RANK’d: The Avenged Sevenfold Discography
My Favorite Band
With the new album Life Is But A Dream… out now, how well does it stack up to all of Avenged Sevenfold’s other albums and their EP?
I’m gonna rank em, let’s do this.
10. Black Reign
AKA: The Black Ops EP.
Not that it’s bad, in fact, Not Ready To Die is an all timer, stacks up against their best and how I first heard it is a huge core memory for me. Discovering it in the Black Ops 1 map Call Of The Dead, was the most exciting moment I think I’ve ever had in a game. My favorite band made a song in one of my favorite games, AND discovering with my best friend? The best times.
The rest of the pack though? Doesn’t hold up as well, but still solid tracks.
Favorite Track: Not Ready To Die
9. Sounding The Seventh Trumpet
Just a bunch of punk kids making a metal record. The infancy of metalcore was an exciting time, tons of bands coming up doing their own spin on the thrash-punk mashup genre. Avenged 1st album is flawed in only it’s age, and what it stacks up against in their later catalog.
It’s still a great record with tons of speed and aggression. From the killer opener To End The Rapture that displays Syn Gates’ incredible guitar prowess early on, all the way through an all timer ballad in Warmness On The Soul, we see the roots of metalcore but also of Avenged Sevenfold.
Favorite Tracks: To End The Rapture, Darkness Surrounding, Warmness On The Soul
8. Life Is But A Dream…
An amalgamation of past aggression and present ideals. This record tested me. Do I stay tied down to what I feel they should be? Or embrace the change? Well I’ve decided to embrace it.
It’s not as iconic as the classics, nor is it bad in its own right. It’s still a good record, the many genre shifts throughout definitely had my head spinning the first time around, but with subsequent playthroughs, it started making more sense and I can just go along with this (death)batshit ride the guys have created, and actually enjoy it. The early aggressiveness of Mattel and We Love You, the slower tracks Cosmic and Beautiful Morning or the latter insanity of the G.O.D trio to the self titled closer, it’s all weird, it’s all good.
Favorite Track(s): G, (O)rdinary, (D)eath.
7. Hail To The King
The ONLY good cover of this record, the black one sucked.
AKA: The Black Album A7X edition.
“When Avenged goes full Metallica”, but that isn’t even a bad thing. Hell, it’s really only one song, This Means War. So stop with the comparisons, sheesh. The build up to this record was awesome, the snippets of songs they slow fed us were more than enough for me to go full hype train. Especially the Requiem and Planets teases, my god the heaviness was in full force. And the resulting album delivered, for the most part anyway. My biggest gripe is the drumming, though no fault of Erin’s, does not stack up even close to what The Rev did. Was a writing choice more than anything, very much a slower record than everything else they’ve done to this point. Despite that, almost every track hits, from the earworms of Shepherd of Fire and Hail to The King, to the RIFFAGE of This Means War, Requiem and Planets, to the absolutely masterful closer Acid Rain. This album may have the “Metallica Cover Band” albatross over its head, it still rips.
Favorite Tracks: Requiem, Acid Rain.
6. Self-Titled
I remember hating alot of this when it came out.
Almost Easy? “I NOT INSANE, IM NOT INSANE” ugh. What the hell is Shadows doing with auto tune in Lost? And WHAT THE HELL is A Little Piece of Heaven?
Foolish child I was.
While my feelings for Lost haven’t changed…like seriously Shadows, the hell was that? And the ballads aren’t nearly as good as the others they’ve done. Everything else? Classics. Critical Acclaim: The Rev’s 1st, and best, vocal work. Almost Easy: chorus notwithstanding, banger. Scream: the solo that sparked my love for Mr. Gates. Afterlife: an absolute staple. Brompton Cocktail and Unbound: Underrated gems. And A Little Piece Of Heaven: has become a top 5 all timer for me. The Bohemian Rhapsody of A7X, can never go without belting it out everytime it comes on.
Favorite Track: A Little Piece Of Heaven…and all the others above except for Lost.
5. Nightmare
Losing The Rev, was the first time in my life that I’d ever felt such a loss for someone, whom I had never met, who I wished I could’ve met. An absolute inspiration of songwriting and a drumming master. Gone way to damn soon. The result is an album that is hard to go all the way through at times but is still incredible front to back. Nightmare was the first track they put out and I remember having alot of hesitation towards it, because there was no Rev. Turns out my hesitation was totally unwarranted, the guys were in really good hands with Mike Portnoy. Dream Theater’s master drummer who’s son is ripping it up in the band Tallah right now, i might add. He didn’t replace Jimmy, but damn if he didn’t leave a mark. I don’t think there’s a single bad song on here, the first five tracks, especially Buried Alive are all bangers, but its only when the mood changes on So Far Away that i feel different about the record, not bad though. I still tear up watching that music video. Really all the ballads are fantastic, Fiction hits on another level though. Almost as if Jimmy was saying one last goodbye before departing to the higher plane. And Save Me is a fantastic closer, their longest to that point, and a vision of the future with its proggy nature.
Favorite Tracks: Depending on the mood, Save Me. Or Fiction.
4. The Stage
The surprise drop, the one that alienated the casuals, the one that made me appreciate them even more. Oh and the one with The Wackerman behind the kit.
This was directly after Hail To The King, and i was nervous to see if the band was going to speed things up or keep trailing where they left on the last record or see if Brooks Wackerman could maybe do the impossible and fill in The Rev’s shoes. Maybe a hot take here…he did just that. His drumming on this record rivals alot of what Jimmy did, the ferocity, the technicality, the GROOVE. It’s all there. Never has an opening single excited me for an Avenged record quite like The Stage, it had everything I needed to know this record was going to hit, and hit, it did. The heaviest stuff they’ve done since Waking The Fallen(more on THAT later) in The Stage, Paradigm, and God Damn, while also having one of the best ballads since Nightmare in Roman Sky. But this is also the first taste of the more progressive side of them that we’d later see on Life Is But A Dream, and nowhere is that more apparent than in Exist. Their longest track and the best on the album. A 15 minute onslaught of guitars, drums and Neil “Badass” Degrasse Tyson. Fantastic record and my favorite of “Modern” Avenged.
Favorite Track: Exist
3. Diamonds In The Rough
Wait. Really?
Yes.
Even if we’re talking about the original bundled with the Live in The LBC album, this STILL would be here.
What some may feel as Self-Titled but all B-Sides, i say it stacks up amongst the pantheon of top Avenged records. This is a band having FUN. Aside from the questionable remixes of Almost Easy and Afterlife, and maybe their cover of Paranoid. Every song hits. From the Self-Titled-esque tracks like Demons or Crossroads to the GREAT covers of Maiden’s Flash Of The Blade and Pantera’s Walk, to the stupid fun track Girl I Know or the BANGER Dancing Dead, the unique Tensions, all the way to the absolute top 5 ballad Until The End. This new version they put out in 2020(finally on Spotify) also has the EP bonuses from Nightmare bundled in so it’s a helluva package. Some of their absolute best work is on here, Diamonds in The Rough, indeed.
Favorite Track: Dancing Dead
2. City Of Evil
The one that made ‘em famous. The one that started it all for me.
Bat Country. That’s all you need to “get” Avenged Sevenfold.
Plus having an album of perfect songs with it doesn’t hurt. The speed is cranked up to 100, the guitar work is unparalleled, the drumming: masterful, the earworms: still in my head almost 20 years later, and all of it, perfection. Anyone who listens to rock/metal knows this album or at least knows Bat Country. Synonymous with Avenged, synonymous with mid aughts metal. Hidden gems like Sidewinder, The Wicked End, Strength of The World and M.I.A, reward those who stick around for the whole journey.
So….why is it here at number two? Simple. A list needs a number one and a number two, not two number one’s. If that were the case, this is number 1…too.
Favorite Tracks: The one that started it all for me, Bat Country.
Waking The Fallen
The one that the hardcore’s like. The one you show to the haters.
I didn’t go back to this album until I was in high school, really my only exposure to it was the lead single Unholy Confessions. Thought it was a damn good song, but i liked Bat Country more. It wasn’t until i really dug into the record, that it all clicked for me. I didn’t realize it until later, how much it would affect my taste for heavy music or how it would inspire me to pick up the guitar. Chapter Four was one of, if not, the first song i ever learned on guitar…at least most of it, soloing is hard. It shaped my entire teenage life. I remember many bus rides listening to the record in full. Being completely transfixed by the songwriting, the guitars, the vocals. All of it. The one two punch of I Won’t See You Tonight though, hit hard for me in later years because of the subject matter getting close to home, always makes me very emotional hearing it, a very special song. Hell, the album as a whole is special.