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City of Evil is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, released on June 6, 2005, through Warner Bros. and Hopeless Records. Co-produced by Andrew Murdock, City of Evil contains a more traditional heavy metal and hard rock sound than Avenged Sevenfold's previous two albums, which showcased a predominantly metalcore sound. The album title is derived from a lyric in the song, "Beast and the Harlot". The album is notable for the absence of fry vocals. M. Shadows worked for months before the album's release with vocal coach Ron Anderson, whose clients have included Axl Rose and Chris Cornell, to achieve a sound that had "grit while still having the tone". In order to increase stamina and strength on the pedals, The Rev would sit for hours practicing until he could get up to 210 beats per minute. The album contains some of Avenged Sevenfold's most popular and famous songs, including "Bat Country", which is arguably their most successful to date, being one of their two singles certified gold by the RIAA. City of Evil was very successful after its release, debuting at number 30 on the Billboard 200 chart and has been certified platinum by the RIAA in the United States and gold in both Canada and the United Kingdom. It went on to sell over 1,500,000 copies in the United States, and 2,500,000 total worldwide, making it the best-selling album out of Avenged Sevenfold's discography as of 2020. "Burn It Down", "Bat Country", "Beast and the Harlot" and "Seize the Day" were also released as music videos, directed by Marc Klasfeld, Tony Petrossian, and Wayne Isham, respectively. "Blinded in Chains" was featured in the video game Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and is the promo of the Japanese-Canadian anime Bakugan Battle Brawlers on TV3. The album was ranked No. 63 on Guitar World magazine's "100 Greatest Guitar Albums of All Time". City of Evil also appears in Kerrang!'s "666 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" and "50 Albums You Need to Hear Before You Die". The album was ranked No. 35 in Kerrang's list of "50 Greatest Metal Albums Ever" in 2016. Rolling Stone listed the album at No. 100 on its list of The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time.
Thought I liked avenged Sevenfold Guess not 2
This is an ok heavy (prog) metal album. For me the artist wants to do too much: ideas, melody changes, instruments, vocals and choirs. It gets on my nerves (while I can take a lot).
I was not looking forward to this at all… but I persevered and it was better than I had thought it was going to be. I’m not totally sold on the vocals, but they were better than the gruff screaming I expected. I also thought there was some fun and retro-feeling guitar antics. Still not my thing really but I didn’t hate it.
As a guitar player, this one had some really fun technical elements but was sunk by its runtime and rigid adherence to only one sound across the entire LP. If you're going to make an hour+ album, instrumental dynamics and contrast are essential – the base sound here is great, but too much of a good thing would kill any musical effort.
Heavy metal from the 2000s. Great time to be into terrible album covers and also terrible graphic t shirts. This album is an interesting choice as it’s not avenged sevenfolds most popular album. It does have bat country which was a classic from like nhl 2006 but other than that this album was filled too much of high pitched guitar solos and holding notes for way too long. This album isn’t that great overall and not the best A7Fold album. 4.6/10
This falls into the theory of a deadman category of “music that’s cringe and sucks with terrible vocals but nostalgia and decent guitar work force me to be nice to it”. Bat country is the closest this gets to being actually good but even that isn’t great. Also the album art goes hard; can totally imagine it being on a cutoff of the most white trash person you’ve ever seen.
Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Burn it down, Bat country
RIP The Rev. This is a classic pop prog metal album. Good stuff, nostalgic, and catchy.
Late 00s Alt Rock Radio that goes hard the whole way through
I have to give these guys credit for being the first (mainstream-leaning, US) metal band in a fairly long time to go all-out with shredding guitar solos. It had been like a decade since popular metal bands had done it (notable exceptions being Pantera and almost every European band), and Avenged Sevenfold just appeared out of nowhere with this album. They didn't half-arse it and ease into solos; it was just instant dual-guitar shred. I do have to credit them for that. I also have to say that I really do like the album Nightmare. It rocks start to finish, really gets the blood pumping. Hail to the King is pretty cool too. On this album, I dig the first half, especially beast and the harlot and bat country. That's my only real issue with this album - two songs stick out, the rest is just kinda average metal, and it's a LONG album. Also, here's some extra criticism: this band is FUCKING DUMB TO LOOK AT. I know that's such a shallow thing to say, but oh god the fucking skinny-goth-boy Top Gun look? Spare me. Similarly, the whole military vibe they've managed to build up around themselves, sorta like a less-retarded Five Finger Death Punch... ew. I know it works for them and my opinion doesn't matter, but EW all the same. Also, the singer fucking sucks. He has some weird quality to his voice, like Axl Rose's late-career Mickey Mouse impression. It's bearable, but only just. Despite all that, I still think they're kinda cool. Anyway, those are my conflicted feelings on Avenged Sevenfold. 4/5.
Metal is not my top genre though I don't mind d a little time to time and admire the technical prowess required. I was introduced Teresa's reading about the vocal training the lead did for a different vocal style - but found the results a little hit and miss. Too much Axle Rose nasal whine on a lot of it. Overall solid though and generally enjoyable.
Heavy metal, progressive metal, power metal, thrash metal, hard rock. Ni fu ni fa.
Musically I thought this was fine, with some genuinely excellent guitar work, but I really don't like the vocals. There are plenty of interesting things going on here, but some of these 7-9 minute songs could have been improved if they were just made shorter. It's just so self indulgent. I thought "Seize the Day" was fun in a Guns N' Roses-y kind of way. Fave Songs: Seize the Day, The Wicked End, Sidewinder
A lot better than I expected
It's almost a pastiche of everything and the kitchen sink thrown in. The fact they can play and are thinking about what they are doing rather than just a mindless scream saves them from a One star.