Sounding the Seventh Trumpet

Untitled

Sounding the Seventh Trumpet is the debut album by Avenged Sevenfold, released in 2001 on Good Life Recordings, and subsequently re-released by Hopeless Records on March 19, 2002, featuring slightly different cover art. The reissue also added the track "To End the Rapture (Heavy Metal Version)", which was previously only found on the Warmness on the Soul EP, and featured the band's new guitarist, Synyster Gates, who would go on to appear on every other Avenged Sevenfold release. As of 2008 Sounding the Seventh Trumpet has sold 200,000 copies worldwide. The album was released when the band members were 20 years old.

Reception

Sounding the Seventh Trumpet was generally well received by critics. Chris Baranowski of Sputnik Music gave the album a rating of four out of five stating that it was a "well crafted, hard hitting album". Allmusic rated the album three stars out of five and wrote "Sounding the Seventh Trumpet is a magnificent album that is suitable for any fan of metal music, as Avenged Sevenfold has a firm grasp on all that is extreme". The review also praised the tracks "Darkness Surrounding" and "We Come Out at Night" as being "...excellent metalcore masterpieces, as the vocal harmonies add to these cuts to evolve the songs into fully atmospheric sonic blasts".

Videography

Avenged Sevenfold later released the "Warmness on the Soul EP", which featured a video for the single Warmness on the Soul. The video depicted the band wandering through city streets as a girl searched for them.

Track listing

• All songs written by Avenged Sevenfold, except "Streets" written by M. Shadows and Successful Failure.
• All lyrics written by M. Shadows

1. "To End the Rapture" – 1:24
2. "Turn the Other Way" – 5:39
3. "Darkness Surrounding" – 4:51
4. "The Art of Subconscious Illusion" – 3:48
5. "We Come Out at Night" – 4:45
6. "Lips of Deceit" – 4:10
7. "Warmness on the Soul" – 4:20
8. "An Epic of Time Wasted" – 4:22
9. "Breaking Their Hold" – 1:12
10. "Forgotten Faces" – 3:29
11. "Thick and Thin" – 4:15
12. "Streets" – 3:06
13. "Shattered by Broken Dreams" – 7:07

Personnel

Avenged Sevenfold

• M. Shadows — lead vocals
• Zacky Vengeance — lead and rhythm guitar
• The Rev — drums, percussion, vocals, piano (only on "Warmness on the Soul")
• Justin Sane — bass guitar, piano

Additional musicians

• Synyster Gates — lead guitar on "To End the Rapture"
• Valary Sanders — vocals on "The Art of Subconscious Illusion"

Production

• Recorded at Westbeach in Hollywood, California, USA
• Produced, engineered and mixed by Donnell Cameron and Avenged Sevenfold
• Assistant Engineered by Henrah Kruzchev
• Mastered by Ramon Breton and Avenged Sevenfold at Oceanview Mastering