Maps of Music

Sounding the Seventh Trumpet (2001)

Where the lyrics of Sounding the Seventh Trumpet take you, and where it was really made.

The whole record was tracked in eight days on a budget of only $2,000, and it sold just 300 copies in its first week.

Key places

Recorded at Westbeach in Hollywood (2001)

Recording site The Mastering Lab, Los Angeles — The album was recorded at Westbeach in Hollywood, California, in eight days in November 2000, on a budget of only $2,000. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Sounding the Seventh Trumpet: debut studio album by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold
• Released July 24, 2001 through Good Life Recordings
• Reissued March 19, 2002 through Hopeless Records with slightly different cover art
• Title taken from the Book of Revelation, chapter 11, the sounding of the last (seventh) trumpet that heralds the end of the world

Background

• Release was originally planned for late April 2001 and later pushed back to June 10, then June 20, for unknown reasons
• A Loudwire article about the album's 17th anniversary gives July 24 as the actual release date
• The band's official website listed January 31, 2001 as the release date
• The album sold only 300 copies in its first week of release

Recording

• Recorded in eight days in November 2000
• Budget of only $2,000
• Recorded at Westbeach in Hollywood, California; mastered at Oceanview Mastering
• The Rev recorded all the drums in one take, and the other members added their parts on top
• Zacky Vengeance originally played lead guitar
• Synyster Gates joined in early 2001, and the band recorded a heavy metal version of "To End the Rapture" with Gates on lead guitar
• Justin Sane played bass and piano; this is the only album to feature him
• Valary DiBenedetto added additional screams on "The Art of Subconscious Illusion"

Cover

• Cover art credited to Micah Montague
• The reissue cover art differs slightly from the original release

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in 1999 in Huntington Beach, California, by Matt Sanders, James Sullivan, Zachary Baker and Matt Wendt.
• Name taken from the phrase 'avenged sevenfold' in Genesis 4:24, referencing the story of Cain and Abel.
• Debut album Sounding the Seventh Trumpet was released in July 2001 on Good Life Recordings.

Members

• Current lineup: vocalist M. Shadows, guitarists Zacky Vengeance and Synyster Gates, bassist Johnny Christ, drummer Brooks Wackerman.
• Drummer James 'The Rev' Sullivan died in December 2009; Arin Ilejay later joined and left before Brooks Wackerman became drummer in 2015.

Career

• Shifted from metalcore on early albums toward hard rock, heavy metal and progressive metal.
• City of Evil (2005) was the major label debut and broke them internationally; the self-titled album followed in 2007.
• Nightmare (2010) debuted at number one on the Billboard 200; Hail to the King (2013) also reached number one.
• The Stage (2016) was a conceptual progressive metal album; Life Is But a Dream... (2023) is their eighth studio album.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Mixed to positive reviews from critics
• AllMusic rated the album three stars out of five
• AllMusic called it a magnificent album suitable for any fan of metal music
• AllMusic praised "Darkness Surrounding" and "We Come out at Night" as excellent metalcore masterpieces
• Revolver described the sound as an often awkward, somewhat schizophrenic hybrid of metalcore and skate-punk

Reappraisal

• Sound dubbed "proto-A7X"
• Sound characterized as stylistically derivative of goth-leaning metalcore
• Sound described as inflecting the traditional metal sound with bursts of hardcore fury and death metal-like wails

Records

• Sold 300 copies in its first week of release
• Sold about 370,000 copies worldwide as of November 2010
• 310,000 of those copies sold in the United States
• Released on vinyl for the first time in 2008 in the US

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The title takes its name from the Book of Revelation, chapter 11.
• Valary DiBenedetto, M. Shadows' future wife, performs vocals on "The Art of Subconscious Illusion."
• The original release date was pushed back several times before the album came out.
• The album was released on vinyl for the first time in 2008 in the US.
• Nearly all copies sold today come from the Hopeless Records reissue, and the original Good Life Recordings release is rare.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org

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