09CITY OF EVIL AVENGED SEVENFOLD

(2005)

The new wave of American heavy metal bands that flourished at the turn of the millennium featured some truly exceptional guitarists. Avenged Sevenfold’s Synyster Gates remains, however, in a class of his own – serving up rhythmic crunch to match any of his contemporaries, but with the added firepower of jawdropping shredder acrobatics. The finger-twisting solos on Cityofevil are among his finest and, according to the man himself, his trickiest. He recently confessed that re-learning the track M.I.A. was proving to be “really tough”, adding: “I don’t know what the f*ck I was thinking there!”