Avenged Sevenfold - TheRoundhouse, Sydney, (19/08/06)

Sun 20th Aug, 2006 in Gig Reviews

Have some pity for The Bleeders. The New Zealand rockers received a positive response from the crowd in the pit, but no sooner had the band started to pack up than a chant of “A7X! A7X!” echoed through the building.

The crowd was making no secret of their enthusiasm: when a roadie running through the shadows across the back of stage receives a roar from the crowd, it leaves onlookers in no doubt of the level of anticipation.

Down in the pit, the downtime between The Bleeders leaving the stage and Avenged Sevenfold appearing had some of the massed teenagers feeling slightly restless. More than once, the chant of “A7X” rose again, marked by a forest of pumping fists in sharp relief against the uniform black clothing. The efforts never lasted more than a few repetitions, though, as the painfully image-conscious crowd realised that no-one else was joining in and quickly dropped out.

When the house lights finally did die out, the crowd’s roar resonated through the building. A few seconds passed, and the light show began, slow and atmospheric. The room was silent as the crowd held its breath.

Just as the crowd began to wonder if the band would indeed appear, the Rev darted out from side of stage, popping up behind the enormous drum kit with fist raised. Guitarists Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance followed, joined by bassist Johnny Christ. At this point, the crowd was bellowing and shrieking, but the appearance of lead singer M. Shadows onstage provoked a roar set to shake the Roundhouse’s foundations.

Wasting no time, Avenged Sevenfold burst into ‘Beast and the Harlot’, the epic opening track from their album City of Evil. Once again, the crowd exploded into frenzy at the opening notes, seething against the barriers and shouting along with every word.

Songs from Waking the Fallen were neatly interspersed throughout, catering to the fans of the rougher sound of the band’s previous album. ‘Unholy Confessions’ was the second song on the set list, and received a similarly ground-rattling response from the crowd.

M. Shadows showed himself to be a consummate frontman, dragging every last drop of energy from the audience without ever pandering to cliché. Prompting the crowd to thank The Bleeders, he gracefully shifted the focus back, declaring in no uncertain terms that “this is Avenged Sevenfold time, and we’re here to burn this motherfucker down!” On cue, the drum intro of ‘Burn It Down’ exploded through the speakers, met by another harmonised guitar line from the dual guitarists. Unrelenting, the energy carried into ‘Chapter Four’, yet another track from the band’s previous release.

Having made the decision to move away from the raw-throated vocal styling he used on ‘Waking the Fallen’, M. Shadows successfully redefined the songs in his newer style, an immensely powerful, resonant voice with greater attention to melody. Songs like ‘Chapter Four’ and ‘Unholy Confessions’ lost none of their power or visceral drive with the transformed lyrics, and the crowd was in raptures every time. In actuality, the crowd was so amped that Avenged Sevenfold probably could have come out on stage dancing the can-can and still have received thunderous applause.

The energy was taken down a notch with the more meditative track ‘Seize the Day’, which channels Guns ‘n’ Roses at their peak, and was greeted with outstretched lighters and waving mobiles even before the intro had finished.

Following this song, the band disappeared from the stage without explanation. Again, with such delicately timing, the stage lights rose again and out came Synyster Gates. Before anyone could wonder why he was alone, he began to play a solo instrumental piece that progressed rapidly through a massive array of technical manoeuvres that had the audience gaping. Lightning-fast runs up and down the fret board, precise slides and unison bends built to a crescendo of two-hand tapping so fast his hands were blurred. All the while, Gates looked out from under the brim of his trademark fedora, smiling lightly: no matter how fast his hands moved, he never showed any sign of effort.

As the crowd expressed their rapturous approval, the rest of the band joined Gates on stage. Shadows, perched on the drum riser, dedicated the closing song to deceased guitar legend Dimebag Darrell Abbott, before the band kicked into a cover of Pantera’s ‘Walk’ that emphasised the impact of the band of Avenged Sevenfold’s sound.

Having saved it for the encore that was always going to happen, ‘Bat Country’ lived up to expectations and more, though the poor sound setup at the Roundhouse detracted from the extraordinary guitar solo, as it did with many other tracks. This didn’t matter in the slightest to the crowd, most of whom probably knew it well enough to fill in the gaps.