#16: Avenged Sevenfold – City Of Evil (2005)
Genre: Hardrock/Heavy MetalThere we go again with Avenged Sevenfold, but yea, not only was this one of my favorite childhood bands, their music throughout their whole career has been so consistently good that I never got bored by their material, even though it’s just four albums (I don’t really listen to the first and the last that much). City of Evil, by the vast majority of hardcore Avenged Sevenfold, is considered the very best. I personally found out about this band through Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Blinded In Chains was one of the soundtracks, and is still one of my favorites from the album. What Blackbird did for Alter Bridge, this album did for A7X, Waking the Fallen was an outcast among popular metal bands, City of Evil fixed those ‘problems‘ and distributed their sound to a broader range of fans. With a mix of Hardrock, Heavy Metal, this was a big stp away from the Metalcore sound from WtF, and you bet it was a good one. Not to say the Metalcore direction was bad, but this direction allowed for a better showcase of M. Shadows‘ range, showing The Rev could do very creative things on the drums, and not just play fast, and on top of all of that, Gates doing what he does best: Creating guitar solos that oddly remind me of childhood lullabies. There was a pretty serious consideration of putting this in the top 10, but that would just not be able to be justified seeing the upcoming albums. City of Evil is one of my all-time favorites, and probably will always be remembered, but that goes for everything from this point on.
Favorite song:M.I.A.: Every song on the album was great at worst, but this album closer simply blew me away from the first listen, the intro is some of the best Avenged Sevenfold stuff ever, the solo is awesome, Shadows has that really high-pitched husky voice in the end that I really love for some reason. Well, I can point out a whole lot but let’s just keep it at ‘best song off the album, ‘nuff said‘.
Blinded In Chains: Like I said, first song I heard of this band, and the chorus was just the most amazing thing I had heard up until then, had to check out more of them after hearing this.
Bat Country: Amazing single full of energy, mixed with some mellow parts after the chorus to balance it out, best introductory track to A7X in my experience.
Sidewinder: Is a pretty catchy song overall, but the real reason that this song is so loved by everyone is
this acoustic guitar outro, that is, if you ask me, what the definition of legendary is, and everyone should have at least heard it.
#15: Slipknot – Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses (2004).jpg)
Genre: Nu-MetalAfter hearing nothing of Slipknot from the very beginning up until now, this band makes its first and only appearance in the top 50 albums. Having only 1 album (not counting MFKR) by the time I found out about them, and 3 albums by the time this band was an obsession of mine, Subliminal Verses for sure caused that obsession. Everyone knows Slipknot for their very odd pure anger + chaos twist to the nu-metal genre, probably the best song to indicate my thoughts is
Spit It Out from the self-titled album (warning, very childish lyrics). Although the previous albums had some great songs when taken separately, but I feel this one was the first where the guys seriously sat down to create a great album, instead of just some songs. I still think the amount of band members they have is ridiculously unnecessary, but given the fact that it was probably a group of friends that wanted everyone to be in, maybe it improved their songwriting. Of course, the 2 percussionists on top of a drummer sound a little redundant, but they do make it worthwhile, with some strong percussion moments. Corey Taylor may or may not appeal you as a singer, on Stone Sour his voice is way more presentable though, because with Slipknot I feel he had to adapt to the chaotic music style and put more anger to his delivery, whereas Stone Sour has some brighter songs with beautiful vocal melodies. He still has some beautiful vocal performances on this album though, some of the songs express real deep feelings about loneliness and stuff, mainly voiced by Corey. At the end of the day, this album is some really deep shit, but I used to love it solely for the music, and I still love it to bits.
Favorite song:Vermillion: No doubt about it. This song is painfully dark, but in an epic fashion, the section starting with “I am a slave and I am a master” is mind-blowing.
Other recommendations:The Nameless: Another one in the series of energetic Slipknot songs, with fun vocal switch-aroo’s between Chris and Corey.
Duality: The anthem that every Slipknot fan could dream by now, awesome riff too, going all post-hardcore breakdown in the end.
Before I Forget /
Danger/Keep Away: I’ve kept my limits to 1 favorite and 3 other recommendations so far, but since they’re all so close I could not justify keeping either of these out of the recommendations, and I’m still leaving some out that I prefer not to. Before I Forget has a very cool opening riff and catchy vocals. Danger/Keep Away is an amazing closing song that I’d expect to be on some crazy concept album with that atmosphere, the album starts with a very dark vibe, and ends it just like that.
Topic: ToN's Top 50 Albums! #1: Just Push Play (Read 27916 times)
