Avenged Sevenfold are a much bigger band than most of the bands I really enjoy (Sister’s Disguised Vulture‘s kills this shit!). Hitting it big doesn’t mean that you automatically suck or whatever. They have certainly worked hard… and I have to say I think the recent debate over Hail To The King borrowing liberally (see…A7X are liberal now!) from every major hard rock hit ever started an interesting conversation about how much influence is too far. I think the problem is that A7X cited classic bands as their influences and wanted to hearken back to classic metal but then seemed to some to mumble and act like they magically really wrote the riffs on Hail To The King rather than shuffle a few riffs here and there.
That said, M. Shadows probably gave the performance of his career on Hail To The King and does have a killer voice. The only tune that really bothered me on that album (besides the tolling bell and the spoken bridge in “Sandman of Fire”) was the blatantly Megadeth riff rip-off “Heretic”). The G n’ R inspired “Doing Time” was more fun than “Riad n The Bedouins” (and I like Chinese Democracy, frankly), while most of Hail To The King was pretty fun. It seemed like the band were cutting loose a bit and relaxing after all the seriousness of Nightmare. But yeah, when you are that big most stuff is pretty calculated. Time to own up, dudes. It’ll take a lot of the heat off.
Evile were clearly inspired by Metallica’s …And Justice For All on their fantastic Five Serpent’s Teeth disc, but the difference is they didn’t directly cop “greatest hits” riffs with some minor tweakery.
Anyway, “Sheperd of Fire” is a damn catchy tune vocally if you can ignore the Sandman of it all. A7X have decided to name their new tour the “Sheperd of Fire Tour” and it kicks off April 12th in British Columbia. Hellyeah are support on the tour. That’s right. A dude from Pantera is opening for A7X. Kill me now. Fuck, that makes me mad. And I don’t even hate A7X at all like some people, but that is just wrong.
Tour dates Below.
04/12 Dawson Creek, BC EnCana Events Centre
04/13 Prince George, BC CN Centre
04/16 Moose Jaw, SK Mosaic Place
04/17 Edmonton, AB Shaw Conference Centre
04/19 Winnipeg, MB MTS Center
04/21 Minneapolis, MN Target Center
04/23 Huntsville, AL Von Braun Center
04/25 Tampa, FL St. Pete Times Forum
04/26 Jacksonville, FL Welcome to Rockville
04/28 Lafayette, LA Cajundome
04/30 Hollywood, FL Hard Rock Live
05/02 Virginia Beach, VA Farm Bureau Live at Virginia Beach
05/03 Charlotte, NC Carolina Rebellion
05/04 Memphis, TN Beale Street Music Festival
05/06 Knoxville, TN Knoxville Civic Coliseum
05/08 Hershey, PA Giant Center
05/10 Bangor, ME Rise Above Fest
05/11 Quebec City, QC Colisee Pepsi Arena
05/13 Montreal, QC Bell Centre
05/15 Syracuse, NY Oncenter Complex
05/17 Columbus, OH Rock on the Range
