Avenged Sevenfold

MarcoHietalaIM

MarcoHietalaIM

Trooper
I warmly recommend you to familiarize yourself with this California based heavy metal band.

Started as underground metalcore crew and rapidly raised to stardom by making some commercial changes to their music.

Their most successful album 'City of Evil' (2005) is widely accepted as a modern classic and the best example of that change.

Their newest effort 'The Stage' (2016) beats 'City of Evil' in total running time for a minute and it's their longest album.

This album brought a new sound to their repertoire: progressive metal. Critics praised this move.

This band is more than you probably have heard of them on the radio or whatever channel. I personally rank their song 'Blinded in Chains' found in 'City of Evil' as one of my favorite heavy metal songs. I find them a lot like Metallica, a bit like Linkin Park overall but technically more prominent than both of them.
 
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Travis The Dragon said:
I'm a huge fan of A7X. The Stage is amazing!
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They are coming to Finland as a part of a rock festival this summer and I don't know if I should go. Tickets are not so expensive considering that it is a festival. Other days include: Ozzy, Judas Priest and Marilyn Manson etc.

In the band's catalogue, 'The Stage' sounds interesting to me (is this a heavy Foxtrot 1972?), 'City of Evil' is marvelous in my opinion and the other albums contain genious tunes, I think.

My taste of music generally focus to wide range of British artists with no execptions. Lately, A7X has hit me hard still after years of not listening to them. They have balls.
 
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I liked Avenged Sevenfold a lot when I was in my mid-teens, so more than ten years ago. 'Waking the Fallen' is still one of my favourite Metal albums of all time, but since then I've been largely apathetic to them. I was super-excited for 'City of Evil' in 2005 (I was 15) as they were one of my favourite bands at the time (along with Trivium) but I struggled with it. They'd made such a significant change to their sound for mainly commercial reasons. I know the singer was having trouble with his voice so he stopped screaming, which is totally understandable, but the clean vocal style was changed to a weird nasally sound that I couldn't get to grips with. I grew to appreciate much of 'City of Evil' but I have never loved that album. Their next album (self-titled, lazy!) was a lot better and I enjoyed much of that album a lot more than I did 'City of Evil', but I still didn't have the same passion for the band that I had done when listening to 'Waking the Fallen' years earlier. 'Nightmare' turned me off of Avenged Sevenfold completely. I only really bothered to check it out a year or so after it was released just out of interest because Mike Portnoy (who was still in Dream Theater at the time) was drumming on it. It was a dull album. Not particularly bad, but no highlights either. I haven't bothered to check them out since, although I did read Robb Flynn's blog post about one of their recent albums criticizing it for ripping off loads of classic Metal songs. Someone played one of them to me a few years ago and it sounded exactly like 'Sad But True' by Metallica. Sad! (but true)

I still enjoy listening to 'Waking the Fallen' and some other Avenged Sevenfold songs from time to time, but have no interest in following the band anymore.
 
Black Wizard said:
I liked Avenged Sevenfold a lot when I was in my mid-teens, so more than ten years ago. 'Waking the Fallen' is still one of my favourite Metal albums of all time, but since then I've been largely apathetic to them. I was super-excited for 'City of Evil' in 2005 (I was 15) as they were one of my favourite bands at the time (along with Trivium) but I struggled with it. They'd made such a significant change to their sound for mainly commercial reasons. I know the singer was having trouble with his voice so he stopped screaming, which is totally understandable, but the clean vocal style was changed to a weird nasally sound that I couldn't get to grips with. I grew to appreciate much of 'City of Evil' but I have never loved that album. Their next album (self-titled, lazy!) was a lot better and I enjoyed much of that album a lot more than I did 'City of Evil', but I still didn't have the same passion for the band that I had done when listening to 'Waking the Fallen' years earlier. 'Nightmare' turned me off of Avenged Sevenfold completely. I only really bothered to check it out a year or so after it was released just out of interest because Mike Portnoy (who was still in Dream Theater at the time) was drumming on it. It was a dull album. Not particularly bad, but no highlights either. I haven't bothered to check them out since, although I did read Robb Flynn's blog post about one of their recent albums criticizing it for ripping off loads of classic Metal songs. Someone played one of them to me a few years ago and it sounded exactly like 'Sad But True' by Metallica. Sad! (but true)

I still enjoy listening to 'Waking the Fallen' and some other Avenged Sevenfold songs from time to time, but have no interest in following the band anymore.
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I know right, their music is usually popular among "horny" teens (figure of speech). I discovered them also when around 15 by some videogame I played.

Years I thought the singer's apperance would be like a real robust man with beard and all that stuff. I was actually shocked during 'Nightmare' era to find out that he was nothing more than a spoiled teen himself. That doesn't shock me anymore, though. I seem to notice that women like him after all.

The Wiki says that the vocalist M. Shadows was only rumored to be not able to scream back in the days and this was not verified but only denied by a representive of them. For being honest, I haven't personally even tried to listen their early metalcore phase. So I leave it to that.

The Metallica rip-off that you are talking about referes probably to 'This Means War', if I understood right. Yeah, a bit of a mistake there. Still a fun record to me. The chorus makes that song.

You should definitely check out 'The Stage' album, very Maidenish and creative performance. Could be seen as their most mature work.
 
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Self titled and the stage are insanely good albums.

However i agree that matts Clean vocals suck because they sound nasal.

They know how to play their Instruments though, particularly Brian Harner.

His solos in Afterlife and Coming Home are one of the best in some decades
 
FTB said:
Self titled and the stage are insanely good albums.

However i agree that matts Clean vocals suck because they sound nasal.

They know how to play their Instruments though, particularly Brian Harner.

His solos in Afterlife and Coming Home are one of the best in some decades
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I like his most well-known vocals as one of my favorites. Those that he doesn't scream. Kinda nasally sometimes but it only gives a special vibe in my opinion.

My point of view is also that guitars are so well performed in this band along with drums, I definitely agree with you. So fast and energetic.

I digg the soft side of them too overall, 'So Far Away' is really heartbreaking and the Pink Floyd cover is unbelivably authentic to original to name a few. A true surprise for me that the performers were Avenged in the latter one.

By the way, doesn't 'The Stage' song ending copy 'To Live is to Die' ending by Metallica? I think so.

Finally, I decided to go see them live this summer. Could be mind-blowing.
 
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When I first heard “Hail to the King,” I dismissed it as a try-hard blend of a band wanting to emulate Maiden, Accept and Metallica in a single song.

After giving it a less judgemental listen, I find myself liking that track — particularly how the lead guitar plays its own thing throughout. That’s a technique that works but has somehow not been overdone in metal.

Avenged’s bass mix is good as well, has that chunky sound similar to some of Dave Ellifson’s better work on Rust in Peace.

I’ll have to give Avenged Sevenfold’s broader catalog a listen to see if I like them beyond a few songs. My current opinion is that they’re derivative but maybe not in a bad way.
 
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The stage is one of their worst albums if you ask me. City of Evil is their best album by far. Such a masterpiece.
 
When I was 14, a friend of mine introduced me to Avenged Sevenfold, wasn't long after I started getting into metal. I loved them, but about a year later I went through my "elitist" phase and any modern bands now weren't worth my time. I got over that though, now although I don't follow them anymore I still get a kick out of some of their older stuff. Got "This Means War" going as I write this actually. Of course it's similar to Sad But True, but that really doesn't bother me that much. SBT is one of my favourite Metallica songs, anything similar sounding is good to me.
 
Don't care for this band. Saw them live in Seattle opening for Metallica, and Gojira who played before them was so much better. They were so out of tune and uninspiring.

Planets, Acid Rain, and Coming Home from the new album were quite good though.
 
Let's have some discussion here. How would you rank the Avenged Sevenfold albums?
My ranking:

1. City of Evil: One of my absolute favorite albums of all time. Instrumental work is phenomenal and Matt's vocals are top notch as well. Fav songs: Seize the Day, Trashed and Scattered, Beast and the Harlot
2. Nightmare: Probably Matt's peak vocally. The albums from this point onwards suffer from The Rev's unfortunate passing, but Mike Portnoy does an excellent job on Nightmare. There are no weak songs on this album, but the highs aren't quite as good as on CoE. Fav songs: So Far Away, Welcome to the Family, Danger Line
3. Self-titled: The album that features my favorite song of all time, Afterlife. This album is full of hits such as Almost Easy and Dear God. A couple of pretty weak songs (Gunslinger and Brompton Cocktail) bring this album down one rank. Fav songs: Afterlife, Almost Easy, A Little Piece of Heaven
4. Waking the Fallen: WtF suffers from being a slightly overlong album with a couple of fillers. But holy shit, the best songs on this album are incredible. Album's genre is interesting, some kind of prog-metalcore. Fav songs: Second Heartbeat, Unholy Confessions
5. Hail to the King: Often criticized album, which I happen to really like. Hail to the King and Shepherd of Fire were big radio hits, but there are a lot of underrated gems on this album(Coming Home, Heretic, Planets). This album lacks the one real highlight song. Fav songs: Coming Home, Title track, Shepherd of Fire
6. The Stage: Their newest album is very different from the previous ones. The sound is experimental and Shadows changed his vocal style. And that change wasn't for better. This album is wayyy too long and it lacks catchy songs. The good thing is that this album doesn't have any bad songs. I hope their next album will be a step up: Fav songs: Sunny disposition, The Stage
7. Sounding the Seventh Trumpet: Kind of forgettable debut, but not bad. Most of the songs sound the same. Fav song: Warmness on the Soul
 
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