If you see a deathbat sporting the stage then you know Avenged Sevenfold are about to take it and rock your mind off.
Avenged Sevenfold, usually shortened A7X, is an American rock band from Huntington Beach, California. They are leaders in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal.
They started off as being very heavy and ended up as a hard rock type band.
The band's name is a reference to the Book of Genesis in the Bible, where Cain is sentenced to live in exile for 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 suffer "vengeance seven times over" (KJV).
Avenged Sevenfold was formed in 1999 when the band members were eighteen years old. The first album, ‘Sounding the Seventh Trumpet’, was released in 1999. Synyster Gates was the last one to join them after the release of said album.
In 2003, after the release of their second album ‘Waking the Fallen’, they were signed to Warner Bros. Records.
The first two albums were metalcore and the vocals consisted of screaming.
City of Evil, released in 2005, strayed from the vocal line adopted and recorded a record with no screaming.
M. Shadows had issued with throat and vocal cord damage and is that that the new vocal changes were due to this fact. However after the surgery recovery and training with vocal coach Ron Anderson, Shadows says his voice is back to normal, actually even better.
Their self titles album was released out on October 30, 2007 and was a success with approximately 94,000 copies sold.
Video clips were made for ‘Almost East’, ‘Little Piece of Heaven’ and ‘Afterlife’.
A7X played along Atreyu, Bullet for My Valentine, Idiot Pilot, Blessthefall, My Chemical Romance and worked with Bleeding Through, Korn, Cowboy Troy and Good Charlotte.
Although lyrically their songs are derived from the Bible like ‘Chapter Four’, ‘Beast and the Harlot’ and ‘The Wicked End’ and their names as well as the band’s title make references to religion M. Shadows stated in an interview that they are not a religious band.
"Anyone that reads 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."
A7X doesn’t only write about religious themes, they have some songs that are political in nature like ‘Critical Acclaim’ and ‘Blinded in Chains’.
M. Shadows support for the US troops can be understood from songs like ‘M.I.A.’, ‘Gunslinger’ and ‘Dear God’.
There’s one message that slipped between their lines and settled in my brain and all of us should scream and believe in: NO COMPROMISE!
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