Avenged Sevenfold

Having fully shed their metalcore skin on this pure hard rock effort, A7X inject their aggressive past with mainstream styles like country and red state rock. Alternating between the raging singles "Critically Acclaimed" and "Almost Easy," the softer, twangy ballad "Gunslinger," and the Kid Rock-esque "Dear God," the group displays a bevy of newly disparate influences, capping it all off with pop oddities "Lost" and "A Little Piece of Heaven."