Disco de Avenged Sevenfold: “City of Evil”

This is the disk that could push Nu Metal into the drainage vortex and bring guitar rock back to the forefront of hard rock with a "Vengeance". In fact, City of Evil may have the best Heavy Metal song on it that I've heard in years with Bat Country.

If you've been an A7X fan or you are at least familiar with their past work like their last disk Waking the Fallen, prepare yourselves for a somewhat new sound. Out is song after song of the angry shouting so typical in speed/death metal, and in is City of Evil with a disk of singing by M. Shadows that is a metalhead's dream....Clear with great vocal harmonies.

The music is hard. Spectacular drumming by TheRev that seems to be preformed effortlessly but precisely. Head banging guitar solos and driving bass, put together with vocal melodies that move away from the death/speed metal sound of A7X's past efforts to a sound that I can listen to with my wife in the car...well...almost.

The songs are epic (all well over 5 minutes each), complex but very tight. A fair analogy might be early Bruce Dickenson Iron Maiden meets Guns n Roses meets A7X's own style of unique speed metal.

The jewel of this disk is track 4...the radio played Bat Country. But there are several standout tracks here. I think that there were only 3 tracks that I said that I probably wouldn't rip to my library. Pantera fans will want to give track 10 (Betrayed) a listen; I think that it's kind of the story of the last days of the late, great Dimebag Darrell (see my review of Damageplan's New Found Power). Tracks 7,8 & 9 also shine.

City of Evil brings a refreshing, somewhat newish sound to Metal fans, and it is most definitely worth having in your collection if you're into the genre. Give it a try.

Edit 12/27/2009 - RIP James "The Rev" Sullivan. Rock the Heavens with Dimebag and Davey Williams!

Okay so I've tossed and turned for a long time on whether or not I was going to write a review about this CD or not. At first I wanted to so I could defend it against ex-Avenged fans who were trashing this CD. But after a while a lot of people realized that it is one of those CDs that you have to get used to in order to fully enjoy. It seems that this CD has two extreme opinions about it: you either love it or hate. The people that hate it are usually found comparing this CD to Waking The Fallen or Sounding The Seventh Trumpet. This is why it is such a controversial CD because so many fans felt betrayed by it when it first came out. I of course thought it was excellent from the start (bought it the day it came out too! lol) but I had no idea about the staying power this CD would have on me.

I have a strong belief that Waking The Fallen is a perfect album. How could they follow that CD up?? They made it impossible for themselves to make a follow up. It just couldn't be done. The band could have very well made Waking the Fallen II but instead they decided to go in a different direction, one without screaming and with vocal harmonies. Most people, if you looked around the message boards when Beast and the Harlot was first released on the internet, hated the new sound. I loved it and it seemed that June 7, 2005 could not come fast enough.

Waking The Fallen was perfect, and so is this album. City Of Evil is simply a different kind of perfect. You really can't compare the two albums because they have such different feels to each other. At the same time, however, if you really think about it, Avenged hasn't changed their sound all that much. The only thing that really sticks out as a huge change is the singing. Other than that, the music is still the same. There are still the Maiden-esque dual guitar riffs. There are still the Greg Graffin-like harmonies. Everything that was on Waking The Fallen is found on this CD, only it is brought to a much grander scale. This is why City Of Evil is just as good as Waking The Fallen in my opinion.

It's one thing to change your sound to sound like everyone else and try to join a certain scene to gain popularity. It is another thing to change your sound so you DON'T sound like anyone else. Before this change in sound, Avenged was thrown into the metalcore pile with Atreyu, As I Lay Dying, and Trivium (to name a few). With City Of Evil, they completely set themselves apart and come into their own. Just listen to the intro of Beast and the Harlot and try to tell me that it isn't timeless. Listen to the closing solo on Sidewinder and tell me that it isn't amazing. The bridge in The Wicked End is one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard and the closing moments in MIA still give me chills to this day.

I have listened to nothing but this CD for the past year and a half, and I have yet to get sick of it. This CD is just perfect. The order the tracks are in, the guitar work, the drumming, the lyrics, the attitude, I could go on forever about. This CD has inspired me in so many ways it is incredible.

I have been a fan of this band from the start and while seemingly everyone else who was a fan at that point, bailed out on this band for becoming less hardcore, a few open minded fans stuck with them. These are people who don't care how many times they have been on TRL, how many albums they have sold, or how many times a day M Shadows lifts weights, but are here for the music itself and how it touches them in a way no other band has. If it wasn't for Seize The Day I wouldn't be dating my girlfriend of almost a year. "Seize the day or die regretting the time you lost." Truer words were never spoken. Thank you Avenged Sevenfold for showing that there is real music out there and that true talent always prevails above image and gimmicks.

Ok lets see... This CD to me is not metalcore, it is not hardcore, it is not screamo, it is PURE METAL. You retards that think a bunch of screaming over distorted, untalented guitar riffs is metal. Shame on you. This CD reminds me of Iron Maiden and earlier metallica. It has a bad-ass feel just like the 80's metal scene had. Moving on... HOW BOUT THEM SONGS

I dont feel like writing reviews for each song, so here are the best songs on the CD: tracks, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11. seriously they are all great. But out of all the AWESOMELY AMAZING songs, I would have to say that M.I.A. is the best.

I relate to it well, for my brother is in the army and is currently in the middle east.

Now, what have we learned today?

-This is not metalcore

-This is better than that crappy metalcore

-Metalcore sucks

-This is PURE METAL

-Listen to Iron Maiden

-This CD is awesome

Thank you...

When I first looked at Avenged Sevenfold's look and read their stage names, I laughed my head off. Long an indie favorite and now making a breakthrough on a major label, I mistakingly categorized Avenged Sevenfold with the current crop of metal pretenders like Atreyu, Trivium, etc. Then I decided to give these guys a listen, and once you get past their schtick, you'll discover that there is some great hard rock/metal here. Lead single "Bat Country" (supposedly inspired by the late Hunter S. Thompson's tripped out Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) isn't anything real special, but opening track "Beast and the Harlot" isn't only catchy and melodic, but it has possibly one of the most well played and catchy bridges and harmonies in recent memory. Other tracks, including "Trashed & Scattered" and "Seize the Day", display some great duel guitar wizardry, which is refreshing in the mainstream metal scene considering the last few years were nothing but hip-hop beats and downtuned guitars. "City of Evil" isn't perfect, and a majority of it is too mainstream aimed for hardcore fans of old metal like Pantera, Slayer, Morbid Angel, etc., but it's a welcome surprise in the metal world today. All in all, if you've never checked out Avenged Sevenfold, give "City of Evil" a try.

I remember getting heavy into Ride The Lightning as a junior in high school and having some moronic potheads tell me that Metallica had sold out. Same thing here: this is a great album from a group of young dudes that, at first glance, don't look remotely capable of producing such music. City of Evil is a creative kludge of GNR, Faith No More, and STP (and many others). There are times when listening to this album that I begin to believe that Mike Patton and Scott Weiland are on lead vocals, Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Ritchie Blackmore, Big Jim Martin, Slash, and Joe Satriani are on guitar, and Neil Peart and Puff are pounding on the skins. This album is solid and well produced from beginning to end. To all those that call these guys a sellout: true and great musicians always progress... bad ones scream and play loud to cloak their lack of talent. Not that there's anything wrong with a little screaming.