City of Evil is Avenged Sevenfold's third full-length album. It was released on June 7, 2005 by Warner Brothers. This album is somewhat of a departure from the band's previous metalcore style, most notably in that lead vocalist M. Shadows has largely departed from screamed vocals. The guitar work in the songs is also more technical and in a more metal style. Much like Judas Priest's Turbo album, this new style has created controversy between older fans; some labeling the band as sell-outs due to their new, more mainstream sound. On the other hand, the album has earned the band many newer fans that they could not have had with their older sound. It has been rumored that true reason behind the change of vocal style had to do with M. Shadows blowing out his vocal box, though the band currently denies this (yet M. Shadows does not sing in their previous style when performing older songs live). The album was certified gold in January 2006 and ranked number 63 on the October 2006 issue of Guitar World magazine's list of the 100 greatest guitar albums of all time.[1]
Reception
Avenged Sevenfold's third CD showed a great departure for them both musically and sonically. The album was met with solid reviews from critics and garnered a lot of attention. The album is their best selling record to date, with approximately 800,000 copies sold in the United States alone.
Track listing
- "Beast and the Harlot" – 5:40
- "Burn It Down" – 4:58
- "Blinded in Chains" – 6:34
- "Bat Country" – 5:13
- "Trashed and Scattered" – 5:53
- "Seize the Day" – 5:32
- "Sidewinder" – 7:01
- "The Wicked End" – 7:10
- "Strength of the World" – 9:14
- "Betrayed" – 6:47
- "M.I.A." – 8:46
- All songs written by Avenged Sevenfold
Videography
City of Evil features most of the songs that Avenged Sevenfold has made videos for. On May 4, 2005, they released a promotional video for "Burn It Down", which was done in the same way as "Unholy Confessions" on Waking the Fallen (live video with dubbed music). On July 28, 2005, their first professional video for a song on the album, "Bat Country", was released. It was directed by Marc Klasfeld. On February 6, 2006, "Beast and the Harlot" was released. This was a few weeks after it had been leaked on YouTube.com It was directed by Tony Petrossian. More recently, on June 30, 2006, the video for "Seize the Day" was released on Avenged Sevenfold's MySpace. The video was directed by Wayne Isham.
Facts
- "Bat Country" was written in dedication to the infamous writer/reporter, Hunter S. Thompson. The title comes from the 18th page 3rd chapter of Thompson's book, "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas", where Raoul Duke (Hunter S. Thompson) says "We can't stop here. This is bat country."[2]
- "Betrayed" refers to deranged fan Nathan Gale shooting and killing guitarist Dimebag Darrell Lance Abbott (Damageplan/Pantera) at point blank range on stage at Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio.
- "M.I.A." was written after M. Shadows talked with friends who were fighting in Iraq.
- Various songs from the album were featured on EA Games, and on other media. They consist of:
- In the film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, you can see a City of Evil album billboard outside the Virgin megastore where Borat is going to a Pamela Anderson signing.
- On a game on the Taste Of Chaos website there is a City of Evil picture on a bin when fighting in the theme park
- City of Evil gets its name from a lyric in "Beast and the Harlot," though it should be noted that the phrase "City of Evil" in the song may refer to the city in the book of Revelation (Babylon), where the album title may refer both to that as well as Las Vegas, the setting of part of Thompson's book
- The main riff of Beast and The Harlot was based on one of Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train chorus riffs, as confirmed by Synyster Gates in a 2006 interview.
Credits
References
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