Avenged Sevenfold have become almost unstoppable in the eight years since their break out album Bat Country.
They’ve come a very long way from their days pumping out screamo-influenced metalcore complete with screaming vocals and breakdowns. The style change on Bat Country could not have been more pronounced, situating the band as a metal/hard rock revivalist movement drawing on classic bands such as Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Guns ‘N Roses.
The group’s latest release is their second #1 debut in the US, making them one of the biggest rock groups in the world. So what do we have here? 10 tracks of old fashioned crushing hard rock.
The songs run the gamut of their genre, showing off chugging riffs and harmonised solos. The pace of the songs is a little slower this time, pounding along steadily rather than keeping a breakneck double time pace. The change is a welcome one though, giving the tracks room to breathe and spread.
If the LP has a major failing point, it is a certain lack of originality that is unavoidably noticeable, as the influences are too easy to pick on some of the tracks, particularly “This Means War”. However, the sheer fact that the band is making this kind of music in 2013 is something to celebrate considering an album largely sans electronica is an anomaly these days.
The ballads that we first heard on Bat Country are here to stay, with “Crimson Day” and “Acid Rain” bringing the feelings home. The former feels a little throwaway, but the latter is one of the best tracks on the album, giving Hail to the King a dramatic closer.
