Avenged Sevenfold

Having fully shed their metalcore skin on this pure hard rock effort, A7X inject their aggressive past with mainstream styles like country and red state rock. Alternating between the raging singles "Critically Acclaimed" and "Almost Easy," the softer, twangy ballad "Gunslinger," and the Kid Rock-esque "Dear God," the group displays a bevy of newly disparate influences, capping it all off with pop oddities "Lost" and "A Little Piece of Heaven."

These guys excel at the complex, pummeling Eighties-metal moves that first came into
circulation when they were in diapers. "Critical Acclaim" is a barnburner built around a
half-dozen or so rather dope riffs. Problem is, there's not much else here beyond the deft
instrumental assault: The tunes -- or at least whatever M. Shadows feels like bellowing --
sound like the kind of lame, nu-metal angst-mongering that dominated the radio i... More >