Avenged Sevenfold Biography

Avenged Sevenfold, sometimes abbreviated to A7X, is a hard rock/metalcore band from Huntington Beach, California.

Their first album was titled Sounding the Seventh Trumpet, and was recorded when the band members were eighteen years old. It was released originally on their first label, Good Life Recordings, and then again on Hopeless Records. Their follow-up album was entitled Waking the Fallen, also released on Hopeless, was very well received and was awarded a positive rating in Rolling Stone magazine. Shortly after the release of Waking the Fallen, Avenged Sevenfold was signed to Warner Bros. Records.

City of Evil, released on June 7, 2005, stays with metalcore, and adds a more "hard rock" sound with obvious influences ranging from various bands. Although the band have been labeled metal, metalcore, emo, and hard rock in many publications, the band themselves claim that they are a "heavy-metal" band and have no musical similarities to metalcore in any way although this is heavily debated by their peers. During the recording of City of Evil, M. Shadows' vocal stylings have changed more to focus on melodic singing than on hardcore screaming. M.Shadows had minor surgery on his vocal cords; however this is not the reason for changing his singing style.

The band's name is a reference to the book of Genesis in the Bible and the story of Cain and Abel, where Cain is punished to live in exile, alone and miserable. Anyone who relieved Cain of his misery by killing him would have "vengeance taken upon him sevenfold." The title of Avenged Sevenfold's song "Chapter Four" references Genesis IV, 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 and refers to the punishment of Babylon and the destruction of Pagan nations. The song "The Wicked End" also has a reference to the bible, specifically Adam and Eve. In the song, several times it is said "dust the apple off, savor each bite, but 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 obvious references to religion, Shadows stated in an interview that they are "not really religious at all." "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." [1]

Their song "Blinded in Chains" was used in the soundtrack for the video game Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Another song, "Bat Country," was used in the soundtracks for SSX on Tour, NHL 06 and Madden 06, following in the footsteps of "Chapter Four" which had also been on the soundtrack for NHL 2004, Madden 2004 and NASCAR Thunder 2004. The song "Beast and the Harlot" was in the soundtrack for Burnout Revenge. All the above games, not coincidentally, are produced by various divisions of Electronic Arts. "Beast and the Harlot" will appear in RedOctane's Guitar Hero II, scheduled for release on November 7, 2006. The song "Burn it Down" is featured on the October 24th, 2006 release of the Saw III soundtrack.

During recent tours (Coheed and Cambria spring 2006 tour and Ozzfest 2006), Avenged Sevenfold have been performing the song "Walk," originally by Pantera, as part of a tribute to the late "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott.

Recently at the MTV Video Music Awards, Avenged Sevenfold received the award for best new artist. They took the award over several other artists--Angels and Airwaves, Panic! at the Disco, Chris Brown, Rihanna, and James Blunt.

After canceling fall and winter 2006 tour dates, the band is planning their unnamed fourth studio album. . M. Shadows has stated that it won't be a "City of Evil Part 2" or "Waking the Fallen Part 2", because they want to change their sound once more.

Prior to canceling their tour, the band was scheduled to play with metalcore band Bleeding Through on their European tour.