Album Review by Mark Bayross
The major label debut from Californians Avenged Sevenfold sees them up the ante from their well-received WAKING THE FALLEN album with a record that is epic in scale and mood. Its 11 songs span a whopping 73 minutes, something which should really get the prog rock alarms sounding.
Nonetheless, this all works beautifully, so long as you like your metal circa late 70s to mid 80s. The crunchy guitars are modern enough and the shiny production allows for some glorious arrangements to come through, but stadium rock solos abound, often pushed to the squealing “these go up to eleven” limit.
Obvious comparisons include Iron Maiden, Guns N’ Roses and “…And Justice For All”-era Metallica, but with touches like the Spanish guitar on SIDEWINDER and the astonishing orchestral interlude on WICKED END, not to mention the haunting closer M.I.A., the ambition shown here can’t fail to impress.
Technically superb, but the album suffers from a degree of sameness, especially the first half, and a love of ridiculously overblown guitar solos is definitely needed.
