Waking the Fallen in Bloomington, MN

Mudrock
's dry production focuses almost all of
Waking the Fallen
on
Avenged Sevenfold
's greatest strength. That, of course, would be performance, and the band delivers with unflagging aggression and precision. Never mind the lyrical ennui or throat-scrape yowling; there's more to this music than generic cliche. When he wants to,
M. Shadows
can passionately project in a way that turns even the grim
"Desecrate Through Reverance"
into an almost bouncy little melody. (Incidentally, Reverance? Remenissions? Reverand? Maybe doomsday is around the corner, but isn't there still time to run song titles and soubriquets through a spell check?) And whether attacking a riff in unison or in harmonized parts, the double-threat guitars of
Synyster Gates
and
Zacky Vengeance
do their duty like search-and-destroy commandos -- in and out fast, leaving devastation in their wake. Especially noteworthy -- and note-heavy -- is the guitar solo that blazes through the last moments of
"Second Heartbeat"
and the head-spinning single-stroke virtuosity of
the Reverand
throughout the album. ~ Robert L. Doerschuk