Avenged Sevenfold- Avenged Sevenfold

Album: Avenged Sevenfold

Release: October 2007

Reviewer: Vena Kava

The self-titled album from avenged Sevenfold brings in a mixture of surprises and musical experimentation. I am just simply stunned by this album, never being an Avenged Sevenfold fan, this album has changed everything for me. Avenged Sevenfold has decided to self produce everything, maybe this is why this album is so dynamic in nature, full of character (and I mean full of character) and free of the over processed, over perfected and overly generic bullshit which comes with “overly” sleek production engineers.

The majority of the songs have great catchy riffs and melodies, stand out vocals, Iron Maiden-ish guitar solos, spectacular drumming, and a hard driving bass. Really, could you ask for more? Well… let me just say this, if you loved and adored the previous album “City of Evil” which was homogeneously a very metal album, unless you are open to change, you will not like this album.

Kicking of the album with their heaviest and best track “Critical Acclaim,” a conservative take on the war, giving a shout out to the soldiers. Regardless of your stand on the war, forfeit your opinion this time and enjoy the song, look at it as a piece of art, because it is pretty Rad. It starts of with a cemetery like organ intro and moves into some very nice sleek and contemporary guitar work, exploding into double bass metal madness with a powerful and energizing vocal rant.

The hidden gem on this album “A little piece of heaven,” a most interesting and bizarre composition and I do mean, “interesting” is one of my favorites. It sounds like a soundtrack to a strange cartoon movie by Tim Burton or a definite move towards Broadway. It plays out like a short horror story, detailed, lyrically rich, the voice and chorus are very engulfing. The song is dark, spooky, carnival-esque, and very fun. It shows that Avenged Sevenfold have a good sense of humor, much credit to the guys for this song and for all the experimentation. Hmm… except “Dear God” which is the last track on the album, and thank God to that! I don’t how this one came about but it’s a slow song that borders on adult contemporary and it really does not fit in at all. But we can forgive them for this one. So c’mon, give the album a chance.

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