Falling into Flight — Avenged Sevenfold’s “Life Is But a Dream” Explained

This is a reflection, not a review. I unpack Avenged Sevenfold’s Life Is But a Dream… as a spiritual journey—from the plastic sheen of consumerism to ego dissolving into loving awareness, with grief and wonder braided through the whole.

What’s inside:
• “Game Over” → the frantic script of modern life and the hunger that turns us home
• “Mattel” → masks, veneers, and the ache for something real
• “Nobody” → nonduality, ocean-and-wave, the courage to let go
• “We Love You” → satire of endless desire, profit, performance
• “Cosmic” → love set to music; loss, memory, and the great return
• “Life Is But a Dream” → the quiet piano coda that leaves the door open

Along the way: Ram Dass’ “I am loving awareness,” Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Please Call Me by My True Names,” the Book of Job’s posture toward loss, plus threads from Proverbs/Isaiah and the Dao De Jing. Themes: Christian mysticism, Buddhist no-self, silence as practice, and living sincerely without taking life so heavily. 

If you only have time for one track, start with “Cosmic.” Bring tissues. 

If the episode resonates, please follow/subscribe, rate, and share. Say hi on Instagram! @standing.nowhere

Notes: brief lyric excerpts are used for commentary and spiritual reflection (fair use). All credit to Avenged Sevenfold and the artists involved.

Chapters

• 0:48 Reflection, Not Review (Album Frame)
• 1:22 Game Over Begins (Album Overture)
• 7:42 Turning Within — Come Home
• 8:06 Mattel Plastic Veneer (Consumer Masks)
• 9:44 Nobody And No-Self (One Fabric)
• 17:31 We Love You (Desire Engine)
• 21:38 Cosmic (Love Set to Music)
• 32:16 Life Is But a Dream (Coda And Blessing)

Transcript

Jacob: 0:01

But then it just explodes. It's the feeling of love. It's it's all the joys and all the sorrows wrapped up into this glorious explosion of music. And it's I think it's that part that really hits people hard. It almost sounds like there's angels singing in this song. It's just beautifully all melded together. Today's uh episode number seven. And this is not going to be a review, but it's going to be a reflection on a piece of art that I really love. And it's a record by uh Venge Sevenfold. It's called Life is But a Dream. And uh even if you don't like the band or this album or if you never listened to it, you're still gonna get a lot out of this episode. The first thing I want to say, a little disclaimer, uh the episode includes short lyrical excerpts from Avenge Sevenfold's Life is But a Dream album. And this is shared for spiritual reflection and commentary. It falls under fair use, and of course, all credit to the band. This record is a piece of art. Um the first track kind of sets the tone for the album. It's almost like an overture. It's only about three minutes. It's called Game Over. And it's kind of like when the script of life starts to lose its flavor. And um the I don't want you, when you first hear the first track, I don't want you to think that the whole album is gonna sound like the franticness in the first song. The first song kind of starts with a poignant, almost sad, um, but beautiful and innocent guitar. I think it's a like a classical guitar with nylon strings. And by the way, Aveng Sevenfold, I'm not gonna talk too much about the band themselves, but they're all really virtuosos of their instruments. They're considered progressive because they like to push the boundaries. And this album is one of those albums that pushes the boundaries of music. It's not something that you've really heard before. Um, they're trying they try to go to new places with it. And there's one song in particular that really taps into the magic and spirit of life. And I recommend having a box of Kleenex uh next to you uh when you get to that track. And I'll tell you what that track is when it's time for it. But this first track, Game Over, it it starts out with that beautiful guitar and then it gets really intense and in your face and really quick. And if you don't have the lyrics pulled up, it's easy to not really understand what he's saying. But it's designed that way because it's simulating how you start out as this innocent baby in life, and then life comes at you like a machine gun. And the lyric the first couple of lyrics says uh open, blurry, nurture, loving, crawling, walking, fleeting, glory, ally, teacher, recess, buddy. This daytime TV satisfies. And then it goes into like a little mantra where he's like, um, and and the way he even sings it, he's like, as it may, as it may, as it may, over and over again, kind of simul uh pointing to, you know, this is life, this is life, this is life, I can deal, I can deal. But then he goes into this really poetic lyric where he says, days are fine and come on time, but years leave with nothing to find. And this kind of points to how like I was mentioning earlier, the the flavor of life, it's like the bubblegum kind of loses its flavor a little bit when you're looking for that ultimate satisfaction in the material, in the external. You can't quite put your finger on it yet. But then it continues after that little melodic vocal part, it goes right back into the intense part, and you hear uh him scream in the microphone like wake up, changes, hormones, high school, threesome, roll call, study, license, freedom, questions, doubtful, wedding, family, happy ever after, dead end. And that points to like how in life we're groomed to uh you know get to school, kindergarten, and then in first grade, second grade, move all the way up to graduate high school, now I've got to get it, go to college or get a job, and then you get married, and it's like now what? You get to that point where you're like, now what? And that's where a lot of people reach that midlife crisis. And the band, they were in their 40s too when they dropped this album, so you can tell that they've got some dirt under their fingernails, you know, they've got some experience under their belt, and they're they're singing about it. And then uh the lyrics continue. The best is part of waking up, uh kind of pointing to um the slogans we hear in advertisements, and we try to find meaning in um the mundane. There's the lyric mundane ideation, how half the time you you meet people, it's almost like, oh, I'm into that show too. You know, a lot of common interests in consumer things are what connect us these days, which is okay. You know, it's okay to have similar hobbies, but when we find our identity in the material, that's where problems can start to arise, trying to find meaning in a consumer world. Um, and then he goes back into the mantra, as it may, as it may, as it may. And then uh the the last part of the song is where it starts to get a little sad. And and you can tell the protagonist, who is us, starts to reflect on life. And the lyrics say, Days they come and days they go, until no more days set you free. Well, on my way, my way to lose me. This uh this album is very poetic. Though even just reading the lyrics without music, it's very poetic. And then he says, It strikes me that I don't belong here anymore. As I observe my own reflection, try a happy face, staring through the warm tears, a sad frown from the cold years, adieu. And it the end of this song almost makes it seem like uh literal suicide. But and my son and I have had conversations about this where initially it seems like somebody is hanging themselves because there's there's lyrics about throwing a rope over a tree. But I think it's metaphorical, and you'll I I think you'll agree with me. This is my interpretation, and of course, music is open to your interpretation, but the whole album is about losing yourself, kind of turning within, going inwards. And it's not necessarily about uh actually killing your body, but the idea of yourself. Uh, there's a line where it says, I hang now from my family tree, uh, which kind of points to the uh death of the idea of yourself uh in in a lineage. The Hebrew there's a Hebrew word called uh or it's it's shuv, and that's the original Hebrew word for repent, which means to turn back or to return, to come home. That's what it literally means. Today repent means um we we look at it as guilt or self-condemnation, begging for forgiveness. But the original meaning, if you ever read the Hebrew word shuv in the as it was written in the Bible, is about turning within, going inwards. And Jesus had a parable about this with the prodigal son, where he took his inheritance and went out into the world and lived it up. And there's a part in the parable where he says, quote, uh, but when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare? But here I am dying of hunger. And this hunger is not just for food, you know, it's for meaning, connection, belonging. And then uh he says, I don't belong here anymore. And that's the turning point where the hunger kind of becomes a compass. So this this album is very spiritual. And the point of this song, in my opinion, is that no matter what's happening, you can just always stop and breathe and cultivate that silence just where you are. And uh, like the Quakers say, you can follow that still small voice that says, come home. And uh when it transitions in the next track, which is called Mattel, it's interesting. Uh, you know, game over kind of sets the tone for the album. And Mattel, uh, it's it's this song is called Mattel because it's like the toy company and how there's a pl almost a plastic veneer or nature to our consumerist society. All the things that the character in the first song is not finding satisfaction in, they kind of elaborate on that. The opening lyrics of Mattel, uh, they they speak of vinyl skin, plastic bones, cast button eyes reflecting an image. Everything seems like it should, but nobody's actually home. Like we're all wearing masks. Uh, we have a false enthusiasm for the jobs we have, the positions we have in life, because they're not ultimately satisfying, at least for the most of us. And the lyrics, uh, they talk about like our neighborhoods. It says, uh, quote, cue the breeze that sway the painted trees, toy yellow birds upon the rooftop sing in chorus with the buzzing bees, melt in sun, LED beams from the sky being held on a string, while boredom tears me apart at the seams. Now I know this might sound crazy, but I've smelled the plastic daisies, and it seems we've found ourselves in hell. And that part hell uh is screamed into the microphone by the bassist, which to me evokes the idea of our soul desperately crying out for something real. Everything looks nice, but we're crying out for something authentic, genuine. So it goes from this material track of Mattel and it transitions into the next track, which is called Nobody. And this is all about the idea that there is no uh separate individual self cut off from the whole. Again, our whole society these days is hyper-individualistic. You know, if you're successful, it's because you did something right. If you're not, it's because you did something wrong. So the opening lyrics in this song say ride in the shadows, wandering beyond the frame, float like a feather through space and time, outside a dream, pirouette within with divinity in a dance we've shared before. And I love that line because pirouette obviously is uh is like a dancing type thing. And in uh the Hindu cosmology, they look at um life as a divine play, like God is having fun, um, you know, playing all the parts at once. Uh there's the the idea of the Atman inside you, which is connected to the Brahman. And of course, these are concepts, but it's a conceptual, a beautiful conceptual model of looking at the universe and yourself. The universe essentially is not serious, that it's it's sincere, but it's not serious. Uh, there's quotes from uh the Upanishads in the Hindu tradition, uh, like, quote, the Lord's pastime, Leela, are for delight, not from obligation. Having further increased his spiritual understanding, uh, Brigu realized Brahman as spiritual bliss. From this supreme source of spiritual bliss, all beings arise. By this supreme source of bliss, they live, and at death they return to the same supreme source of bliss. And there's also a line in the book of Proverbs written by Solomon in the Hebrew tradition that points to this idea that life is essentially playful. I mean, you could just look at your kids and realize that. I mean, they're they're closest to the nature of uh human nature and reality, the nature of reality, and kids love to play. Uh there's a quote from Proverbs that says, Then I was beside him, like a master worker, and I was daily his delight, playing before him always, playing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race. And that word playing, it was a little too playful for the Catholic Church when they translated this, especially in the King James, so they changed it to rejoicing. But the original Hebrew word was playing. It means laughing or frolicking, just having a good time, not taking things so seriously, sincerely, but not seriously. Serious is heavy. You know, life is not meant to be looked at as this serious, dreadful drag that we have to get through. And it really embodies that. And then the lyrics continue in this song. It says, uh someone disillusion. This is I am all as I am none. Here we fly so high, there's no I, no coming down. And this points to the fact that all measurement is illusion. Again, the wave is not separate from the ocean. And the character in this song realizes that and experiences that bliss, that freedom. And the lyrics continue saying, return to the boundless, immerse in the free, letting go as you lose your name and all you've known to be. And it's intimidating to let go. You know, your ego wants to hold on to its identity. The ego is uh, there's a there's a quote that I love the ego or the intellect is a wonderful tool, but it's a terrible master, and it is terrified of letting go of its identity. And there's a quote from Osho. I uh I took too large of a quote from him, so I'll just paraphrase. He says, Everybody is afraid of being nobody. Only very rare and extraordinary people are not afraid of being nobody. A Buddha is needed to be a nobody, meaning you have to really wake up. And he says, a nobody is not an ordinary phenomenon. It is one of the greatest experiences in life that you are and still you are not, that you are just pure existence with no name, with no address, with no boundaries, neither a sinner nor a saint, neither inferior nor superior, just a silence. It reminds me of that uh quote from St. John of the Cross God's first language was silence. And uh the last thing Osho says in that long quote, which I'll just cut out here, he says, Be absolutely nobody, and you are one with existence itself. And I thought that was perfect. This is so reflected in this song. I hope you guys listen to this whole album, especially this song. It really points to your connectedness. In the West, we view um the idea of no-self in a kind of a scary way. We we th we feel like we're gonna disappear or something, or that our stream of consciousness will end after death. And that is not what Buddhism teaches, that is not what Christianity, you know, any spiritual tradition will always say that you you continue on. And um, the idea of no-self or emptiness, the the way to look at that from a Western perspective is that you're erasing the imaginary outline around your skin where you think that what's inside your skin is separate from what's outside. So if you erase that imaginary barrier, you suddenly see that you are part of this huge tapestry that's all one thing happening. And the lyrics continue. There's a part where all the music cuts out, and all you hear is the lead singer kind of harmonizing with himself, similar to uh Freddie Mercury, like in in uh Bohemian Rhapsody, and he says, I see, I see, I see, and then it just cuts to silence, and he says, Nobody. And then it continues, and he says, Breathe in the silence, ebb and flow among the waves, blur on the spectrum, in light come dark, and equal phase. And this points to that everything goes together. It's all part of one fabric. Like I've mentioned in past episodes, you can't have up without down, you cannot have uh soft without hard, you cannot have uh light without dark, or vice versa, and uh, you can't have self without other. There's a there's a quote on this that I really love that I wanted to bring up on this note, and it says, quote, He who knows not that the prince of darkness is but the other face of the king of light knows not me. Man, that hits you hard. Uh it's also in the Bible, too. If you read from the prophet Isaiah, it says, quote, I form light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity. I, Yahweh, do all these things. Some Christians in the West today, the way they interpret the Bible, they don't know how to understand that. They don't know how to take that. And you'll hear apologists try to um explain that away. But Isaiah the prophet, he is saying, Look, everything is Yahweh, which that name means to be, to exist, I am, being itself. All being has this polarity that we perceive in the human mind, you know, up from down, black from white, good from evil, you know, etc. Now, after this song Nobody, it's really interesting because it dives back into the material realm. But instead of Mattel, which zooms in kind of on the individual perspective and how it affects you, uh, We Love You is kind of a zoomed-out perspective on the whole system. And there's kind of like three elements to this song. It blends sarcasm and insincere flattery uh to highlight the horrific truth of endless desire, blind profit, and the frantic doing of modern life all the way up until you die. And it's kind of like uh, well, let's jump into some of the lyrics. It starts out really weird. So when you first put this song on, you're gonna be like, what am I listening to? And these lyrics are designed to evoke that feeling in you on purpose, because it's it's it's pointing to how corporations tell you that they really appreciate you and that they love you, or even from the consumer end, not necessarily the employee end, but even the consumer, you're told that you're special, that you're a unique snowflake, that you deserve uh this and that. So the lyrics open, there you are, you've come so far, sunny days, the air tastes so sweet, flowers greet, birds will sing, you mean everything. You can be anything. And it's right when it when he's when he says you can be anything, it it's just it sounds so ridiculous, and then it just cuts out. And it goes into the next part of the track, but it it this points to our hyper-individualism, you know, that you're a unique snowflake, uh, success or failure is your own doing. And right when the lyrics cut out in the beginning, you hear this just the bass and the drum, just doom, doom, doom, doom, like a machine. And it jumps into what's underneath that false veneer, uh, like it points to in the beginning of the song. What's underneath that falseness, it says more power, more pace, more money, more taste, more sex, more pills, more skin, more shills. This points to the amplifying of our desires, stoking the flame of your wants. And as they say in Buddhism, it's desire that creates suffering because you're kind of bent forward out of your position, that you want something you don't have or you don't want something you do have. Essentially, you're not standing directly over your feet, right where you are, appreciating what you have. You want something else, or you don't want something you have. And it also points to the fact that everyone's obsessed with their image. You know, when I went to the gym, uh if you go to the gym, you see that everywhere. Guys taking picture of themselves in the mirror. It's good to go there to get healthy, but you can see the egoism that's baked into our system, you know, more power, more pills, this and that, more sex. Uh, the song transitions uh after that into uh another sarcastic part where it's like, it's like, uh, you know, you're great. Um, let me see if I can find the lyric for it here. Here it is. Yeah, just like in the intro, it kind of transitions into uh, you know, you're great, look at the way you've uh been handling yourself. Um we love you. And and the we love you is sarcasm. And then it goes right back into the system again. More power, more performance, you know. And the end of this track, it concludes with the most poignant and sad and haunting guitar and vocals. It's just this simple strumming of a guitar, the saddest guitar you've ever heard playing by itself, and these these haunting vocals behind it. You know, it it ends with the uh we love you, we love you, we love you, and the sad guitar comes up behind it, and it just makes you reflect. Man, it hits you in the feels. And speaking of hitting you in the feels, the next song that I'm gonna talk about on this album is cosmic, and it is the jewel in the center of the lotus of this album. It is, I can only describe this song as love set to music, you know, all the joys and sorrows of life that are bound into love, they're woven into this great cosmic dance, and it's reflected so well in this song. And this is the song that you must hear. If you listen to none of this album, this song you must listen to because you will hear people you have lost speaking to you from this song, you will hear parts of your soul speaking to you, you will hear the universe itself speaking to you through this song. This song is a miracle, it is the most important song I've ever heard in my life, and I put it at the top, and it's always hard to say this is my favorite song or this is my favorite album, but this one it's hard to find it's it's a meditation. This whole album is a meditation. The lyrics to this song open to fade from all that was before. We shut another door, but not a last goodbye. Fate has taken once again a fight will never win, and time again we try. We can't escape from these rhythms of life, you know, this this divine pulse, the sacred pulse beneath it all, the rise, the fall. But we can learn to dance with them, to move with grace, not resistance. And that happens in silence. You know, but uh in the book of Job, uh in the Bible, which is a very profound book, a wisdom book, all about suffering, there's a simple little line from Job after he's lost everything, and it's this attitude that we all need to hold. It says, Yahweh gives and Yahweh takes. Praise be to Yahweh. And again, I always like to remind you guys, Yahweh, if you don't want to imagine a personified God, remember Yahweh, the Hebrew names have deep meaning, and that name means to be. So you're being, you are going to experience giving and taking. And you've got to be with it, and you've got to love it either way. When it takes something from you, you gotta love it, you know. It's hard to do that. Uh the lyrics continue. Pain. It found its way back in until we meet again, into that good night, none too far, as we chase through the stars beyond forever. I'll follow you. In the middle of the song, after the lyrics I've read you, there's a guitar solo that I can only describe as the dance of the universe, the dance of life. It it crescendos in ways that I can't even imagine how you'd play this on the guitar. And it it it sounds like the big bang, it sounds like just everything, and it fades away and it introduces a very soothing piano melody with almost what you would call a mantra reminding us that we are in everything. Our loved ones are within us, speaking back to us when we get quiet and we listen. And I want to read that next part to you. This is these are the lyrics that are sung over the uh piano, and it oh, it's so good. It says, Dancing in the wind as roses born again, there you'll find me. Before the dawn of man, in castles made of sand, there you'll find me. Riding in the caves as fire lights the way, there you'll find me. Mask of royal glow, dawn in Pharaoh's clothes, there you'll find me. Let it go. Rings of dust and ice, weightless in the night, there you'll find me. Let it go. And after that beautiful uh piano and those lyrics that I've just read you, this it's kind of like the center point of the song where it it collapses into this little innocent, beautiful little um I don't even know how to describe the sounds, but then it just explodes. And the explosion I can only describe as love. It's the feeling of love, it's it's all the joys and all the sorrows wrapped up into this glorious explosion of music. And it's I think it's that part that really hits people hard. It almost sounds like there's angels singing in this song. It's just beautifully all melded together. You can just you can you can imagine uh all the sorrows and joys in life wrapped up into this moment when it when it explodes and you hear these these to me sounds like angels. And then the song kind of continues and it and it it almost starts from the middle and works its way back out again. Like the song stout starts from the outside and works its way to the middle, and then the middle works its way back out, and the lyrics reflect that in kind of a mirror, and the way they're sung, it's almost like that person you lost is singing back to you, like a voice from the other side, and and it harmonizes with the original lyrics and melody, but it changes the melody just a little bit in the way it sings. It really encaptures the dance or the ebb and flow of life. And uh the lyrics say um you know the same thing that I read to read to you before, and they they say at the end, um, I'm gone, I'm gone, I'm gone. You know, that you can't hold on. You appreciate it while it's here, you mourn it when it's gone, but that's just life. And but there's a poem by Tik Not Han that I would love to read to you guys that this song really reminds me of. It's called Please Call Me by My True Names. And this one hits hard. So keep the Kleenex nearby. It says, Don't say that I will depart tomorrow. Even today I am still arriving. Look deeply at every second I am arriving. To be a bud on a spring branch, to be a tiny bird with still fragile wings, learning to sing in my new nest, to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone. I still arrive in order to laugh and to cry, to fear and to hope. The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death of all that is alive. I am a mayfly metamorphosizing on the surface of the river. I am the bird that swoops down to swallow the mayfly. I am a frog swimming happily in the clear water of a pond, and I am the grass snake that silently feeds itself on the frog. I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones. My legs are as thin as bamboo sticks, and I am the arms merchant selling deadly weapons to Uganda. I am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat, who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate. And I am I am also the pirate. My heart not yet capable of seeing and loving. I am a member of the Politburo with plenty of power in my hands. And I am the man who has to pay his debt of blood to my people, dying slowly in a forced labor camp. My joy is like spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom all over the earth. My pain is like a river of tears, so vast it fills the four oceans. Please call me by my true names, so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once, so I can see that my joy and pain are one. Please call me by my true names, so I can wake up, and the door of my heart could be left open, the door of compassion. And that's from Zen Master uh Tiknadhan. You know, if you guys have ever wondered what Buddhism was all about, that poem, that that's an that just hits it. Um Ramdas, who I've mentioned before, major inspiration in my life, uh, he actually has a a mantra which is on this album art. If you get the vinyl edition, uh Ramdas had a has a mantra where he says, I am loving awareness, I am loving awareness, and they put that on the back of the album. So you can see they pulled from a lot of different um sources. And I didn't have time to touch on all of them, but um on this note of flying away and letting go of the ego, uh, Ramdas once compared surrendering your ego uh or intellect to jumping out of an airplane because it's scary. And uh he says on the way down, you realize you forgot your parachute. And then a little way further, you realize there's no ground. It's just falling. You know, at first it's it's terrifying, and then halfway down, there's no parachute, and then there's no ground. It's this moment of leaping into the unknown. It's not the end, it's actually the beginning. It's making all things new. You're not falling, you're flying. And that's what it feels like. I've I've touched on this in other episodes, I think episode four, where the more you cultivate mindfulness and continuity of mindfulness throughout your day, it does feel a little bit like you're floating, maybe like you're falling sometimes because your brain is not gripping every moment in thought. You're actually experiencing life. There's one last track, which is the title track of the album, Life is But a Dream, and it leaves a little ellipsis at the end, like, oh, what's next? And it's just a little poignant closing melody on the piano. And the piano is played by the none other than the lead guitarist, Sinister Gates. And it's a very mysterious melody. It signifies like the end of the album, but it also has uh joy and sorrow kind of wrapped into it. And it's really interesting because the very last um chord he plays the highest and the lowest note on the piano at the same time, kind of symbolizing it's all one thing, you know. And before we wrap up this episode, guys, I want to say thank you. I don't know how long this episode's gone, but if you've stuck through all of it, thank you so much. I hope you enjoy the album if you listen to it. It's life is but a dream. It's streaming everywhere, of course. And they've got an amazing uh back catalog before this as well. And before I close the episode out with a reading from Lao Tzu, don't forget to take a moment to follow the show in your favorite podcast app. It really helps this grow and reach new people. And I'd like to close out this episode today with a reading from the Tao De Qing. Lao Tzu writes, The master gives himself up to whatever the moment brings. He knows that he is going to die, and he has nothing left to hold on to. No illusions in his mind, no resistances in his body. He doesn't think about his actions, they flow from the core of his being. He holds nothing back from life. Therefore, he is ready for death as a man is ready for sleep after a good day's work. Thank you so much for listening. Blessings to all. Have a good night.