It had been 12 long years since Avenged Sevenfold were last on these shores and it felt as though the Californian heavy metal outfit were making up for lost time as they took to the stage in Sydney.
It had been even longer since I had last seen them. In 2008 I watched them support Iron Maiden at London’s Twickenham Stadium.
Traditional Maiden crowds in the late 2000s were notoriously hostile toward modern American metal acts, and the band endured relentless booing and missile-throwing. Singer M Shadows abruptly stopped midway through the set, saying someone was injured in a crowd surge. They never came back on.
The crowd was very different this time around as thousands of adoring fans at the Afterpay Arena were treated to a pulsating two-hour setlist and a mesmerising light show.
As the lights dimmed, the eerie xylophone intro to Nightmare played out before guitarists Zacky Vengeance and Synyster Gates came out with their signature squealing twin lead harmonies and chugging metal riffs in fine form.
It’s an incredible opener to a metal show as the song showcases what the band does best, it’s heavy but intricate, melodic and catchy.
Shadows has had issues with his voice over the years, battling surgery and his vocal chords blowing out from his all-or-nothing approach to singing.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but he sounded great. He has a raspy Axl Rose-type quality to his voice, but he can also scream and get the crowd going.
At one point he stopped to tell the crowd out how he’d missed Australia, but that it had never felt far away.
“Sydney, it’s been a long time,” he said. “I feel like there’s many of you that we’ve never met, but I want you to know I have been keeping track of you through television every night. My kids watch Bondi Rescue every single night. I swear the number of Australian coming into my earholes every night is f**king crazy.”
He then tried a bit of crowd work and waved the mic around to get a response from different parts of the audience. He noticed it was much quieter in the seating sections.
“I’m getting a weird vibe in this place because I feel like everyone in the stands is very polite and everybody on the ground is a f**king maniac,” he said. “Is that true? I don’t want to turn you guys against each other or anything.”
The band then launched into the stripped back ballad So Far Away which they dedicated to their late drummer The Rev, who died in 2009.
The set was made up of a good mix of songs that would please their biggest fans as it mixed songs as early as the post hardcore anthem Unholy Confessions right up to their most recent tunes that have a very different vibe.
I hadn’t followed the band an awful lot since the noughties after they had released City of Evil, but I was impressed by a lot of the songs I’d never heard before.
They are the type of band that’s never boring even when they’re playing something pretty weird. When they’re not heavy, they’re doing interesting vocal harmonies or the guitars are going hell for leather.
Highlights included the twangy southern rock inspired ballad Gunslinger which showcases how damn catchy they can be and a no-holds-barred rendition of Bat Country which had the circle pit operating in full swing.
Even though I was one of the ‘polite’ audience members in the stands I couldn’t help but give myself a mild case of whiplash as I headbanged.
They closed out with the creepy but catchy A Little Piece of Heaven and 2023’s Cosmic which I felt was a bit of a meandering song to close on.
The band has certainly been through some ups and downs in their multi-decade career, but they appear to be in a very good place and enjoying their craft.
Although they’ve faced flack from the metal faithful over the years for being a bit different, they’ve fostered a loyal fanbase that went absolutely nuts.
Avenged Sevenfold are playing two more shows on their Australian tour.
Sunday, 18 October 2026: Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane, QLD
Tuesday, 20 October 2026: Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, VIC
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