The band formed when the members were in high school. Their first album was titled Sounding the Seventh Trumpet, and was recorded when the band members were eighteen years old. Their follow-up album was entitled Waking the Fallen, which received a positive rating in Rolling Stone magazine.



City of Evil, released on June 7, 2005, strays from metalcore, and adds a more "pop rock" sound with obvious influences ranging from various bands. Although the band have been labeled metal, metalcore and hard rock in many publications, the band themselves claim that they are a "metal" band and have no musical similarities to metalcore in any way although this is heavily debated by their peers. During the recording of City of Evil, M. Shadows' vocal stylings have changed more to focus on melodic singing than on hardcore screaming, because the band decided to pursue a different musical career, and leave a genre that they said was "dying". The proof that this movement was right is the award for Best New Artist in a Video at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, as the underdog of a group that included bands such as Panic! at the Disco and James Blunt.



The band's name is an alleged reference to the book of Genesis in the Bible and the story of Cain and Abel, where Cain is punished to live in exile, alone and miserable. Anyone who relieved Cain of his misery by killing him would be "avenged in sevenfold," or punished in a way that is seven times worse than Cain's punishment. The title of Avenged Sevenfold's song "Chapter Four" references Genesis IV, the chapter of the Bible in which the story of Cain and Abel takes place. The song's subject also appears to be this story. Beast and the Harlot, yet another song derived from the Bible, comes from the book of Revelation and refers to the punishment of Babylon and the destruction of Pagan nations. Although the band's title and members' stage names make obvious references to religion, Shadows stated in an interview that they are "not really religious at all."



Their song "Blinded in Chains" was used in the soundtrack for the video game Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Another song, "Bat Country," was used in the soundtracks for SSX on Tour, NHL 06 and Madden 06, following in the footsteps of "Chapter Four" which had also been on the soundtrack for NHL 2004, Madden 2004 and NASCAR Thunder 2004. The song "Beast and the Harlot" was in the soundtrack for Burnout Revenge. All the above games, not coincidentally, are produced by various divisions of Electronic Arts.



During recent tours (Coheed and Cambria spring 2006 tour and Ozzfest 2006), Avenged Sevenfold have been performing the song "Walk", originally by Pantera, as part of a tribute to the late "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott.



Recently at the MTV Video Music Awards, Avenged Sevenfold received the award for best new artist. They took the award over several other artists including; Angels and Airwaves, Panic at the Disco, Rihanna, and James Blunt.



Although Avenged Sevenfold have claimed that they are trying to get away from the metalcore movement, they will be touring with metalcore act Bleeding Through this fall.