Avenged Sevenfold

Do you remember when metal music existed just to be blared loud enough to annoy your parents? True, the genre has long since come a long way from that, but is where it ended up a good place? As a fan of crash guitars, Tolkien-inspired lyrics, and apocalyptic drum beats I’m not so sure.

Avenged Sevenfold opens up with “Critical Acclaim” which can only be described as a Red State rock anthem. That’s right: Red State rock with the exception of the homogenous sound. Either way, be default, it equals ick. For example: “All the way from the east to the west/ We’ve got this high society looking down on this very foundation/ Constantly reminding us that our actions are the cause of all their problems/ Pointing the fingers in every direction/ Blaming their own nation for who wins elections/ They’ve never contributed a fucking thing to the country they love to criticize.”

Fortunately, the band doesn’t spend too much time espousing political views and avoids taking the record to a place which could have potentially been terrible. For as annoying and quick to be out of date (Don’t worry boys Bush’s last day in office is January 20th, 2009, in case you forgot) Avenged Sevenfold is a fairly decent follow-up to the band’s 2005 smash City of Evil which featured both “Beast and the Harlot” and the ever popular Hunter S. Thompson inspired “Bat Country.”

Even though the lyrical subject matter isn’t exactly my favorite, there are parts of this album which I absolutely love, primarily the intro. Any metal band that can open an album with an organ clearly knows the history of its genre and is totally embracing it. It’s the type of thing which makes you get goose bumps the first time you hear it.

By and large, Avenged Sevenfold sees Avenged Sevenfold revisiting familiar territory-long, twisted, and entertaining guitar solos-that would be why they were one of the few bands less than twenty years old to end up in the Guitar Hero II game-and growing artistically. All kidding aside, more than once I was tempted to pick my air axe and shred along while banging my head before I remembered that I was “working” and shouldn’t be too dazzled by string arrangements.

The fifth track “Gunslinger” is surprisingly pretty accoustic-y balled. Not exactly the type of song one would expect from a band like Avenged Sevenfold, but that’s precisely what makes it great. To paraphrase that hair-metal heavyweight Tommy Lee about writing “Home Sweet Home,”: “There’s got to be other stuff going on too.” That is to say its one thing to write heavy riffs and rude songs on a continuous basis, but to be a great musician there has to more going than that.

The guys in Avenged Sevenfold have proven themselves to be top shredders up until this point and with this album they’re starting to define themselves competent musicians with a real shot at long and illustrious career. For as good as this album is, it’s quite evident that this merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg of what the band hopes to accomplish down the line.

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