton John's "Rocket Man."
Gates calls back a standard in classical music, composer Gustav Holst's "Mars, The Bringer of War," which has inspired countless metal artists, including Toni Iommi when he lifted a section of the piece for the famous "Black Sabbath" riff that helped launch the entire metal genre. The A7X guitarist ends the "Breakdown" video with a cheeky shrug, saying, "Yeah, really cool experience."
