Avenged Sevenfold Music Videos, Pictures and Photos including Bat Country Music Videos on Roxwel

Avenged Sevenfold

In the Bible, God marked the murder Cain and sentenced him to exile, remarking that anyone who would dare to kill Cain instead of letting him die alone would suffer vengeance seven times over. Harsh stuff - and the inspiration for Avenged Sevenfold’s name. It’s not much of a surprise that they decided to name their band after a quote from the bible; founding members M. Shadows (vocals) and The Rev (drums) met in Catholic school, of all places. When they were finally expelled from Catholic school they began attending local public schools, where they began jamming with guitarists Zacky Vengeance and Synyster Gates around 1998. The band released their first album that year, Sounding the Seventh Trumpet, while still in high school.

Sounding the Seventh Trumpet was eventually released on independent Cali label Hopeless Records (Against All Authority, Mustard Plug), who also released a second album for the band in 2003, Waking The Fallen. The albums were a relative success, selling about 500,000 copies combined - not bad for a small independent label. The band’s bootstraps success caught the attention of executives at Warner Bros. Records (Against Me!, Dropkick Murphys), who added Avenged Sevenfold to their ever-growing roster of rock acts in 2004.

Though Avenged Sevenfold maintained a metalcore (a fusion genre incorporating elements of hardcore punk with heavy metal, often including screamed and growled vocals) style throughout their first two albums, the band began to shift towards a more mainstream hard rock sound after their acquisition by Warner Bros., incorporating slower rhythms and less hoarse vocals as well as bits of southern rock and heavy metal into their music. Avenged Sevenfold made their major label debut in 2005 with the release of their highly successful third album, City of Evil. The band’s first Gold certified record, City of Evil managed to appease most of the band’s older fans while still maintaining mainstream appeal, drawing in new listeners with the success of tracks like "Seize The Day", "Bat Country", and "Beast and the Harlot". "Bat Country" was particularly popular, with a trippy Hunter S. Thompson-inspired music video that saw heavy rotation on MTV.