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City of Evil is Avenged Sevenfold's third full-length album. It was released on June 7, 2005 by Warner Brothers. This album is somewhat of a departure from the band's previous metalcore style, most notably in that lead vocalist M. Shadows has largely departed from screamed vocals. The guitar work in the songs is also more technical and in a more metal style. Much like Judas Priest's Turbo album, this new style has created controversy between older fans; some labeling the band as sell-outs due to their new, more mainstream sound, with a strong power metal influence in their guitar work. On the other hand, the album has earned the band many newer fans that they could not have had with their older sound. It has been rumored that true reason behind the change of vocal style had to do with M. Shadows blowing out his vocal box, though the band currently denies this (yet M. Shadows does not sing in their previous style when performing older songs live). The album was certified gold in January 2006 and ranked number 63 on the October 2006 issue of Guitar World magazine's list of the 100 greatest guitar albums of all time.[1]
[edit] Reception
Avenged Sevenfold's third CD showed a great departure for them both musically and sonically. The album was met with solid reviews from critics and garnered a lot of attention. The album is their best selling record to date, with over 500,000 copies sold in the United States alone, making it their first and only album to achieve gold status.
[edit] Track listing
- "Beast and the Harlot" – 5:40
- "Burn It Down" – 4:58
- "Blinded in Chains" – 6:34
- "Bat Country" – 5:13
- "Trashed and Scattered" – 5:53
- "Seize the Day" – 5:32
- "Sidewinder" – 7:01
- "The Wicked End" – 7:10
- "Strength of the World" – 9:14
- "Betrayed" – 6:47
- "M.I.A." – 8:46
- All songs written by Avenged Sevenfold
[edit] Videography
City of Evil features most of the songs that Avenged Sevenfold has made videos for. On May 4, 2005, they released a promotional video for "Burn It Down", which was done in the same way as "Unholy Confessions" on Waking the Fallen (live video with dubbed music). On July 28, 2005, their first professional video for a song on the album, "Bat Country", was released. It was directed by Marc Klasfeld. On February 6, 2006, "Beast and the Harlot" was released. This was a few weeks after it had been leaked on YouTube.com It was directed by Tony Petrossian. More recently, on June 30, 2006, the video for "Seize the Day" was released on Avenged Sevenfold's MySpace. The video was directed by Wayne Isham.
[edit] Credits
- M. Shadows - vocals, piano
- Synyster Gates - lead guitar, backing vocals
- Zacky Vengeance - rhythm guitar, backing vocals
- Johnny Christ - bass, backing vocals
- The Rev - drums
- Additional guitars and pedal steel by Brian Haner
- Acoustic solo left on "Sidewinder" by Brian Haner
- Brian Haner, Suzy Haner, Valary DiBenedetto and Kasey DiBenedetto on "M.I.A"
- Scott Gilman - Producer, orchestrations, string conductor, additional keyboards and percussion
- Justin Meacham - Additional piano on "Seize the Day" and "Sidewinder"
[edit] References
