Sounding the Seventh Trumpet (Album)

Sounding the Seventh Trumpet is the debut studio album by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, released on January 31, 2001 by Good Life Recordings, and re-released by Hopeless Records on March 19, 2002, featuring slightly different cover art. The album was recorded in November 2000 at Westbeach Recorders in California. Although the album only sold 300 copies in its first week of release, the album has sold 370,000 copies worldwide with 310,000 sold in America, as of November 2010. The title 'Sounding the Seventh Trumpet' takes its name from the Book of Revelation, specifically referencing chapter 11 and the sounding of the last (seventh) trumpet, showing the end of the world. Valary DiBenedetto (M. Shadows' future wife) performs vocals on the track "The Art of Subconscious Illusion." The album was released as 2x12 vinyl, LP, 33 ⅓ RPM, Purple on 2008 in US. Sounding the Seventh Trumpet is widely agreed as Avenged Sevenfold's heaviest album, with chugging guitars, very little clean vocals, and The Rev's blistering drums. Sounding the Seventh Trumpet was recorded with a tiny budget of $2,000. When the band members got into the studio, The Rev recorded all the drums in one take, and the other members of the band added their parts to what he had laid down. Zacky Vengeance played lead guitar originally. Then, when Synyster Gates joined the band, they recorded a heavy metal version of "To End the Rapture" with Gates playing lead guitar. This heavy metal version was first seen on the Warmness on the Soul EP, and was later featured on the re-release of Sounding the Seventh Trumpet. On August 7, 2003, Charles Cross of Rolling Stone declared Avenged Sevenfold the, "Warped Tour 2003 Second Stage Must-See."