After two successful metalcore introductory albums, the Huntington Beach native band, Avenged Sevenfold, catapulted into mainstream media with their pivot into alternative metal with their third album, City Of Evil. Their change in musical style was a drastic transformation from the first two studio albums, creating a lighter and more upbeat sound, but it ultimately launched them into their immeasurable success.
City Of Evil was the starting point of Avenged Sevenfold experimenting with newer sounds, which followed throughout their later discography. This album kept the band’s unique, complex drum groove, intricate guitar riffs, and their shredding vocals. After damaging his vocal cords screaming in the first two albums, the singer M. Shadows adopted a new, powerful singing style for City Of Evil. This new album moved away from the speed and brutality of the earlier sound and focused on heavier melodies and storytelling. Where there was less screaming in this album, there was a myriad of Sin City stylistic imagery and wicked lyricism. City Of Evil incorporated biblical themes in the narrative with each individual song, bringing the album together as a cohesive collection, rather than one linear storyline.
City Of Evil starts with a growl in the opening song, “Beast and the Harlot”, followed immediately with a quicken heartbeat of drums as the first track transports you to a symbolic city of gold, dressed in jewels, and filled with demons. The opening track offers the listener the chance to dive into the realm of sin, revenge, drugs and rebellion, with motifs that shadow throughout the rest of the album.
“He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man” begins the most iconic song off the album, “Bat Country.” Even If you hadn’t heard of Avenged Sevenfold during this album’s fame in 2005, you had most definitely seen the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas inspired music video for “Bat Country” on MTV. The song title and various lyrics were derived from the Hunter S. Thompson novel and even ending with another: “too weird to live, and too rare to die.”
While the beginning half of City Of Evil is a full force fast-paced rhythm, the story shifts mid album at the 6th track, “Seize The Day”, with a slowed down, heartfelt, somber plea. This song evokes the reality of mortality and deviates the direction of the second half of the album with the theme of betrayal and anger in the familiar Sin City flare.
The album ends with the song “M.I.A.,” starting off very slowly and melodic, quickly breaking into a familiar fast paced, ending the album with a question of morality and the psychological and emotional toll of war. This ending song completes the energetic album with slow and sorrowful vocals accompanied with a somber guitar, bookending the narrative with illustrations of remorse and mourning. While more recent albums have been considered their most popular, and while some fans say they miss the first two albums’ sound, Avenged Sevenfold would not be where they are without the pivotal album, City Of Evil. The unapologetic album was a gift for their fans, and a living memory of the entire band’s collaboration together with their original drummer and friend, the late James “The Rev” Sullivan.
