Early years
The band was formed in 1999. Avenged Sevenfold's first album, Sounding the Seventh Trumpet, was recorded when the band members were eighteen years old. It was originally released on their first label, Good Life Recordings. After lead guitarist Synyster Gates joined the band, the introductory track "To End The Rapture" was re-recorded with Gates playing, and the album was re-released on Hopeless Records. Their follow-up album, entitled Waking the Fallen, was also released on Hopeless Records and was awarded a positive rating in Rolling Stone magazine. Shortly after its release, Avenged Sevenfold were signed to Warner Bros. Records.
Mainstream success
City of Evil, the third album which was released on 7 June 2005, strayed from metalcore, and M. Shadows chose to abandon the screaming from the first two albums. Although Shadows acknowledges throat and vocal chord damage, and the following surgery to help correct the issues, he says that the change in vocal style was not a result. In their new DVD "All Excess", Mudrock, producer of Avenged's second and third albums, said prior to Waking the Fallen, Shadows had stated that he wanted a CD with half-screaming, then one with no screaming, which was achieved in City of Evil. But he maintains that he's able to scream even better than before since the surgery and training with vocal coach Ron Anderson, who worked with various artists, from Axl Rose, to Kylie Minogue, and Chris Cornell.
Recent events
In 2006 A7X completed a worldwide tour, including the US, England, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. After canceling Fall and Winter 2006 tour dates, the band announced that they were planning their fourth studio album, a self-titled album, scheduled for release on 30 October 2007. M. Shadows has stated that it will not be a City of Evil Part 2 or Waking the Fallen Part 2, but he says it will attract fans of both original albums while still being a surprise. Avenged Sevenfold has stated that the mixing of the new album was finished by early August 2007.They played their first tour dates of 2007, an Asian tour with stops in Indonesia, Singapore, and Japan. On 9 August 2007, the track listing of the new album was released via the band's MySpace, and on 17 August, the band released a clip of the opening track, "Critical Acclaim", along with the announcement that it would be released via iTunes as the first single on 28 August. The song was also put up in full to be streamed on their MySpace, as well. The music video for the first single off the new album, "Almost Easy", was added to the Kerrang TV playlist in the UK on the 27 September.
To "tide fans over" until the release of the new album, Avenged Sevenfold released their first DVD, All Excess, on 17 July 2007. The DVD includes a documentary and live footage dating back to 1999 along with music videos and the making of the Seize The Day music video. It is a region-free DVD and is approximately 156 minutes long. Before the actual release of the DVD, there were several theatrical premiers around the United States on 16 July 2007.
Band name and lyrical content
The band's name is a reference to the book of Genesis in the Bible where Cain is sentenced to live in exile for the crime of murdering his brother. God marked him so that none would kill him on account of his sin; the man who dared to kill Cain would have "vengeance taken upon him sevenfold." The title of Avenged Sevenfold's song "Chapter Four" references Genesis 4:15, the chapter of the Bible in which the story of Cain and Abel takes place. The song's subject also appears to be this story. "Beast and the Harlot", yet another song derived from the Bible, comes from the book of Revelation only it is written in the first person and refers to the punishment of Babylon the Great, world empire and seat of false religion. Another biblical reference occurs in the song "The Wicked End". In the song, several times it is said "dust the apple off, savor each bite, and deep inside you know Adam was right." making reference to Eve eating the forbidden fruit. Although the band's title and members' stage names make references to religion, Shadows stated in an interview that they are not a religious band. "Anyone that read the lyrics and really knew anything about us, they would know we're not promoting either", he said. "That's one thing about this band that I love is that we never really shove any kind of, like, political or religious beliefs on people. We just, the music's there to entertain and maybe thought-provoking on both sides, but we don't try to, like, really shove anything down anyone's throat. There's too many bands that do that nowadays, I think." The band have since decided to include political lyrics on the song Critical Acclaim.
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