Avenged Sevenfold

Don't call Avenged Sevenfold religious rock. Despite the numerous biblical references in their songs, the California natives insist they're just providing food for thought: "[O]ne thing about this band that I love,” says frontman M. Shadows, “is that we never really shove any kind of, like, political or religious beliefs on people."

The members of Avenged Sevenfold were still in high school when they released their debut album, Sounding the Seventh Trumpet, nearly a decade ago. The band dropped its sophomore record, Waking the Fallen, on indie Hopeless Records before getting snapped up by Warner Bros in 2004. A year later, Avenged Sevenfold bagged a U.S. radio hit with Bat Country, a melodic metal track from City of Evil. Though that track earned the band mainstream recognition, guitarist Zacky Vengeance insists there's more to them than just one song: "[W]e're selling out arenas in obscure areas around the world where our songs have never been on TV or the radio."

Last year, Avenged Sevenfold delivered the follow up to City of Evil, an eponymous album featuring Afterlife, a single that is pure AX7: catchy choruses, rapid-fire drums and blistering guitars. Although the tattooed quintet is sometimes criticized for abandoning the metalcore sound found on their first two albums, Avenged Sevenfold makes no bones about being influenced by classic (read: mainstream) bands like Iron Maiden, Guns N' Roses and Metallica. And AX7’s eclectic brand of new-school-meets-old-school metal has been a hit at various summer tours – all of which cater to different scenes: the Warped Tour (punk), Ozzfest (metal) and Taste Of Chaos (emo and hardcore).

After returning from a recent tour with their idols, Iron Maiden, Avenged Sevenfold has released Diamonds In The Rough, a DVD-CD set featuring covers, unreleased tracks and B-sides.