Thursday Throwback is a weekly colour scheme inspired by an iconic album cover of yesteryear. This week’s throwback is the 2005 album “City of Evil” by Avenged Sevenfold. The colours are as follows:
| Colours | HEX | RGB | HSB | CMYK | LAB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colour 1 | #550F10 | 85, 15, 16 | 359, 82, 33 | 0, 82, 81, 67 | 17, 32, 19 |
| Colour 2 | #BFA863 | 191, 168, 99 | 45, 48, 75 | 0, 12, 48, 25 | 69, -1, 39 |
| Colour 3 | #D9C68F | 217, 198, 143 | 45, 34, 85 | 0, 9, 34, 15 | 80, -1, 30 |
| Colour 4 | #9A1A1A | 154, 26, 26 | 0, 83, 60 | 0, 83, 83, 40 | 33, 51, 35 |
| Colour 5 | #181A19 | 24, 26, 25 | 150, 8, 10 | 8, 0, 4, 90 | 9, -1, 0 |
Avenged Sevenfold’s third studio album, “City of Evil,” was released on June 6, 2005 by Warner Bros. and Hopeless Records. City of Evil, produced by Andrew Murdock, showcases a shift in Avenged Sevenfold’s musical style. Unlike their previous two albums that leaned towards metalcore, this album takes on a more traditional heavy metal and hard rock sound. To ensure the album had the desired vocal sound, M. Shadows, the vocalist, dedicated several months of hard work before its release. During this period, he collaborated with renowned vocal coach Ron Anderson, who has worked with notable artists such as Axl Rose and Chris Cornell. Together, they strived to achieve a unique blend of grit and tone in M. Shadows’ vocals for the album.
The album contains some of Avenged Sevenfold’s most popular and famous songs, including “Bat Country”, one of the breakout singles of 2005. Reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks, No. 6 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks, and No. 1 on MTV’s Total Request Live. “Bat Country” is arguably their most successful single to date.
City of Evil debuted at number 30 on the Billboard 200 chart and has been certified platinum by the RIAA in the United States and gold in both Canada and the United Kingdom. It went on to sell over 1,500,000 copies in the United States, and 2,500,000 total worldwide, making it the best-selling album out of Avenged Sevenfold’s discography so far. Other than “Bat Country”, Avenged Sevenfold released three other singles from the album. Namely “Burn It Down”, “Beast and the Harlot” and “Seize the Day.”
Upon release, The British edition of the German magazine, Metal Hammer gave the album an eight out of ten rating. Rolling Stone praised the guitar work, giving the album three out of a possible five stars. The magazine later listed the album at No. 100 on its list of The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time. The album was ranked No. 63 on Guitar World magazine’s “100 Greatest Guitar Albums of All Time” and also also appears in Kerrang!’s “666 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”.
The cover art for the album was skillfully designed by graphic designer Casey Howard, who has also produced artwork for metal bands Mastadon, Trivium and Deftones. The artwork showcases a captivating depiction of the band’s Deathbat logo personified as a menacing winged demon riding a horse leaving destruction, fire and charred landscapes in its wake.
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