In the age of Warped Tour, Hot Topic, and MySpace, sounds of “independent,” and “underground” music, especially punk, metal, and hardcore, are as prevalent as ever. With the advent of this popularity comes a new set of politically correct guidelines that inevitably follow, which most bands seem apt to conform to, if not packaged that way already.
Enter Avenged Sevenfold; who, after two records on the Hopeless/Sub-City imprint, have unleashed their major label debut on Warner Bros. Records entitled City of Evil. The band has proudly garnered a reputation for their epic party nights and backstage debauchery. Tales of drug-induced tour bus orgies and strip club odysseys have reached mythical proportions, conjuring up endless amounts of antic riddled stories associated with legends such as Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Motley Crue, and Guns and Roses.
Although A7X (the increasingly popular way to shorten their name) display their penchant for light speed drumming, howling vocals, and over-the-top chops on City of Evil, its not surprising to hear their influences more evidently this time around, “It’s a vibe like you used to hear on Guns and Roses, Metallica, and Megadeth records when those bands ruled the world. You know it when you hear it. It makes you go, ‘Fuck You!’ when you put it on,” suggests M. Shadows, front man of A7X.
With some of the songs clocking in around 7 minutes, the material might not be radio ready just yet, which should please the hearth of rabid A7X fans that helped propel the band to major-label-land, but the fact that it sounds primed more for the arena than the mosh-pit, it might not.
www.avengedsevenfold.com
www.warnerbrosrecords.com
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