Self titling an album is a major thing for a band. By self titling it, you are kind of saying "This is our sound" ... "This is our best album". Luckily for Avenged Sevenfold, in my opinion they have perfectly executed the timing of their self titled release.

I actually had a conversation today with a guy that didn't like the new Avenged Sevenfold sound because they thought it went against everything they had previously believed in during their early and more "hardcore" days. I actually don't have the knowledge of the band enough to know if this is true but I also don't care. I don't approach an album by a band I have heard before and expect or even want it to sound just like their other material. Surely that's boring? Surely that's like doing the exact same routine everyday and working the same job for 50 years. To me, if a band doesn't progress then they are wasting their time.

This album packs an amazing punch from the beginning and has everything you could want from an album. It has the really nice guitar solos that have been missing A LOT from modern music. It has metal parts, it has slow parts, it has beautiful harmonies and even some acoustic moments.

For me the album loses it's way between tracks 6-8 and I actually personally really think that track 10 is cheesy. The female vocals I don't like or the vocoded voice (this is not on track 10). I think that's an experimentation too far for this particular band.

Track 9 is an amazing song. The only way it can be described is as if Avenged Sevenfold had written this song specifically for a Tim Burton movie. I really love this experimentation of the band and it truly is a unique sound that I have not heard a band trying to do before.

If you get this album you shoudl listen to tracks 1-5, then skip to track 9 and then stop the album. That way you get the absolute gold from this excellent album from a band that in my opinion gets better on each release.

I'm highly looking forward to their next effort. Hopefully it will be better and I can retract my statement about them choosing the correct album to have as a self titled release. This band do seem to top themselves with each release. This album is excellent - the next will hopefully blow our minds.