Avenged Sevenfold, one of those bands that is different. Either you like them or you don't. Their arrogant looks and their names (see bottom). Their music? Well, when I first heard "A7X" (Short for Avenged Sevenfold), which was on "Waking the Fallen", I thought they were just another 'different' metal band. Afterwards I heard their "Sounding the Seventh Trumpet" (Which was released earlier) and learned that they had a totally different, more brutal sound back then. So, the new record, what to expect from that one?

The first thing noticed when looking at the latest Avenged Sevenfold record: "City of Evil", is that it is much more evil in terms of cover. Where "Waking the Fallen" had a nice slip-on cover with their logo (a skull with wings), black and simple with one the inside some drawn lady in a swamp. Anyway the new one has a maiden-like cover with a winged skeleton (Derived from the original logo, which can be found on the back, I presume) on a horse and a burning "City of Evil" in the background. Now that is evil!

The first song on the record is the "Beast and the Harlot". It was downloadable for a while from their site, maybe it still is. Well, screams and a slow solo starts of a rampaging, on the edge, rock 'n roll, metal song. With all the vocals just on or just over the edge, happy solo's and melodies.

Most songs are like this one, metal with a dark, movietheater-like athmosphere, a lot of chaotic riffs and breaks, everything on the edge. "Seize the Day" and "Sidewinder" are a little slower though. In addition to that, "Sidewinder" has a great outro with banjo's, African drums, the works. Loved that.

The other songs on the second half of the record also have some slower breaks, lowering the tension. "Strength of the World" is a little different from the rest. It has a long clean guitar intro and throughout the rest of the song it has suprisingly different backings (hardcoreish).

All in all this is a very technical record with an attitude. Though the lyrics are pretty mediocre, I loved listening to the vocals and demonic stories. This is truely an evil record. It's time for a new metal genre. Gay-metal is born.