Avenged Sevenfold

For the self-titled album, see Avenged Sevenfold (album).

Avenged Sevenfold

Avenged Sevenfold (also known by the abbreviation "A7X"), is an American rock band from Huntington Beach, California. They have achieved mainstream success with City of Evil, which spawned singles such as "Bat Country", "Beast and the Harlot" and "Seize the Day". The success followed with their self-titled album, Avenged Sevenfold with singles such as "Almost Easy", "Afterlife" and most recently "Dear God".

Biography

Early years

The band was formed in 1999. Avenged Sevenfold's first album, Sounding the Seventh Trumpet, was recorded when the band members were eighteen years old and in high school. It was originally released on their first label, Good Life Recordings. After lead guitarist Synyster Gates joined the band, the introductory track "To End The Rapture" was re-recorded with Gates playing, and the album was re-released on Hopeless Records. Their follow-up album, entitled Waking the Fallen, was also released on Hopeless Records. Shortly after its release, Avenged Sevenfold were signed to Warner Bros. Records.

Mainstream success

City of Evil, the band's third album, was released on 7 June 2005. Propelled by the success of the first single "Bat Country" and its accompanying music video, the album sold well and became Avenged Sevenfold's first gold record. City of Evil strayed away from the band's previous metalcore sound and M. Shadows chose to abandon the screaming vocals from the first two albums. Although Shadows acknowledges that he sustained throat and vocal cord damage after Waking the Fallen and later required surgery to help correct the problem, he states that the change in vocal style was not a result of this issue. In their DVD All Excess, Mudrock, producer of Avenged's second and third albums, said prior to Waking the Fallen, Shadows had stated that he wanted a CD with half-screaming, then one with no screaming, which was achieved in City of Evil. Shadows maintains that he's able to scream even better than before since the surgery and training with vocal coach Ron Anderson, who worked with various artists, from Axl Rose, to Kylie Minogue, and Chris Cornell.

Recent events

In 2006 A7X completed a worldwide tour, including the US, England, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. After canceling Fall and Winter 2006 tour dates, the band announced that they were planning their fourth studio album, a self-titled album. M. Shadows has stated that it would not be a City of Evil Part 2 or Waking the Fallen Part 2, but he says it will attract fans of both original albums while still being a surprise. They played their first tour dates of 2007 on an Asian tour with stops in Indonesia, Singapore, and Japan. To "tide fans over" until the release of the new album, Avenged Sevenfold released their first DVD, All Excess, on 17 July 2007. All Excess debuted as the #1 DVD in the USA which included a documentary and live footage dating back to 1999 along with music videos and the making of the Seize the Day music video.

The self titled album was released out on October 30, 2007 to early success, debuting at #4 on the Billboard 200 with approximately 94,000 copies sold. Two singles, "Critical Acclaim" and "Almost Easy" along with its music video, were released prior to the album. An animated video was made for "A Little Piece of Heaven" and was going to be included on the MVI, but due to the song's subject matter (i.e. Necrophilia), Warner Brothers released it to registered MVI users over the in December of 2007. The third single, "Afterlife" and its video was released in January 2008. Avenged Sevenfold has confirmed that their fourth single is the country rock style song "Dear God".

They recently headlined the Taste of Chaos tour with Atreyu, Bullet for My Valentine, Blessthefall and Idiot Pilot. On the tour, they have recorded a live DVD which will also have the 7 unreleased studio songs from the most recent album.

Guitarist Zacky Vengeance confirmed in an interview that the band had recently entered the studio to record two new cover songs from metal giants Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath.

On July 16 (Issue 1219), Kerrang! released a free CD, Maiden Heaven: A Tribute to Iron Maiden as a tribute album to Iron Maiden and it features Avenged Sevenfold covering the song Flash of the Blade. "Maiden are by far the best live band in the world and their music is timeless," says vocalist M Shadows. "This also gives us a chance to expose this great song to some of our younger fans who maybe aren't as familiar with Iron Maiden." A sample of the song can be found here.

On July 22 Avenged Sevenfold released a blog on their website announcing info on Live In LBC & Diamonds In The Rough releasing on September 9th and a co-headlining tour with Buckcherry, but the blog was quickly removed for unknown reasons.

On July 24 Avenged Sevenfold announced that Live In LBC & Diamonds In The Rough would finally be released on September 16th.

On July 24 Avenged Sevenfold performed as a support band for Iron Maiden's concert at Valle Hovin, Oslo, as a part of the Somwhere Back In Time tour 08.

On July 25th the band met 3 welsh lads in a bar in Gothenburg and discussed with them the maiden cover for Kerrang. They played the intro to the song at ullevi Stadium on the 26th July and played a pantera cover, walk, for them as an alternative.

On July 27 Avenged Sevenfold performed as a warm up band for Iron Maiden's concert in Horsens, Denmark as a part of the Somewhere back in time world tour 08.

Musical characteristics

Band name and lyrical content

The band's name is a reference to the Book of Genesis in the Bible, where Cain is sentenced to live in exile for murdering his brother. God marked him so that none would kill him on account of his sin; the man who dared to kill Cain would suffer "vengeance seven times over" (KJV). The abbreviation for Avenged Sevenfold came from Zacky Vengeance as A7X, which the A stands for 'Avenged', the 7 stands for 'seven', and the X stands for 'fold' because of the X forming a "folding" formation and sevenfold is like 7 multiplied, which is X in mathematical terms. The title of Avenged Sevenfold's song "Chapter Four" references the fourth chapter of Genesis, in which the story of Cain and Abel takes place. The song's subject also appears to be this story. "Beast and the Harlot", yet another song derived from the Bible, comes from the book of Revelation only it is written in the first person and refers to the punishment of Babylon the Great, world empire and seat of false religion. Another biblical reference occurs in the song "The Wicked End". In this song, several times it is said "dust the apple off, savor each bite, and deep inside you know Adam was right." making reference to Eve eating the forbidden fruit. Although the band's title and members' stage names make references to religion, Shadows stated in an interview that they are not a religious band. "Anyone that reads the lyrics and really knew anything about us, they would know we're not promoting either," he said. "That's one thing about this band that I love is that we never really shove any kind of, like, political or religious beliefs on people. We just, the music's there to entertain and maybe thought-provoking on both sides, but we don't try to, like, really shove anything down anyone's throat. There's too many bands that do that nowadays, I think." The band has a few songs that are somewhat political in nature like "Critical Acclaim" and "Blinded In Chains".

The Deathbat

The band sports a logo known as the "Deathbat". The Deathbat is simply a winged skull and was created by Micah Montague. It has appeared on all of the band's album covers since Warmness on the soul as well as the covers of a number of singles such as "Bat Country" and "Critical Acclaim."

Genre

Avenged Sevenfold's material ranges across many genres, often leaving the concept of genres altogether (especially in their most recent album). For example, Avenged Sevenfold's debut Sounding the Seventh Trumpet consisted almost entirely of a metalcore or post-hardcore sound, however consisted of several deviations to these genres, most notably in "Streets" which adopts a Punk style, and "Warmness on the Soul", which consists of mainly piano, and could be considered soft rock. Avenged Sevenfold's self-titled album, again, consists of several deviations to less consistent genres and styles, most notably in "Dear God", which adopts a country style, and "A Little Piece of Heaven", which includes elements of Broadway show tunes, using primarily brass instruments and stringed orchestra to take over most of the role of the lead and rhythm guitar. The band has, though, changed considerably since its first album, which was characterized as very heavy, to being more of a hard rock type band.

Band members

Current members

• M. Shadows - lead vocals (1999 - present)
• Synyster Gates - lead guitars, piano, backing vocals (2000 - present)
• Zacky Vengeance - rhythm guitars, backing vocals (1999 - present)
• Johnny Christ - bass, (2002 - present)
• The Rev (The Reverend Tholomew Plague) - drums, percussion, vocals, piano (1999 - present)

Former Members

• Matt Wendt - Bass: featured on early demo's (1999 - 2000)
• Justin Sane - Bass and Piano: Sounding the Seventh Trumpet and Warmness on the Soul EP (2000 - 2001)
• Dameon Ash - Bass: listed on Sounding the Seventh Trumpet re-release, but didn't record any songs. (2001-2002)

Other Members

• Brian Haner Sr. - Additional guitars and pedal steel on City of Evil. He is also known as "The Official Acoustic Guitarist" for Avenged Sevenfold. He is Synyster's father, and is sometimes reffered to as 'Papa Gates' (PG for short) because of this.

Discography

Main article: Avenged Sevenfold discography

• Sounding the Seventh Trumpet (2001)
• Waking The Fallen (2003)
• City of Evil (2005)
• Avenged Sevenfold (2007)

External links

• Official website
• Template:MySpace
• Avenged Sevenfold on Demand