City of Evil

City of Evil is the third studio album by Avenged Sevenfold released on June 6, 2005[3] by Warner Records. Co-produced by Andrew Murdock, City of Evil contains a more traditional heavy metal and hard rock sound than Avenged Sevenfold's previous two albums, which showcased a predominantly metalcore sound. The album is also notable for the absence of screaming vocals. M. Shadows worked for months before the album's release with vocal coach Ron Anderson, whose clients have included Axl Rose and Chris Cornell, to achieve a sound that had "grit while still having the tone". In order to increase stamina and strength on the pedals, The Rev would sit for hours practicing until he could get up to 210 beats per minute. The album was ranked No. 63 on Guitar World magazine's "100 Greatest Guitar Albums of All Time". City of Evil also appears in Kerrang!'s "666 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" and "50 Albums You Need To Hear Before You Die".[4] The album was ranked No. 35 in Kerrang's list of "50 Greatest Metal Albums Ever" in 2016.[5] Rolling Stone listed the album at No. 100 on its list of The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time.[6]

City of Evil
Studio album by Avenged Sevenfold
Released	June 6, 2005
Recorded	2004–April 2005
Genre	Heavy metal[1] hard rock[2]
Length	72:43
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Avenged Sevenfold Andrew Murdock
Avenged Sevenfold chronology
Waking the Fallen (2003) City of Evil (2005) Avenged Sevenfold (2007)
Singles from City of Evil
"Burn It Down" Released: June 12, 2005 "Bat Country" Released: August 9, 2005 "Beast and the Harlot" Released: March 6, 2006 "Seize the Day" Released: July 7, 2006

The album contains some of Avenged Sevenfold's most popular and famous songs, including "Bat Country", which is arguably their most successful to date, being one of their two singles certified Gold by the RIAA. City of Evil was very successful after its release, debuting at number 30 on the Billboard 200 chart and certified as a platinum record by the Recording Industry Association of America in August 2009. It went on to sell over 1,500,000 copies in the United States, and 2,500,000 total worldwide, making it the best-selling album out of Avenged Sevenfold's discography as of 2020.

"Bat Country", "Beast and the Harlot" and "Seize the Day", were also released as music videos, directed by Marc Klasfeld, Tony Petrossian, and Wayne Isham, respectively. "Blinded in Chains" was also featured in the video game, Need For Speed: Most Wanted, and is also the theme of the Blacklist member, Vince "Taz" Kilic and the promo of the Japanese-Canadian anime Bakugan Battle Brawlers on TV3.

The album title is derived from a lyric in the song, "Beast and the Harlot".

History

Previously, Avenged Sevenfold had written and released two albums, Sounding the Seventh Trumpet in 2001 and Waking the Fallen in 2003, under the Goodlife Records and the Hopeless Records labels, respectively.[7] Although neither album was a smash hit, the latter has been certified gold by the RIAA. Waking the Fallen attracted several major record labels to the band, and eventually they signed with Warner Bros. Records after consideration of several others.[8]

Musical changes

When they began to write the album, Avenged Sevenfold turned to their influences for a change in style. The album abandons the band's metalcore sound.[9] "When we started working on this record, we said, 'You know what? None of our favorite bands are super extreme, they just write really good melodic songs that are still heavy," said singer M. Shadows in an interview.[7] The album is partially influenced by European power metal bands such as Blind Guardian, Sonata Arctica and Helloween, as well as Children of Bodom.[10]

M. Shadows' vocal changes

Shadows turned to Ron Anderson, a vocal coach that had previously worked with Axl Rose and Chris Cornell.[9][11] Shadows was specifically looking to add a more gritty, raspy tone to his voice and worked with Anderson for several months on this before City of Evil was recorded.[11]

"Ron taught me how to have that grit to my voice while still having the tone. He brought all of that to the table and he brought that technique to my voice. I’ve worked with him for about a year and a half now, but I worked with him for nine months before the record," said Shadows, "I told him that I want my voice to sound different from everybody else, but I wanted those characteristics in my voice...It was one of those things that we just wanted to go all the way with it."[11]

Videography

City of Evil features most of the songs that Avenged Sevenfold has made videos for. On May 4, 2005, they released a promotional video for "Burn It Down", which was done in the same way as "Unholy Confessions" from Waking the Fallen (live footage with dubbed music). On July 28, 2005, their first professional video for a song on the album, "Bat Country", was released. It was directed by Marc Klasfeld. On February 6, 2006, "Beast and the Harlot" was released. This was a few weeks after it had been leaked on YouTube. It was directed by Tony Petrossian. Most recently, on June 30, 2006, the video for "Seize the Day" was released on Avenged Sevenfold's MySpace. The video was directed by Wayne Isham.

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Blender	[12]
IGN	7.9/10[13]
Metal Hammer	[14]
Punknews.org	[15]
Rolling Stone	[16]
Sputnikmusic	[17]

The album debuted at No. 30 on the Billboard 200 selling over 30,000 copies.[18][19] Rolling Stone praised the guitar work, giving the album three out of a possible five stars.[16] Johnny Loftus of Allmusic rated the album three-and-a-half stars out of five and commented "...Avenged Sevenfold gets all the pieces right, and sound like they're having more fun here than in the scattershot approach of the first couple records".[1] The British version of the German magazine, Metal Hammer gave the album an eight out of ten rating with Katie Parsons concluding "They have done it their way, they're having fun and who the hell can blame them?".

In addition, "Bat Country" was one of the breakout singles of 2005, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks, No. 6 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks, and No. 1 on MTV's Total Request Live.[20] Additionally, the band won Best New Artist at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, beating out Rihanna, Panic! at the Disco, James Blunt, Angels & Airwaves and Chris Brown.[21][22]

Track listing

All songs credited to Avenged Sevenfold.[23]

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Beast and the Harlot"	5:42
2.	"Burn It Down"	5:00
3.	"Blinded in Chains"	6:34
4.	"Bat Country"	5:13
5.	"Trashed and Scattered"	5:53
6.	"Seize the Day"	5:35
7.	"Sidewinder"	7:01
8.	"The Wicked End"	7:10
9.	"Strength of the World"	9:14
10.	"Betrayed"	6:47
11.	"M.I.A."	8:48
Total length:		72:42

Personnel

Personnel listing as adapted from album liner notes:[23]

Avenged Sevenfold M. Shadows – lead vocals, backing vocals Zacky Vengeance – rhythm guitar, co-lead guitar, backing vocals, acoustic guitar on "Seize the Day", gang vocals on "Strength of the World" The Rev – drums, backing vocals, piano on "Seize the Day", gang vocals on "Strength of the World" Synyster Gates – lead guitar, backing vocals, piano on "Beast and the Harlot" and "Sidewinder", gang vocals on "Strength of the World" Johnny Christ – bass, backing vocals, gang vocals on "Strength of the World" Production Produced by Mudrock and Avenged Sevenfold, with additional production by Fred Archambault and Scott Gilman Mixed by Andy Wallace Pro Tools by John O'Mahony, assisted by Steve Sisco Mastered by Eddie Schreyer Additional vocal production by The Rev, Synyster Gates and M. Shadows Orchestration by Scott Gilman, The Rev, Synyster Gates and M. Shadows Drum tech – Mike Fasano Guitar tech – Stephen Ferrara-Grand

Session musicians Brian Haner – additional guitars, pedal steel guitar, acoustic guitar solo left on "Sidewinder" Orchestra Violinists – Samuel Fischer (soloist), Mark Robertson, Songa Lee-Kitto, Sam Formicola, Bruce Dukov, Alan Grunfeld, Larry Greenfield, Liane Mautner Violists – David Walther, Matthew Funes, Alma Fernandez Cellists – Victor Lawrence (soloist), David Low, David Mergen Choir Choir leader – Jeannine Wagner Choir performers – Zachary Biggs, Colton Beyer-Johnson, Josiah Yiu, Nathan Cruz, Stephen Cruz, C.J. Cruz, Sean Sullivan, Alan Hong, Nico Walsh, Sally Stevens

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (2005) Peak position UK Albums (OCC)[24] 63 US Billboard 200[25] 30

Year-end charts Chart (2006) Position US Billboard 200[26] 152

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[27]	Gold	50,000^^
United Kingdom (BPI)[28]	Gold	100,000^^
United States (RIAA)[29]	Platinum	1,000,000^^
^^shipments figures based on certification alone

References

1. Loftus, Johnny (2005-06-07). "City of Evil - Avenged Sevenfold". AllMusic. Retrieved 2011-12-05.
2. "James "The Rev" Sullivan - Modern Drummer Magazine". 1 December 2009. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
3. Avenged Sevenfold site Official release. Retrieved March 2012
4. http://www.kerrang.com/27937/50-rock-punk-metal-hardcore-albums-need-hear-die/
5. "Kerrang!'s 50 Greatest Metal Albums Ever. - Avenged Sevenfold". 3 February 2016. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
6. "The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
7. Weiderhorn, Joe (June 9, 2005). "Avenged Sevenfold Salute Dimebag, Shun Metalcore On Evil". MTV. Retrieved 13 March 2010.
8. Avenged Sevenfold, "All Excess" (2007), 38:06
9. Weiderhorn, Joe (June 9, 2005). "Avenged Sevenfold Salute Dimebag, Shun Metalcore On Evil". MTV.
10. https://www.revolvermag.com/music/avenged-sevenfold-look-back-city-evil-inspiration-backlash-breakthrough
11. "Avenged Sevenfold Feature Interview". Blistering. 2006. Archived from the original on 4 May 2009. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
13. "Avenged Sevenfold - City of Evil - Music Review at IGN". Music.ign.com. 2005-08-02. Archived from the original on 2011-06-28. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
14. Issue 141, July 2005
15. "Avenged Sevenfold - City Of Evil". Punknews.org. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
16. Eliscu, Jenny (2005-07-28). "City Of Evil". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2012-05-18.
17. Freeman, Channing (2006-08-10). "City of Evil - Avenged Sevenfold". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved 2012-02-26.
18. Whitmire, Margo Coldplay Earns First Billboard 200 No. 1 Billboard. June 15, 2005.
19. Avenged Sevenfold's "City of Evil" Unleashed June 7 Market Wire. June 22, 2005.
20. Moss, Corey Avenged Sevenfold: Appetite for Destruction Archived March 20, 2015, at the Wayback Machine MTV.
21. 100 Greatest Guitar Album of All-Time Guitar World reprinted on Rate Your Music. October, 2006.
22. Avenged Sevenfold Capture Best New Artist Ultimate Guitar. September 9, 2005.
23. City of Evil liner notes. Warner Bros. Records. 2005. pp. 4, 10, 11.
24. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
25. "Avenged Sevenfold Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
26. "Top Billboard 200 Albums – Year-End 2006". Billboard. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
27. "Canadian album certifications – Avenged Sevenfold – City of Evil". Music Canada. Retrieved July 21, 2006.
28. "British album certifications – Avenged Sevenfold – City of Evil". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved November 5, 2010. Select albums in the Format field. Select Gold in the Certification field. Type City of Evil in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
29. "American album certifications – Avenged Sevenfold – City of Evil". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved August 27, 2009. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH. 

• Avenged Sevenfold (July 17, 2007). All Excess (DVD). Warner Bros., Adam Cook & Core Entertainment, Inc.

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics: Burn it down