City of Evil

Untitled

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 classic metal style. This new style has created controversy between fans, with some labeling the band as sell-outs due to their new, slightly more mainstream sound. Much like Judas Priest's Turbo album, they drifted into a more Power Metal sound than their previous albums (it may be noted that the album is often mislabeled as heavy metal).

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.

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, although it wasn't as highly admired as Waking The Fallen. It garnered a lot of attention from the TRL crowd, because their single Bat Country was more accessible to a younger fan base. The album is their best selling record to date, with approximately 800,000 copies sold in the United States alone.

Track listing

1. "Beast and the Harlot" – 5:40
2. "Burn It Down" – 4:58
3. "Blinded in Chains" – 6:34
4. "Bat Country" – 5:13
5. "Trashed and Scattered" – 5:53
6. "Seize the Day" – 5:32
7. "Sidewinder" – 7:01
8. "The Wicked End" – 7:10
9. "Strength of the World" – 9:14
10. "Betrayed" – 6:47
11. "M.I.A." – 8:47

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). A few weeks later, on May 23, 2005, they released the promotional video for "Burn It Down", done in the same live video/dubbed music fashion. 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.

Trivia

• "Bat Country" was written in dedication to the infamous writer/reporter, Hunter S. Thompson. The title comes from the 18th page 3rd chapter of Thompson's book, "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas", where Raoul Duke (Hunter S. Thompson) says "We can't stop here. This is bat country."
• "Betrayed" was written about Nathan Gale's admiration of Dimebag Darrell.
• "M.I.A." was written after M. Shadows talked with friends who were fighting in Iraq.
• "M.I.A." contains a line of melody identical to the short song Over the Top from Mega Man Battle & Chase.
• Various songs from the album were featured on EA Games, and on other medias. They consist of:
  • Beast and the Harlot - Guitar Hero II, Burnout Revenge, MTV Movie Awards 2007
  • Burn It Down - MTV2 Headbanger's Ball Compilation, Best of Taste of Chaos and Saw III soundtrack.
  • Blinded In Chains - Need For Speed: Most Wanted, Need For Speed Carbon (Unreleased Beta) Arena Football 06, 2007 MTV Movie Awards
  • Bat Country - Madden NFL 06, NHL 06, SSX On Tour
• In the film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, you can see a City of Evil album billboard outside the Virgin megastore where Borat is going to a Pamela Anderson signing.
• City of Evil gets its name from a lyric in "Beast and the Harlot," though it should be noted that the phrase "City of Evil" in the song may refer to the city in the book of Revelation (Babylon), where the album title may refer both to that as well as Las Vegas, the setting of part of Thompson's book

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
• B Crutchfield rocks
• 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"