Avenged Sevenfold led the old school of Los Angeles' gothic rock into the new millennium.

After debuting with the EP Warmness on the Soul (Goodlife), they defined a multi-faceted aesthetic on the album Sounding the Seventh Trumpet (Goodlife, 2001), mostly bridging the gap between gothic rock and metal-core. Waking The Fallen (Hopeless, 2003), that included the anthemic Unholy Confessions, emphasized the melodic element without surrendering the power of imagination that made most songs equally brutal and unpredictable. Guns N' Roses, Iron Maiden and Queen coexisted on the same album and, even better, sounded like different views of the same monolith.

City Of Evil (Warner, 2005) further refined their fusion of emo, pop, goth-rock and metal-core, largely on the strength of a mature vision of their style. They now played knowing what/how they played, and what made them different. While less spontaneous, the sound was more personal.

Avenged Sevenfold (2007) was, on the other hand, a chaotic stylistic parade that yielded few keepers.