2008 Woodie Awards
Metal blenders: Avenged Sevenfold fuse genres, reach the masses
Listen Up!
Brian Washburn
Issue date: 3/3/08 Section: Life & Style
The blending of musical genres is not uncommon today. In fact, these blendings have become their own genres and then have been redundantly blended with other blended genres. Follow?
However, take one - half metal, one - fourth hardcore, one - eighth '80s metal, one - eighth attitude and, to top it off, a dab of southern rock.
This makes for one crazy, musical margarita. But if you think that this genre - whether you deem it metalcore, hard rock or simply metal - would never crack the top 10, let alone capture the number one spot on MTV's TRL, then you'd be dead wrong. Just ask Avenged Sevenfold.
The southern California band of all metal genres topped the MTV playlist with their single "Bat Country." Pretty surprising for a song which features fast - paced drums, dueling guitar harmonies, metal solos, a villainous voice and a Hunter S. Thompson-themed music video (keep in mind, this is TRL, not Headbanger's Ball).
Although it has been a couple of years since that magical, mysterious feat was reached by the band, they hope to continue that success with their new, self-titled, self-produced album.
"We wanted to break open any pigeon holes and break out all the styles of music we love," said Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Zacky Vengeance, over a telephone interview. "We wanted to be very brave and show that we're so much more than what people label us. We're better song writers than just a good metal band.
"We've set out to break all sorts of boundaries and barriers," he said. "To have a song or songs appeal to pop culture shows that we can do everything we've ever set out to do. It gives us confidence in our songs abilities."
Avenged Sevenfold - vocalist M. Shadows, guitarists Synyster Gates and Vengeance, bassist Johnny Christ and drummer The Rev (don't even ask about these nicknames. They play metal. What do you expect?) - will have the chance to showcase their versatility with a headlining spot on this winter's inaugural arena festival Taste of Chaos tour, alongside metal-vets Atreyu and breakthrough groups Bullet For My Valentine and Blessthefall. However, the members of Avenged are not unaccustomed to these type of tours; they have headlined Warped Tour and Ozzfest in the past and have also landed an opening for Metallica to go along with their headlining tours.
However, take one - half metal, one - fourth hardcore, one - eighth '80s metal, one - eighth attitude and, to top it off, a dab of southern rock.
This makes for one crazy, musical margarita. But if you think that this genre - whether you deem it metalcore, hard rock or simply metal - would never crack the top 10, let alone capture the number one spot on MTV's TRL, then you'd be dead wrong. Just ask Avenged Sevenfold.
The southern California band of all metal genres topped the MTV playlist with their single "Bat Country." Pretty surprising for a song which features fast - paced drums, dueling guitar harmonies, metal solos, a villainous voice and a Hunter S. Thompson-themed music video (keep in mind, this is TRL, not Headbanger's Ball).
Although it has been a couple of years since that magical, mysterious feat was reached by the band, they hope to continue that success with their new, self-titled, self-produced album.
"We wanted to break open any pigeon holes and break out all the styles of music we love," said Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Zacky Vengeance, over a telephone interview. "We wanted to be very brave and show that we're so much more than what people label us. We're better song writers than just a good metal band.
"We've set out to break all sorts of boundaries and barriers," he said. "To have a song or songs appeal to pop culture shows that we can do everything we've ever set out to do. It gives us confidence in our songs abilities."
Avenged Sevenfold - vocalist M. Shadows, guitarists Synyster Gates and Vengeance, bassist Johnny Christ and drummer The Rev (don't even ask about these nicknames. They play metal. What do you expect?) - will have the chance to showcase their versatility with a headlining spot on this winter's inaugural arena festival Taste of Chaos tour, alongside metal-vets Atreyu and breakthrough groups Bullet For My Valentine and Blessthefall. However, the members of Avenged are not unaccustomed to these type of tours; they have headlined Warped Tour and Ozzfest in the past and have also landed an opening for Metallica to go along with their headlining tours.
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Deidre
posted 3/03/08 @ 4:13 PM CST
Well done. I'm a huge fan of Avenged Sevenfold, and I'm glad someone is taking initiative to write about some great music. I hope to make it to Little Rock; I can't believe A7X is actually coming to Arkansas. (Continued…)
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