10 Essential Gateway Tracks To Get You Into Metal

8. Avenged Sevenfold, "Bat Country" - City Of Evil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHS3qJdxefY Avenged Sevenfold's roots go back to being a metalcore band in 1999. (Metalcore is a metal subgenre that features mostly screamed and initially incoherent vocals.) The album we've selected, City of Evil, was the band's breakthrough from 2005 that featured entirely melodic vocals for the first time. Bat Country was the album's bestselling single, making it to #2 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Track chart for good reason. It features an infectious melody as well as a softer middle section that lightens the mood considerably before returning to the tune's main theme. The song's lead guitar-work is also memorable, making this selection an excellent candidate for selling metal to a new audience.
Contributor
Contributor

Ross Ingall is a 52 year old ordained Canadian baptist minister who has been listening to hard rock and metal quite literally since each was invented. A second career pastor who attended seminary in his 40's, the Rev hosts Too Metal For Church on Metal Nation Radio. Writing both under his own name as well as the psuedonym/nickname Reverend Rock, Ross has been writing music articles on the web since 1999.