Avenged Sevenfold (album)

Untitled

Avenged Sevenfold is the self-titled fourth full-length album by Avenged Sevenfold, released on October 30, 2007 by Warner Bros. Records. The album, originally slated for an October 16 release, was delayed by two weeks in order to provide more time to complete bonus material and production for the record, including the making of a cartoon. The album debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200, selling about 94,000 copies in its first week.

Background information

Speculated by fans since an interview of lead singer M. Shadows announced an album "probably in 2007", it was hinted at even more with the cancellation of United Kingdom tour dates in November 2006, and then finally confirmed by the band's MySpace profile that they would be taking the rest of the year off after the October 8 show in Texas to prepare new songs.

"We love our loyal fans and want to continue giving them the freshest, most awesome show and material possible. We've been playing songs from City of Evil around the world for 15 months and now feel its time to bring them something new. We're honored by the growing audiences wanting to see our show, but feel an obligation to our fans to always give them the best we have to offer. We've started writing and can't wait for our fans to hear what we're working on."as said by M.Shadows.

Sound

Avenged Sevenfold also said they don't want the album to be City of Evil part two or Waking the Fallen part two in a recent MTV News article. The record was released the day before Halloween.

"It's just going to be gritty," Shadows said of the new record. "We want it to be a cool record, not some polished crap just 'cause we've got a couple songs on the radio now. No one needs it to be like that. We're going to do the exact opposite."

Lead up to release

Avenged Sevenfold revealed the track listing for the upcoming album on their MySpace profile on August 9, 2007, as well as their text messaging service, A7X Mobile. The band has also posted a teaser on a recent MySpace blog featuring an excerpt of vocalist M. Shadows screaming in the studio.

On August 17, 2007, a clip was posted with about 2 minutes of their first track on the new album, "Critical Acclaim" on the band's MySpace. The single was later downloaded in its entirety on MySpace and released on the iTunes Store on August 28.

In the weeks leading up to the album’s release, a series of ten video clips, called "webisodes," were recorded featuring "Wolfie the Fox." The first webisode was released on August 24, 2007; a 3:41 clip that was posted on the band's MySpace and on YouTube. The clip consists of a pre-recorded phone message from "Wolfie the Fox" and a few scenes of their process of making "Critical Acclaim". Each of the subsequent webisodes was similar in content. The clips featured a short mock-interview between M. Shadows and Wolfie the Fox, various band members during the making of various tracks for “Avenged Sevenfold,” and other background videos. About eleven days before the album’s release, The Wolfie Trailer was posted on YouTube. In it, Wolfie sings "Critical Acclaim" and talks about the MVI version of the new album. The webisodes can all be viewed on the band’s MySpace and YouTube pages.

By September 9, 2007, news leaked of the completion of a music video for the song "Almost Easy". It was directed by P.R. Brown, known for his collaborations with Mötley Crüe and Marilyn Manson, among many others. On September 12, 2007, the release date of the single "Almost Easy" was announced and was released six days later on September 18 to purchase via digital download.

The month of October was a busy one for the upcoming album. On October 3, Kerrang! released an article in which M. Shadows and Synyster Gates were interviewed about the new album. This day also saw the release of a live performance of "Almost Easy" at the Warped Tour 2007. Originally the band intended to release this footage if viewers watched the official music video for the track on YouTube 150,000 times. Though the goal fell short at 120,000 the band still released the footage. Another live video, featuring the third track “Scream” performed in Liverpool, England was posted on YouTube on October 11. "Scream" is speculated to be the third single from Avenged Sevenfold due to it having been played at numerous Avenged Sevenfold concerts, although this has not yet been confirmed. The song was also heard during a commercial for the Scream Awards on Spike TV. M. Shadows can clearly be heard singing, "You know I make you wanna scream," which is an excerpt from the chorus of "Scream", the third track on Avenged Sevenfold. "Scream" was performed live at the 2007 Spike TV Scream Awards on October 23. Also, LoveLine played the radio premiere of "Afterlife" and "Almost Easy", which was guest hosted by M. Shadows and The Rev. Three days before, the Keyclub revealed an animated music video for "A Little Piece of Heaven".

To promote their new album, Avenged Sevenfold started their US tour on October 29, headlining in Los Angeles, CA at The Wiltern. Their opening acts are Black Tide, The Confession, and Operator.

On October 30, 2007, the new album was released in stores everywhere.

In an interview with Total Guitar magazine Synster Gates said another song from the recording sessions would be released in a few months time.

Track listing

1. "Critical Acclaim" – 5:14
2. "Almost Easy" – 3:54
3. "Scream" – 4:48
4. "Afterlife" – 5:53
5. "Gunslinger" - 4:11 (featuring Shanna Crooks)
6. "Unbound (The Wild Ride)" (featuring Zander Ayeroff and Annmarie Rizzo) – 5:11
7. "Brompton Cocktail" – 4:13
8. "Lost" – 5:02
9. "A Little Piece of Heaven" (featuring Juliette Commagere) – 8:00
10. "Dear God" (featuring Shanna Crooks) – 6:33

Bonus tracks

• "Almost Easy" (Jam-Along Version) (iTunes Bonus Track) - 3:55
• "Bat Country" (Live at Hammerstein Ballroom) (iTunes Pre-Order Bonus Track) - 6:04

MVI

• The Making of "Avenged Sevenfold"
• The Making of "Avenged Sevenfold" (Animated Short)
• Studio Tour
• Producer For A Day
• Pre-encoded MP3s for all tracks
• Make your own ringtone of any track from the album with UrTone**
• PDF booklet, buddy icons, lyrics, and more!

Leaks

Around October 13, 2007, previews of each song from the album were leaked on the internet. Warner Bros. are suing the website that leaked the previews. Three days later, on October 16, the song "Gunslinger" was also leaked onto the internet by Warner Bros. for publicity. In addition, Warner Bros.-sactioned YouTube videos have been posted containing the song.

According to www.diditleak.com,, Avenged Sevenfold was leaked onto the internet on October 19, 2007 via a dutch website and four teenagers, and other various sources. Additionally, the band released the album onto the "official" MTV site "The Leak".

External links

• Avenged Sevenfold - The Leak, stream of the whole album from MTV.com
• mvi websitean insight to whats on the mvi.