I've always preferred the self-titled album over City of Evil. I'll go as far to say it's A7X's most underrated album.

I'm thinking about checking out The Stage again. I didn't really like it when it came out, but it's now been 7 years! I haven't gone back to it since, especially as I started to get into more extreme underground metal and outgrow even their older material.

As a fan of a7x for about ten years…I personally have been amazed by the stage since its release…to the point that I still consider it one of my favorite albums of my personal experience with metal (Edit): Also, the stuff from libad so far has grown on me pretty quick…then again I may be more biased in being favorable towards this band so feel free to take my take on this with a grain of salt😂

I wanted to say Arin's not a bad drummer, he wanted to go hard as hell but the band kept pulling him back. Check out "Not Ready to Die" to hear some really hard-hitting drums.

I agree with the statement on "God Hates Us", so fucking underrated and live it's actually really damn sick.

Gates didn't play on any version of STST except for "To End The Rapture".

eh, I'm like 50/50 with this. For me it's: 1. City of Evil - I'm the complete opposite here. I know Matt's vocals can get a bit nasally in this, but outside of that, I find the writing amazing on nearly every song. The melody lines of the dueling guitars under the vocals is so powerful to me here. I don't think there's a song on here I don't enjoy every now and again. 2. Waking the Fallen - 100% such an underrated gem. This album really grew on me over time as I learned & started hearing the changes between metalcore, into their modern prog self, etc... completely agree with you on this being so enjoyable. I wish I listened to it more when I was younger. 3. The Stage - I've grown into a prog metal fan, so them going for something this proggy was awesome for me. We get a few misses here like Angels, but the quality of the writing & changes is so satisfying. 4. Nightmare - A LOT of emotion in this one as you said, and I rank it about the same, right in the middle, although for different reasons. The *good* parts of Nightmare are some of the best as Rev is writing even more on here and it feels like a *better* version of the self titled at parts, almost a part 2 to it. However, there are some lows on here like Tonight the world Dies where they do feel lost in the writing. 5. Self-titled - Here is the other part I completely disagree in lol. I think that *this* is the most overrated album from A7x. Growing up, I thought this was a masterpiece, but listening to it in 2023, outside of A little piece of heaven, almost easy, and Afterlife, everything is like, in this "Fuck it, we need more songs.. throw this in". This album & Nightmare almost feel like a pt. 1 and pt. 2 for me with Nightmare doing it a bit better overall. 6. Sounding the 7th Trumpet - yeah ... just your standard pretty low quality metalcore album of the early 2000s. I completely agree. There are a handful of songs I'll listen to, but not much besides those 3 songs or so bring me back to it. 7. Hail to the King - I can not articulate the amount of disappointment and unhappiness I felt when this released in 2013. The drums are BORING. The riffs are BORING. There's literally only one song I would listen to on this album through the years, which was "Coming Home". Like, it feels like the only song over 100bpm on this album lmao. I really don't like classic metal so, the style never grew on me. And yeah, super excited for the new album!! I'm pretty mixed on "Nobody", as it sounds like a mashup between HTTK & The Stage. "We Love You" has to be in my top 10 of A7x songs. I'm in love with the prog they're doing on it. The ending acoustics are beautiful, and the classic A7x hook is so refreshing.

City of evil, for me, has a higher appeal due to nostalgia as bay country was the first song of their I ever heard and got that album shortly after. The stage is my favorite of theirs, and Life is But a Dream sounds a lot like it so far and I’m super excited. Always a fan of how each album is different and they change stuff up

Gotta revisit their catalog ASAP! They're literally one of the first metal bands I ever listened to. As far as I remember, this is how I would rank them: Waking the Fallen Selftitled Nightmare The Stage Sounding the Seventh Trumpet City of Evil Hail to the King (won't revisit this one tho!) I'm kinda interested on Life is But a Dream but those two singles are extremely weird! I hated 'Nobody'.

There are some songs I like from A7fold. I do like their self titled album. I think I listened to the stage once tbh. Killer reviews of the albums, I enjoyed it. ❤

1:49 Wow! I didn’t know that Sounding The Seventh Trumpet was so young! Also yeah the Stage is a bop.

Great video, man. I honestly wanna say that The Stage is my favorite Avenged Sevenfold album, I'm still gonna listen to their new album come June. We'll just have to see, Nobody and We Love You are yes really goofy. Look forward to the next video

Finally! One who talks truth about City of Evil and The Stage! Thank you!

I was very surprised how mature and unique The Stage was, especially after Hail. Well, multiply that 100... fold, for the new one.

Good to see The Stage get some love. The final track, Exist, is the greatest song A7X ever did, for my money. What starts off great shoots into God-tier territory once those synths come in at around the 11-minute mark. Never in my life did I think that a blast beat could bring me to tears, but that moment during Neil DeGrasse Tyson's monologue certainly did.

Great video man, a7x are my favourite metal band ever, but you gave your opinions with well thought out points, even though I disagree massively on COE respect nevertheless

I understand the criticisms of city of evil. But man I remember when I was in 5th grade, that album blew my mind when I heard blinded in chains on need for speed most wanted😂It was the equivalent of a young kid hearing eruption by Van Halen in the late 70’s. Still my favorite album by them but you made some good points for sure.

Would we ever get a Soulfly discography video? Yes I KNOW they've been putting out the same stuff over and over again for some time now but I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts on their more inventive material.

The self-titled album was released at an interesting time. Songs like Critical Acclaim and Gunslinger were about the Iraq war basically.

I love how my obscure band/musical project is on encyclopaedia Metallum but Avenged Sevendfold is not. lol

Beast and the harlot riff was literally taken out of Blind Giardian’s ‘Time what is Time’

Shepherd of Fire is literally Enter Sandman with dual leads

He's gonna have to redo this with the new album out lol

As someone whos two favorite avenged sevenfold albums are city of evil and hail to the king...great video

8. Sounding the Seventh Trumpet 7. HTTK 6. LIBAD 5. Nightmare 4. City of Evil 3. The Stage 2. Waking The Fallen 1. Self-titled

Agreed on City of evil. Also why haven’t you reviewed every voivod album yet?

Avenged Sevenfold was the first metal band I got into. They were my favorite band for years, and they're still in my top 3. Here's how I'd rank their albums: 1. Hail to the King 2. Waking the Fallen 3. City of Evil 4. Nightmare 5. The Stage 6. Sounding the Seventh Trumpet 7. Avenged Sevenfold 8. Life Is But a Dream…

It's not only that the stage slaps but also the music video is very fitting for it.

Sounding The Seventh Trumpet - 4/5 Waking The Fallen - 4/5 City Of Evil - 4/5 Avenged Sevenfold - 5/5 Nightmare - 4/5 Hail To The King - 4.5/5 The Stage - 4/5

A band that has a lot of things to admire in a metal band and some things I’m very mixed on lol. The band is extremely talented for sure, never been huge on M Shadows vocals though. S: City of Evil A: Self Titled B: The Stage, Waking the Fallen C: Sounding the Seventh Trumpet D: Nightmare F: Hail to the King

as an a7x fan this was fair as fuck. apart from 3/5 on nightmare man didn't even mention one of avenged best songs full stop 'save me' the ending track at least 4/5 imo

While City of Evil is my favorite album, your complaints are totally valid. The vocals are oftentimes so cringy that I do not use City of Evil songs when recommending A7X to friends. I just think that the album is so fun. Songs like Bat Country and Sidewinder hit this perfect Southwestern metal vibe and the dueling guitar harmonies in this album is peak execution for A7X. So many songs would be near flawless to me if the vocals were executed better (I love MIA but the vocals take you out of the emotional nature of the song)

Please do Kreator next! That Klash of the Titans tour with Sepultura is really heating up! And I hope you're going to see them in Toronto.

Honestly, I never listened to Avenged Sevenfold outside of Waking the Fallen and City of Evil. I really liked the latter, kinda dug the former. I should check out their later albums.

I 100% agree with you about City of Evil. I’ve never understood why it’s literally everyone’s favorite when I’ve never been able to get into it. Waking the Fallen and Nightmare all day for me.

imho: S. Waking The Fallen A. Avenged Sevenfold, The Stage B. Nightmare, City of Fear C. the first album (don't wanted to waste time re-writing the title) D. Hail to the King

As a massive Avenged Sevenfold fan who discovered them through City of Evil, I have to say I actually 100% agree with you on that album! The self titled would have to be my personal favourite. I also can't argue with the criticism of Hail to the King but I can still actually have a lot of fun with it. I do find it hard to listen to Sounding the Seventh Trumpet though.

Nightmare is my favorite A7X album. Come at me bros.

Disappointed that I don’t need a Metal Meltdown NFT to watch this video. 0/10, unsubscribed.

The stage's first 4 songs is on the same level as the self titleds first 4 songs

It's crazy how this band has so many diverse album rankings amongs fans, but also any placement is understandable! I totally disagree with your CoE take but you present solid arguments. I would say from favorite to least favorite for me: City of Evil (one of my all time favorite albums, I love every track) Nightmare (also very good throughout, probably more cohesive than CoE tbh) Self Titled (I love how varied this album is and the experimentation that went into the album, there's only a couple songs I'm not as big on) Waking the Fallen (fantastic metalcore record through and through) The Stage (I love the progressive songwriting and experimentation, I don't come back to it as often as the others though. The highs on it are some of the highest of their catalog though) Hail to the King (It's definitely more simplified and wears its influences on its sleeve but it still has its share of great moments) Sounding the Seventh Trumpet (definitely a solid debut album, I love the raw production but I agree that the band would continue to do better stuff afterwards)

Damn. the 3 best songs on city of evil in my opinion, different tastes

I think waking the fallen is close to a classic of the genre. We listened to the fuck out of that when I was a kid. It was a bridge between the metal and punk kids. City of evil was also super cool but beyond that I haven’t dug a lot of their stuff.

One day I would like you to review Mercyful Fate/King Diamond albums. You can just do both projects in order of release in one video and treat them like one band. That would be real interesting.

Back when I was hardcore into A7X I saw a video or something with the drummer on Hail To The King after he got kicked out and he said he wanted to do more stuff like The Rev but A7X kept telling him to keep it simple

to be fair, arin tried to play more complicated stuff but the band told him not to so

FYI Gates only played on the first track of the re-release, to end the rapture, which is why it sounds the same lol

Great video! Could we get a Kalmah all-albums video? Especially with their new record out this month?

I'll be seeing Avenged Sevenfold for the FOURTH TIME on August 7th with Alexisonfire in Vancouver!

We love you has been on repeat for me!

The 2002 version of STST re-recorded the first song, into a heavy metal version.

Definitely gotta do this for Linkin Park or Disturbed!

Personally I adore city of evil but I'm also super biased due to nostalgia

Agree most of your scores beside COE how a about a Trvium album rankings next?

My ranking (worst to best is): Hail to the King(3)

My favorites album is City of Evil, but I really understand what you say jajajajaj and I’m totally agreed about The Stage, is a f*cking great record and contain one of the best song of they career, “Exist”

Sounding the Seventh Trumpet sounds like a high school band album, and that's cause it was. It's real rough lol

I relisten to the Waking the Fallen through Nightmare era quite often. I love those four albums for various different reasons. The Stage is the album where I acknowledge that it's good, but I just never end up wanting to revisit it. Definitely agree with your Hail to the King opinion; that album is so lame.

Can’t wait for the A7X fans drinking hate comments coming thru 👀

what with the OH MY GOD 😱 thumbnail trend right now? todays video “ I cut my nails” 😱😱

I actually love City of evil and think every song is excellent and loving the new album. My ranking would be 1. City of evil 2. Waking the fallen 3. Nightmare 4. Self titled 5. Life is but a dream 6. The stage 7. Hail to the king 8. Sounding the seventh trumpet

My personal list is 1. The Stage (I am indeed a chad) 2. Avenged Sevenfold 3. City of Evil 4. Nightmare 5. Waking The Fallen 6. STST 7. That 80's metal cover band that plays at the local biker bar 2 times a month

BFMV reviews and tee shirt collection video when

The early stuffs the best

A Lich King reference!!! Those guys are cool!!

I’ve been a fan of A7X since Highschool love this band

Self title is by far the best and for me suprisingly number 2 and 3 are probably the last 2 records 😅

Beast and the harlot live in the lbc is better than the studio version due to the improved vocals

A7X was one of the bands I got into around the hail to the king era. I will say it’s interesting that you don’t like the vocals on beast and the harlot but mentioned dear god and gunslinger being good songs when they have a similar vocal style. Gunslinger is probably my least favorite song of theirs, it sounds like it would be a 5 finger death punch song. I didn’t know that they stole some music for htk. Interesting that it’s also generally their worst received record. I’d say your scores were accurate. Nowadays I listen to more Death/thrash and black metal but they’ll always be one of those bands that helped get me into metal. Idk how you feel about symphonic black metal but I’d love to see Carach angrens albums ranked, I feel like they’re super talented but don’t get a lot of recognition. Great video as always.

Sounding the seventh trumpet released in July 2021? Wow I guess you were hung over, hope you get better fam.

Respect your opinion. Favorite Avenged Sevenfold album: The Stage Least Favorite Avenged Sevenfold album: Hail To The King I've been listening to A7X since 2010. I personally enjoyed the two new singles, but I do hope the new album is much much much better than those singles I need a continuation of The Stage type of vibes and elements.. The other album they've created are decent, anyhow great review. I watched the whole video. 🤘🏽

i would rank their album 1. Waking the Fallen 2. The Stage 3. City of Evil

Girl I know and demons are great songs from the self titled album sessions it’s a shame they didn’t make the album

1. Nightmare (just Save Me alone...) 2. HTTK 3. Avenged Sevenfold 4. Waking The Fallen 5. The Stage 6. City of Evil (never understood why so many people love this album, it's alright) 7. STST

Credit to the band, they never seemed to get complacent.

A7X are one of my fav bands but i respect ur opinion unlike what half of this comments section are about to demonstrate LMAO

As much as your city of evil opinion might be unpopular my ranking makes it look worse Self Titled Waking the fallen Nightmare Sounding the 7th trumpet City of evil Hail to the king The stage (honestly I need to give this one a new solid listen didn't give it much of a shit after the awful prior album)

I never understood the hate for sounding the seven trumpets its one of my favorite hxc records Edit crimson day is a good song and the stage is amazing

I'm with you on City Of Evil, overrated tbh. I like it, but it's definitely far from their best. For my favorite album, it's almost a three-way tie between the Self-titled, Nightmare (God Hates Us fucking HITS dude), and The Stage.

Of course disagree with City of Evil but agree with everything else

Nightmare was awesome imo and unfortunately the only album I've listened to from these guys.

Yeah The Stage is a really great fucking album, a modern metal masterpiece in my opinion, and the white album too. I also really love Nightmare, I think it has some of the best songs A7X had ever written, so these are my top 3 album by the band and am I long time fan. I agree on your take on City of Evil; while I do really enjoy the musicianship, drum parts and guitar riffs, I find some parts really cringy and mellow, I always considered this album more immature than the others even tho there is still a lot to love about it.

ive only ever listened to a couple of songs from them but they were ok i guess. synester is a really good player tho

waking the fallen is so good. city of evil was decent but thats when they started teh weirdo shit

I’ve only ever listened to Nightmare (which I liked) and then Hail To The King which I didn’t like

I was a huge fan as a teenager. I was 16 when City of Evil came out... I never forgave them. Waking the fallen was my shhhitsssss

I love a7x and I basically agree with you on most things. Sounding the Seventh Trumpet is crap. I didn't finish it. If it were the first thing I had heard from a7x I would never have gotten into them. There is nothing I like about that album. Chapter Four is actually the very first a7x song I ever heard. It has a special place in my heart. Unholy Confession is my favourite song from Waking the Fallen. 100% agree with you on City of Evil. I'd say of all the albums, this one is the one where M.Shadows vocals get in the way the most. It's probably the most nasally album. I sometimes like Seize the Day when I'm in the mood but as yousaid, Bat Country and Trahsed and Scattered are the best songs on the album. I'd argue Buried Alive is great but I wish the band had kept the same vibes from the beginning throughout the whole song. The song would work better without the metal elements. The ending just seemed jammed in there to remind you a7x is a metal band. I wouldn't mind hearing an acoustic soul cover of that song. There's a joke among the fan base that a7x doesn't write songs shorter than 5mins. This was one instant where shorter would have been better in some cases. Self titled, obviously a great album. Love it. I'd say Dear God should have been a single on its own. Putting it after A Little Piece of Heaven makes no sence. ALPoH should have been the closer. It is a weird song but as a former clarinetist I love it. Wish I had heard that song in high school. Would have given it a shot at learning the woodwind section. Hate the ending of The Wild Ride. It's a woman singing but her voice is so childish sounding and the stresses in the words are weird. Great song otherwise. Love the way the ending heartbeats bleed into Brompton Cocktail. Nightmare, I might need to do a full listen to soon. Only songs in my head are Fiction, Victim and Nightmare and Welcome to the Family because I love them the most. I think I'd like to hear an Acapella version of Victim (and by Acapella I mean real Acapella not modern day Acapella). I kinda like the drama behind the album. By drama I'm not referring to Rev's death but rather Mike Portnoy didn't just volunteer to help them after the Rev's death but he kinda assumed he would be Rev's replacement. It was a real mess. Hail to the King, 100% agree with you again. At the time I was listening I didn't understand the drama so I went to listen to the songs people were referencing in the comments. Hell yeah it's plagerism! Shepherd of Fire isn't a bad song. I secretly like Acid Rain and Planets. Planets I couldn't stand I thought it was crap but sometimes I just feel like screaming "When planets collide planets collide." Horns in that song isn't too bad lyrics are crap. Worst song on the album imho is This Means War. It just doesn't deliver on the epicness you think you'll get. The opening is good but then M.Shadow starts singing. Plus the song reminds me of Looney Tunes since when Bugs and Daffy fought and Daffy lost sometimes Daffy would say to Bug "You know of course this means war." So I already don't like the song but I can't help but to think about that scene whenever that song comes to mind. The Stage is mixed for me. Maybe I'm just bitter because so many fans like Exist and I can't stand Neil deGrasse Tyson. Love Creating God but Angels is an underrated gem and I'd argue best song on the album. Roman Sky goes well until the last verse, lyrics-wise. Overall, after HttK I was glad to hear what the band was up to. It felt like they went back to the drawing board and dug down deep to give us a new album. The Rev will always be missed but I was glad to hear they wouldn't become another band that went downhill after losing a key member. Which brings me to Life is but a Dream. Haven't heard the album yet, just the singles. I like Nobody but I do think the mixing isn't good. Some aspects of the song seem to be competing with each other for our attention instead of working to create a cohesive sound. M.Shadow's vocals seem to take a back seat to the instruments. I can hear his voice is different but he sounds far away sometimes. For We Love You, when I first heard it my brain was going "wtf is this?" but there was literally a smile on my face. I guess I just like it but I can understand why some might not. From The Stage it was clear they were getting experimental and I'm just ready to be taken on the journey no matter how weird it is. Maybe I'll feel different once I hear the whole album. My album ranking from least liked to most liked: 7. Sounding the Seventh Trumpet 6. Hail to the King 5. City of Evil 4. Waking the Fallen 3. Nightmare 2. The Stage 1. Self-titled

S: Waking the Fallen A: Nightmare, A7X B: Stage, City of Evil, C: Hail to the King D: Sound of the Seventh Trumpet I would love to see an Acacia Strain and/or Shadow of Intent ranking. I think it’s because I’ve been checking them out and jamming the shit out of them. Or Dying Fetus. Killer. City of Evil is overrated. I remember I bought it the week it came out and it rubbed me the wrong way. Like yeah instrumentally it’s incredible but it’s M Shadow’s delivery on a lot of it. Their cover of Mr Bungle “Retrovertigo” is… interesting. I would say Self Title would be S but I hate the kid singing part in that one track. It ruins the song for me personally lol I skip it every time when I listen to it

I love avenged..best albums to me are… Self Titled The Stage Nightmare City of evil Don’t really care for the other albums besides a couple from each one so I can’t even consider the albums to be on the list.

Big fan of Avenged. I agree about COE. It’s good just overrated. The two that followed were better. New album slaps! 😊

My beef with City of Evil is that is has some of the bands like best songs ever (Bat Country, Beast and The Harlot, Burn It Down) but after that everything is kinda mid and is mostly just like 6 minute guitar solos lol Incoming hot takes: 1. Avenged Sevenfold 2. The Stage 3. Waking the Fallen 4. Nightmare 5. City of Evil 6. Hail to the King 7. Seventh trumpet (I think I listened to this in full maybe 3 times when we only had this album and WtF to listen to)

Ok, I just listened to “we love you” and it’s bad. If you do a drinking game then at least something positive will have come of this - I’ll make sure I have a few beers in the fridge 🍺

Why do people sleep on the stage so much? It’s their best album!

One of the few times I've hardcore disagreed with you. Beast and the Harlot is my favorite song of theirs. Howeeeever.....I won't See YOu Tonight part 1 is such an AMAAAAZING song.....now that I think of it. Switch places I won't See you tonight as number 1 and Beast and the harlot as number 2. *lights torch* AAARRRRH ( I also CAN see why those vox in the chorus of beast and the harlot could come off as cringey)

What! STS 2021? 😅 2002 bjirr 😂

Im a MASSIVE Avenged fan and City of Evil is a weaker album for me. Its all about the self titled, the stage. Those are top tier.

Personal ranking would be 1. S/T (white album) 2. Hail to the King 3. City of Evil 4. Waking the Fallen 5 Sound the Seventh Trumpet 6. The Stage Then comes a big pile of shit 7. Nightmare

Don't really care about this band all that much: 1. Self titled 2. City of evil 3. Nightmare 4. Waking the fallen 5. The stage 6. Sounding the seventh trumpet 7. Hail to the king

Waken the fallen and City of Evil were the only ones that really caught my attention. Everything else was pretty generic and bland to me

Seventh trumpet, negative infinity out of whatever score range literally in a top 11 worst albums I ever heard video I did on a review channel of mine. Hate this Fing album. Waking the Fallen.. Well it has a few good songs so that's a plus. City of Evil, not perfect, bit too long but I really dig it and in 2005 it was a refreshing change of pace from metalcore, nu metal, rap metal garbage. Solid 4 out of 5 for me. Self titled, again 4 out of 5. Gunslinger being my favorite. Nightmare, well it was a nightmare listening to this one. Kidding aside it's meh. First half is good. god hates us is cool. Otherwise I can pass on the entire second half. Hail to the King, Well Metal meltdown nailed this one. I do like one song on here, but forget the name of it. Blatent rip off of Maiden's Number of the Beast. Although apparentlyt he band required the drummer to play that simplistically. The stage.. Interesting how relevent this album is now. There are some cool tunes, but honestly I don't remember this one.