Sound: Virtuosic guitars, pummeling and dirty grooves and coarse but melodic vocals lead the way on Avenged Sevenfold’s latest take on progressive metal. The songs are multi-sectioned epics, as usual, but they jump from one mood (or genre) to the next with a wider range of sounds than ever before. Look for a few occurrences of orchestrated strings and grandiose choirs, along with some country-flavored power ballads and a carnivalesque freakout reminiscent of Mr. Bungle.
Heavy Rotation tracks: “A Little Piece of Heaven”; “Brompton Cocktail”
Medium Rotation tracks: The rest
Recommended: Avenged Sevenfold is one of the more extravagant and ambitious rock albums of all time. Unlike their past releases, at least parts of this one should appeal to an audience well beyond metal fans. In that sense, they can be compared to their idols Guns ‘n’ Roses during the Use Your Illusion era. However, they’re not nearly the songwriters that Axl. & co. were. On the whole, Avenged Sevenfold is an exciting embarrassment of riches, but you can’t help but think of the possibilities here if the songs were better crafted and more memorable.
Grade: A- (Top 20 Albums of 2007 Candidate)

Listen to Tracks/Buy Music:
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