Bands Like Avenged Sevenfold: Picks by Era

Reading time: 9 minutes

“Bands like Avenged Sevenfold” is really three different questions wearing one search box, because Avenged Sevenfold have been three different bands. The Huntington Beach group that recorded Waking the Fallen in 2003 was a melodic metalcore act. The band that dropped the fry screams on City of Evil in June 2005 became an arena metal act, and Nightmare debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in July 2010 to prove the gamble paid. The band that made The Stage in 2016 and Life Is But a Dream... in 2023 is a progressive metal act that earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Song along the way. So instead of one flat list, this guide matches bands to the era you actually love, and names the album pair: their record that sits beside the A7X record you keep replaying. The strongest overall matches, Trivium, Bullet for My Valentine and Bring Me the Horizon, are strong precisely because they lived some version of the same arc.

The Three Eras of Avenged Sevenfold

The timeline first, because the whole page hangs on it. Avenged Sevenfold formed in 1999 in Huntington Beach, California, and released their debut Sounding the Seventh Trumpet in 2001 on Good Life Recordings. Waking the Fallen (2003) perfected the early formula: screamed verses, sung choruses, harmonized twin leads. City of Evil (2005) abandoned the screams for a traditional heavy metal and hard rock sound, the move that split the fanbase and built the career. Drummer Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan, who wrote much of that era's ambition, died on 28 December 2009; Nightmare (2010) was finished with Mike Portnoy playing parts The Rev had already demoed, and went to number one. Then the third act: The Stage (2016), a progressive concept album about artificial intelligence, and Life Is But a Dream... (2023), a Camus-haunted record Louder called the year's strangest and most divisive metal release.

The musicologist Eric Smialek, writing in The Cambridge Companion to Metal Music (2023), treats metalcore as one of metal's “abject genres”: massively popular styles the genre's gatekeepers dismissed as dilutions. Avenged Sevenfold caught that contempt in every era and outsold it in every era, which is exactly why their fans end up needing three different lists of similar bands. Garry Sharpe-Young's reference book New Wave of American Heavy Metal (2005) documents the scene umbrella they emerged under; the deeper lineage is mapped in our metalcore and hardcore guide.

The Metalcore-Era Kin

For the reader who still thinks Waking the Fallen is the peak. You are not alone, and these three are your list.

Atreyu

The nearest neighbours in every sense: melodic metalcore from the same Orange County scene, formed in 1998, one year before Avenged Sevenfold. Atreyu ran the identical formula of screamed verses, big sung choruses and harmonized lead guitar, and rode it to an RIAA Gold record without ever pivoting away from it. The album pair: The Curse (2004) beside Waking the Fallen (2003), released a year apart on Victory Records and the A7X side's indie labels, and practically conversation partners. Start with “Right Side of the Bed” and let the record run.

Killswitch Engage

If Atreyu are the scene-mates, Killswitch Engage are the source code. Alive or Just Breathing (2002, Roadrunner) is the record Louder credits with defining melodic metalcore outright; the balance of Adam Dutkiewicz's riffing and the scream-to-clean vocal trade is the blueprint half the 2000s borrowed, Avenged Sevenfold's early records included. The album pair: Alive or Just Breathing (2002) beside Sounding the Seventh Trumpet (2001): the genre's textbook next to a debut still working the style out. If it is the aggression of those early records you want isolated, our bands like Slipknot guide sorts that instinct by element.

Bullet for My Valentine

The Welsh translation. Formed in Bridgend in 1998, Bullet for My Valentine took the melodic-metalcore template and tilted it toward the 1980s: more twin-lead worship, more open hooks, produced with radio-grade clarity by Colin Richardson. The album pair: The Poison (2005) beside Waking the Fallen (2003), though The Poison also leans toward what City of Evil would become, which makes them the bridge act of this whole page. Start with “Tears Don't Fall”.

The Arena-Metal Peers

For the reader whose A7X starts at City of Evil: bands that made, or matched, the same jump from the metalcore club circuit to classic-metal scale.

Trivium

The closest career-arc twin in metal. In 2005 Trivium released Ascendancy, a metalcore record; in October 2006 they released The Crusade, on which Matt Heafy sang clean almost throughout and the writing swung hard toward traditional heavy metal and thrash. That is the City of Evil move, made eighteen months after City of Evil, and it carried The Crusade to number 25 on the Billboard 200. Purists argued; the band's ceiling rose. The album pair: The Crusade (2006) beside City of Evil (2005): two young metalcore bands deciding, back to back, to become their record collections. Start with “Anthem (We Are the Fire)”.

Bring Me the Horizon

The same arc, run a decade later and further. Sheffield's Bring Me the Horizon formed in March 2004 and debuted with the deathcore of Count Your Blessings (October 2006, Visible Noise), heavier than anything early A7X put out. Sempiternal (2013) was their pivot record, and amo (January 2019) became their first UK number one, by which point they were headlining the venues metalcore was never supposed to reach. The album pair: Sempiternal (2013) beside City of Evil (2005), each the moment a scene band bet the catalogue on scale. Fans of the radio-facing end of this territory can branch into our bands like Three Days Grace guide.

The Prog-Ambition Companions

For the reader who thinks The Stage and Life Is But a Dream... are the point: heavy bands that earned their way into progressive music mid-career instead of starting there.

Mastodon

Atlanta's Mastodon spent the 2000s as a sludge band with outsized ideas, then released Crack the Skye in March 2009, the record where the progressive side took over: long forms, layered melody, a metaphysical concept carrying real grief for a lost family member. If The Stage's mix of heaviness and cosmic subject matter is your favourite A7X mode, this is the deepest catalogue to fall into. The album pair: Crack the Skye (2009) beside The Stage (2016): concept-driven prog metal by bands who came up loud. Start with “Oblivion”.

Between the Buried and Me

The missing link between this page's first section and its last. Between the Buried and Me came out of the metalcore world and, on Colors (September 2007, Victory Records), fused it with full-scale progressive writing: eight tracks flowing as one continuous piece. It cracked the Billboard top 100 and Mike Portnoy, later the drummer who finished Nightmare, named it his favourite album of that year, a neat closed circuit for this page. The album pair: Colors (2007) beside Life Is But a Dream... (2023): metalcore-rooted musicians refusing every genre wall at once.

Opeth

The most drastic version of the reinvention A7X fans already survived. Sweden's Opeth built their name on progressive death metal, then released Heritage in September 2011 and dropped the growls entirely for 1970s-styled progressive rock, a sharper turn than City of Evil's scream-ectomy, and it still debuted at number 19 on the Billboard 200. The album pair: Heritage (2011) beside Life Is But a Dream... (2023): veteran heavy bands choosing curiosity over formula and wearing the backlash. Start with “The Devil's Orchard”.

The Album Pairs at a Glance

Band	Matches this A7X era	The album pair	Start with
Atreyu	Metalcore roots	The Curse (2004) / Waking the Fallen (2003)	“Right Side of the Bed”
Killswitch Engage	Metalcore roots	Alive or Just Breathing (2002) / Sounding the Seventh Trumpet (2001)	“My Last Serenade”
Bullet for My Valentine	Metalcore into arena	The Poison (2005) / Waking the Fallen (2003)	“Tears Don't Fall”
Trivium	Arena metal	The Crusade (2006) / City of Evil (2005)	“Anthem (We Are the Fire)”
Bring Me the Horizon	Arena metal	Sempiternal (2013) / City of Evil (2005)	“Can You Feel My Heart”
Mastodon	Prog ambition	Crack the Skye (2009) / The Stage (2016)	“Oblivion”
Between the Buried and Me	Prog ambition	Colors (2007) / Life Is But a Dream... (2023)	“Sun of Nothing”
Opeth	Prog ambition	Heritage (2011) / Life Is But a Dream... (2023)	“The Devil's Orchard”

One disclosure, because this is that kind of site: daemongrey.co belongs to the team behind Daemon Grey, a Canadian industrial goth metal artist on Berlin's Out Of Line Music. He is not one of the entries above, because nothing in his catalogue sounds like Avenged Sevenfold, and a list you can trust matters more to us than a plug. If darker, industrial-leaning metal is also in your rotation, his records are one click away.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did Avenged Sevenfold start as a metalcore band?

Yes. Avenged Sevenfold formed in Huntington Beach, California in 1999 and released two metalcore records first: Sounding the Seventh Trumpet (2001) on Good Life Recordings and Waking the Fallen (2003). The screamed verses and melodic choruses of that era are why early fans reach for Atreyu and Killswitch Engage.

Why did Avenged Sevenfold change their sound?

The pivot came with City of Evil in 2005, which dropped the fry screams entirely for a traditional heavy metal and hard rock sound. The gamble built their arena career, and later records went further: The Stage (2016) and Life Is But a Dream... (2023) are progressive metal.

Which band sounds most like early Avenged Sevenfold?

Atreyu are the closest match for the Waking the Fallen era: the same Orange County scene, the same balance of screamed verses, sung choruses and harmonized lead guitar. The Curse (2004) is the record to start with, and Killswitch Engage's Alive or Just Breathing (2002) supplies the genre's blueprint.

What bands made the same metalcore-to-arena move as Avenged Sevenfold?

Trivium and Bring Me the Horizon. Trivium followed the metalcore album Ascendancy (2005) with the clean-sung, classic-metal record The Crusade (2006). Bring Me the Horizon started in deathcore in 2006 and reached a first UK number one with amo in 2019, the same arc run a decade later.

Sources

• Eric Smialek, “Contempt-of-Core: A Reception History of Metalcore Subgenres as Abject Genres”, in The Cambridge Companion to Metal Music (Cambridge University Press, 2023). DOI
• Garry Sharpe-Young, New Wave of American Heavy Metal (Zonda Books, 2005). Google Books
• “Alive Or Just Breathing: how Killswitch Engage saved metal from itself”, Louder.
• “Trivium: the story behind The Crusade album”, Louder (2006).
• “How Avenged Sevenfold made 2023’s strangest, most divisive heavy metal record with Life Is But A Dream...”, Louder.