Music / Sounding the Seventh Trumpet

Original album cover.

The wind of life and air from above smells of death
Angels sing of the end
Nothing you say and nothing you try can change time
Human race prepares to die

"To End the Rapture"

Sounding the Seventh Trumpet is the 2001 debut studio album by Avenged Sevenfold, originally released through Good Life Recordings. This album is considerably rawer in production than the band's subsequent albums and is mostly Metalcore with a mix of Harsh Vocals and clean vocals. Zacky Vengeance was the band's only guitar player at the time of recording. This is also their only album not to feature longtime bassist Johnny Christ, who would join the band in September 2002. In 2002, the band signed onto Hopeless Records and reissued the album with a re-recorded version of "To End the Rapture" with fifth member Synyster Gates, who took over as lead guitarist as Zacky switched to rhythm guitar.

Tracklist:

1. "To End the Rapture" (1:22)
2. "Turn the Other Way" (5:37)
3. "Darkness Surrounding" (4:50)
4. "The Art of Subconscious Illusion" (3:46)
5. "We Come Out at Night" (4:45)
6. "Lips of Deceit" (4:10)
7. "Warmness on the Soul" (4:20)
8. "An Epic of Time Wasted" (4:19)
9. "Breaking Their Hold" (1:12)
10. "Forgotten Faces" (3:27)
11. "Thick and Thin" (4:16)
12. "Streets" (3:07)
13. "Shattered by Broken Dreams" (7:09)

Musicians:

Original Album

• M. Shadows - Lead vocals
• Zacky Vengeance - Guitar
• Justin Sane - Bass, piano
• The Rev - Drums

Hopeless Records Reissue

• Synyster Gates - Lead guitar on "To End the Rapture"
• Dameon Ash - Bass (credit only)

Additional Musicians

• Valary DiBenedetto – Additional vocals on "The Art of Subconscious Illusion"

Troping the Seventh Trumpet:

• Album Intro Track: The original version of "To End the Rapture" was a short piano piece with some vocals near the end. This was replaced with a full band version on the reissue. Amusingly, because of Synyster Gates’ much more technical guitar playing, the intro in the new version sounds completely different from the rest of the album and more like something out of Waking the Fallen.
• Alternate Album Cover: Downplayed. The actual art on the 2002 reissue is the same, but the cover has a different band logo, the album title appearing beneath the band's name, a faded Deathbat, and a black frame with purple flowers in the corners.
• Book Ends: The album begins and ends with the sound of thunder and rain.
• Breather Episode: "Warmness on the Soul" is a gentle piano ballad with no harsh vocals.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Aside from M. Shadows' distinctive voice, it's hard to tell that this album is by the same band that made City of Evil.
  • This album and follow-up Waking the Fallen are the only Avenged Sevenfold albums to prominently feature Harsh Vocals, though Waking is more of a transition toward their usual style.
  • This album does not have many guitar solos. Zacky's guitar playing is considerably less theatrical than Syn's.
  • There is only one epic number, "Shattered by Broken Dreams". There is only one other song ("Turn the Other Way") that is longer than five minutes.
• The End of the World as We Know It: "To End the Rapture"
  "Human race prepares to die"
• Epic Rocking: "Shattered by Broken Dreams" (7:09)
• George Lucas Altered Version: The 2002 reissue replaces "To End the Rapture" with a full-band version and alters the list of personnel to the then-current lineup with bassist Dameon Ash (albeit with a disclaimer that Ash didn't actually play).
• Harsh Vocals: M. Shadows frequently alternates between this and clean singing on this album.
• Jumpscare: The end of the video for "Warmness on the Soul" features a fake fade to black as Jimmy appears shouts "BOO!"
• Literary Allusion Title: To the Bible. Sounding the Seventh Trumpet refers to the Book of Revelation identifying a series of trumpets signalling various disastrous events, with the seventh and final one signifying the end of the world and the return of Jesus to Earth.
• Longest Song Goes Last: Closing track "Shattered by Broken Dreams" is the longest and only Epic Rocking song on the album.
• Miniscule Rocking: "To End the Rapture" (1:22) and "Breaking Their Hold" (1:12).
• Out-of-Genre Experience: The album is primarily metalcore but also includes a punk song ("Streets") that was left over from M. Shadows' previous band Successful Failure. It is also one of three tracks, the others being "To End the Rapture" and "Warmness on the Soul", not to have any Harsh Vocals.
• Surprisingly Gentle Song: The piano ballad "Warmness on the Soul".

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