ARTIST: Avenged Sevenfold
ALBUM: Avenged Sevenfold
RELEASED: 2007

RATING: 9/10
STANDOUT TRACKS: "Critical Acclaim", "Dear God", "Lost", "Brompton Cocktail", "A Little Piece of Heaven", "Scream"

REVIEW: Avenged Sevenfold. Either you love 'em or you hate 'em... or you think they're okay. But I digress. This album is VERY diverse; about as diverse as Waking the Fallen, though not quite as over-the-top as City of Evil. The safe-bet tracks that A7X fans are gonna love are the ones they've already been playing live: "Scream", "Critical Acclaim" and "Almost Easy", but there's alot here to love. Honestly I've had it on repeat almost the entire day, so that should say something (besides the fact that I'm too lazy to change it).

"Critical Acclaim" starts the album off with an epic church organ intro, then breaking into standard A7X fare. But one thing you will notice on this album: the vocals have expanded in all directions. Lots of experimenting, lots of whispers and odd vocal patterns. There's even a few tracks with added female vocals and one with a child singing part of the song. "Almost Easy" is the rock-radio single, but it's still pretty damned good. "Scream" is a little cheesy and almost dancey, but it's still good. "Gunslinger" has a little country guitar intro then breaks into full rocking out. "Brompton Cocktail" adds a little orchestration into the mix, while the first half of "A Little Piece of Heaven" sounds alot like the band Creature Feature and "Dear God" is a slide guitar ballad with some female vocals thrown in as well. The whole album is great, not too different from "City of Evil", but also not as over-the-top as its predecesor was. Whether you miss their Waking the Fallen days or not, there is not denying the musicianship on this album. This is definitely an air-guitar album, without feeling too cheesy.