Ten points for the band name. Zero for the bloodless Misfits/The Cramps like image. They really don’t need it. The band will probably state that the imago stands for something more than black eye shadow and black dyed hair. Anyway, this is about the music, not the pictures. Looking back at 2003 I must have heard all the metal/hardcore/punkrock/emo combinations possible. If someone would ask Children Of Bodom to do a punkrock cover it would probably sound like Avenged Sevenfold (A7X). The band’s very melodic sound shows a true respect for heavy metal, while singer M. Shadows’s voice steers from black metal type rants to James Hetfield’s touch guy vocals and Zoli Teglas outbursts.

There’s an undeniable duality on Waking The Fallen.

The album opens with modern classics like “Unholy Confessions” and “Chapter Four” but as the album moves on, so do the fantastic melodies, twin riffs and harmonies, so elegantly presented in the first four songs. Singing becomes screaming, melody becomes frantic. The impressive opening of the album makes you beg for more, unfortunately the band does not give in to your begging. Not that the quality collapses, it just can’t keep up with the truly fantastic opening. This could have been a breakthrough album, for now it’s only the preface of A7X’s definite breakthrough. With one exception: if “Chapter Four” becomes a hit, it would make me a sucker and A7X a million seller. Simple as that.