City of Evil

After Waking the Fallen won over the public and offered a more accessible style than what the Californians had given us on their debut album Sounding the Seventh Trumpet, the arrival of City of Evil was an opportunity for them to prove themselves.

They decided to push the melodics even further, something only Synyster Gates is capable of coming up with, while moving somewhat away from the plodding metalcore of their first album, which had nevertheless formed the founding pillar of the band.

The hits keep coming on this album. The production is flawless, the melodies are as catchy as can be, from the very catchy “Beast and the Harlot” to the almost cheesy melodic flights of “Lost.”

Some passages sometimes flirt with technical showmanship (“Blinded in Chains”), and the length of certain songs can give the impression that the band struggles to hold back its ideas (“Strength of the World”).

But that is also what makes City of Evil so charming: Avenged Sevenfold never really strives for restraint and fully embraces its excesses, as is the case with “M.I.A.,” featuring M. Shadows’ vocals, which are the polar opposite of the metalcore voice he had given us on the band’s earlier releases, and S. Gates’ final guitar solo, which he still considers one of the most difficult to play live today, going so far as to admit that the studio was a puzzle for this song.

With its screaming guitar solos, guitar harmonizations, and choruses made for live shows, the band finds a particularly effective balance here between virtuosity and accessibility. City of Evil above all marks the moment when Avenged Sevenfold stops being simply an excellent metalcore band and becomes one of the most ambitious bands of its generation.