Avenged Sevenfold
City Of Evil

THE REVIEW

I am about to re-review this second LP by the young Californian quintet because, in my opinion, the two previous reviews did not describe the real parameters of the album in question. In short, this "City of Evil" is neither a masterpiece nor a “cheap commercial ploy.” It is, in my opinion, an engaging and well-produced album, but with its strengths and weaknesses.

“Let's start by saying that the group changed labels by signing with a major such as Warner, and upon hearing the news, many fans turned up their noses at the time”.

Said one of the two previous reviews. In my opinion, it seems like the usual senseless attack against artists who, by switching from an independent label to a major, are considered “commercial” and “sellouts.” In fact, if we think about it, good things have also come out (…Alright! There are more negative ones, but let's overlook them for a moment) from labels like Warner (the first example that comes to mind: "Blood Mountain" by Mastodon). Furthermore, Avenged Sevenfold, moving away from a genre as popular and trendy as emocore and abandoning the pseudo-scream/pseudo-growl that greatly impresses teenagers, show the courage to choose a more sophisticated and personal genre.

The five from Huntington Beach indeed propose in this third work of theirs a particular genre, an amalgam of various stylistic influences, ranging from hard rock choruses to “Maiden-like” gallops and Helloween-style accelerations. In this way, breaking away from the proposed, re-proposed, and re-re-proposed canons of emocore/metalcore (which, as I see, has bored many), Matthew Shadows can adopt a very personal nasal voice -sorry for the rhyme-, Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance can display their chemistry with the guitars, Johnny Christ on bass gains more importance while “The Rev” can offer us a more varied drumming.

The album represents a step forward compared to the previous one (which may be worth 5* only for an emocore enthusiast) also due to the variety of the songs offered. The secret to capturing the (?) beauty of the CD is to listen to the album in its entirety, thus not making a hasty judgment based on the commercial single seen in video rotation. In fact, the most unfortunate episodes of this "City of Evil" are the hits "Beast and the Harlot" and "Bat Country" which are catchy for their irresistible chorus but after the fourth/fifth listen have already become unbearable. In a crescendo of song quality, we move on to the trio "Sidewinder-Burn it Down-The Wicked End" which perhaps spoilwith distracting and overly sweet choruses, respectively a Spanish-style guitar finale, a guitar intro, and a thrilling initial bass line. Rising another notch, there’s the ballad -in pure "Use Your Illusion" style- "Seize the Day" which, although featuring sufficiently deep and tear-jerking lyrics, never falls into banality.

The best tracks are the remaining five. The wild "Trashed and Scattered" and "Blinded in Chains", which satisfy even the speed-hungry, without however neglecting the melody (which is the core of the album in question); the melancholic "Betrayed", dedicated to the lamented Dimebag, where very fitting guitar lines fully capture the song’s atmosphere; the more serious (for the themes addressed) "M.I.A." and the complete "Strength of the World", which has it all: an orchestral intro, choruses in the refrain, and an incredible final solo that showcases, besides the already mentioned chemistry between the two guitarists, the skill of the soloist in particular, Brian Haner Jr. (stage name Synyster Gates), an artist’s son (Brian Haner Sr. is a moderately famous acoustic guitarist) and endowed, despite his young age, with a complete and enviable technique, thanks to his jazz training.

Thus, it’s reckless to define Avenged Sevenfold as the “Blink 182” of metal given the complexity of some of the proposed tracks and for the true strong point of "City of Evil": the guitars (the album in question has been included in the list of the top 100 guitar albums of all time by Guitar World).