Avenged Sevenfold - City Of Evil
June 6th 2005 was the most important day in the life of Avenged Sevenfold. Having released their last album, Waking the Fallen, to critical acclaim and over 200,000 sales worldwide from the tiny and aptly named Hopeless Records, they were signed by major label Warner Bros. Following City of Evil there is no chance of Avenged Sevenfold being dropped by their label.
Whereas in Waking the Fallen they wore their influences very much on their sleeve, in City of Evil they stamp their own unique sound on the songs. Theirs is a sound which very much captures the skill of Iron Maiden, the songcraft of Metallica, the flair of Guns ‘n’ Roses and shakes it all up with the steel of Pantera. As for the songs themselves, ‘Bat Country’ is a stand-out track. An homage to Hunter S.
Thompson’s classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, it’s a punk/metal classic that really defines the A7X sound. ‘Betrayed’ has crushing Pantera style riffing combined with a killer chorus, while ‘A Wicked End’ employs a Tim Burton- style choir half way through. Much like Waking the Fallen this is all killer, no filler, but whereas some of the songs on WTF were reasonably predictable, City of Evil snakes around in many directions.
‘Sidewinder’ is the best example of this; a prog-metal epic worthy of genre- kings Dream Theatre (no mean feat!). Overall, if you have any interest in heavy music then I would highly recommend this album. Facemelting solos follow catchy as crabs choruses, while crazy drum solos are the backdrop for crushing beatdown " and there’s no screaming, so you have to listen to them now. No excuses.
9th Jun 2005