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Avenged Sevenfold - Avenged Sevenfold

Avenged Sevenfold has evolved from a metalcore band into the mainstream. Their last album, City Of Evil opened the band up to a whole new group of fans and they even had a video on MTV's TRL. That sort of mainstream commercial success will immediately draw accusations of selling out, and Avenged Sevenfold is an extremely polarizing band.

Their latest album is Avenged Sevenfold, and it sees them moving even further away from metal and more into the hard rock genre. There are still metal moments, and the guitar work of Synyster Gates is excellent, but Avenged Sevenfold delves into several other genres as well. The album ends with a couple of unique tracks. "A Little Piece Of Heaven" is an 8 minute opus with everything from brass to gothic choruses to female vocals to pop hooks. The closer is "Dear God," a twangy country flavored song.

This is probably M. Shadows best vocal performance. There are a few harsher vocals sprinkled in, but melodic singing dominates this album. He shows a decent range and a diverse approach in tone and emotion. Avenged Sevenfold has a couple of really good songs, several that are somewhere in the middle and one or two clunkers. It's an ambitious effort and the band isn't afraid to try to expand their musical horizons, but they don't quite reach the level to which they've aspired.

"Let me start off by saying that Avenged Sevenfold is my favorite band of all time. But its impossible to catagorize Avenged Sevenfold in any time. While they started out as metalcore, they have loss the screams and roars and started to actually sing (a good thing). The songs shift from metal to hard rock to punk to a gothic broadway musical to even southern rock. Amazing musicians, deep lyrics and an awesome singer...what more could you ask for? 1."Critical Acclaim" – 10/10 2."Almost Easy" – 9.5/10 3."Scream" – 9/10 4."Afterlife" – 10/10 5."Gunslinger" - 8.5/10 6."Unbound (The Wild Ride)" – 8/10 7."Brompton Cocktail" – 8.5/10 8."Lost" – 9/10 9."A Little Piece of Heaven" – 10/10 10."Dear God" – 9/10"