Avenged Sevenfold - The Beast And The Harlot (WEA)
UK release date: 6 March 2006
The first few chords of this record are enough to make even those people who throughly dislike metal to go running for a tennis racket and bathroom mirror. It features a guitar solo that Slash would be proud of, and propels The Beast And The Harlot to a hyperactive start.
Unfortunately for this Californian band, the rest of the song can't live up to that blistering introduction. Lyrics that read like a Chris Morris parody are bad enough ("There sat a seven-headed beast, ten horns raised from his head" indeed), but the singalong chorus seems to have been shipped in from a different song entirely. It's accessible enough, but it's horribly grating.
So who would buy this? It's a bit too commercial for traditional metal fans, and those emo kids who are looking for a change from My Chemical Romance won't find much to attract them. Perhaps the answer can be found in the single's video, which features two lingerie clad models snogging the face off each other. One for the teenage boys then...
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