Avenged Sevenfold
Sounding The Seventh Trumpet

THE REVIEW

Wow, how great it is to imagine Bad Religion getting into metal! Or In Flames winking at Poison The Well, with a good dose of Misfits, as wild as the best Converge. Could you imagine all of this? Well, neither could I, if not for the fact that one day (quite some time ago actually, since the album came out in 2001) I stumbled upon this "Sounding The Seventh Trumpet" by Avenged Sevenfold, discovered online practically by chance, and I put it on thinking, "Meh, it'll be the usual metal-core band, I'm sick of it!".

In reality, the foundation from which Avenged Sevenfold (what a name!!) start is a solid melodic death metal (a bit Swedish, a bit American), with melody playing both the good and the bad, tight rhythms, and furious screams. The thing is, the band enriches this base with ideas and influences that never end... Just to give you an idea: it kicks off with some guitar solutions close to Iron Maiden, continues with time changes that are very reminiscent of the post-hardcore school of Converge and their ilk, and ends with punk choruses (I told you, tell me if they don't sound like the Bad Religion of the glory days...).

All with an imagery halfway between goth/punk à la Misfits (in this they especially remind me of AFI, with a glam touch), and the more direct metal-core of bands like Poison The Well or Shai Hulud. If we want to be precise, the singer often assumes a clean voice reminiscent of many emo-core bands (how many genres are we at?), a genre that also comes to light in the melodic pieces, with a nice piano in the middle, and a healthy dose of "catchiness at all costs", even though they immediately retract by unleashing their claws and the classic "no compromise" attitude.

In short, I believe you've understood, it's as if they're trying to please a bit of everyone, and I have to say they manage to do so quite well, creating a musical orgy of genres that mix together, giving birth to a very personal and truly interesting work. Sure, sometimes they seem a bit unconvincing, like when the singer switches from screaming vocals to clean in an almost forced way, as if someone shoved a cactus up his ass. For the rest, though, the whole band fully convinces, and engages the listener without ever boring them, showing extreme originality and a clear statement of intent. I've already counted them among the future stars of the so-called "experimental metal", but it's up to you. In the meantime, here we have an album recommended to all listeners of the aforementioned sounds, to whom I also suggest the latest "Waking The Fallen" (which anyway diverges quite a lot stylistically). A band destined to go far...