10 Bands Who Weren’t Afraid To Change Their Sound

Avenged Sevenfold were a young Californian band who formed in 1999, and were major players in the fledgling metal-core scene. Bringing an emo image which, alongside solid song writing, they stood out from the crowd in a new generation of millennial bands. Led by the charismatic singer M. Shadows, their first two albums Sounding The Seventh Trumpet (2001) and Waking The Fallen (2003) rubber stamped their success in the genre.

But they made a change to break away from the scene they had been an integral part of, ditching the screamed vocals entirely on their major label debut, third album City Of Evil (2005). Branded as sell outs by some in the underground circles they came from, the shift in style saw Avenged Sevenfold reach a whole new level of commercial and international popularity.

And they have continued to write a fine catalogue of music that would take influence from traditional metal such as Megadeth and Metallica, and hard rock in the vein of Iron Maiden and Guns N Roses. Releasing now classic albums such as Nightmare (2010) and Hail To The King (2013), they have risen as one of the biggest rock bands of the modern era.